Chinese netizens have said they would like to watch Kim Kardashian’s First Lady reality show following her husband Kanye West’s announcement on Twitter that he plans to run for US president this year, while experts claim that this is an issue that could cause US’ political system to entertain itself to death.
“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION,” West said in his tweet to announce his presidential run.
Following West’s announcement, the hashtag “Kanye announced to run for US president” was spotted on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo around nine hours later, and had been viewed by nearly 300 million times as of 7 pm on Sunday.
“I hope he can win, not because I want to see how he would perform, but because I want to watch the Kardashian’s reality show after she becomes First Lady,” a Weibo user commented.
In fact, some people have taken his announcement as a beautiful vision; that is, a black man who fought from the bottom of American society to become president through nothing more than his own efforts. However, others have ridiculed the idea as just another publicity stunt to draw the attention of the public and media.
“It would be better to see Dwayne Johnson run for president, he would have more chance to win,” said another Weibo user.
Before his announcement, West had been trapped in controversy for voicing his support for current US President Donald Trump in 2018 amid protests against racism in the US caused by the death of George Floyd.
West called Trump his brother and even posted a photo of him wearing a Make American Great Again cap, according to media reports.
Kim Kardashian and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk voiced their support for West on Twitter soon after his announcement.
As netizens amuse themselves with the prospect of West soon becoming US president, some Chinese observers warned that the entertainment of US politics would not help the country solve its social problems or unite the highly divided society.
“The over-entertaining US political system uses one by one public opinion topics to cover the fundamental conflictions between capitalists and proletariats,” Shen Yi, director at the Research Center for Cyberspace Governance of Fudan University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Capitalism has reached its peak in the US. It should be expected that the US political system can only provide either an internal innovation or entertainment that leads to death, according to Shen.
Shen estimated that West’s participation would actually benefit Trump as his inclusion could disperse the votes of black Americans from voting for the Democrat Party.
According to media reports, it is still unclear whether West had actually finished the necessary paperwork required to run for president or he is just musing over the possibility of doing it.
US rapper Kanye West Photo: Sina Weibo
