China's Xi Jinping invokes Paul the Octopus in battle to rebrand Communism
China's new president, Xi Jinping, has invoked an unlikely ally in his battle to rebrand the Communist Party: Paul, the Weymouth-born octopus famed for its ability to predict World Cup football results.
China's new president Xi Jinping and Paul the so-called "octopus oracle" predicting Spain's victory in their World Cup final against Holland Photo: Getty Images/EPA
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai 10:19AM GMT 20 Mar 2013
Since taking over the Communist Party last November, Mr Xi has been fighting to spin a more down-to-earth image of China's top leaders, frequently ditching stuffy Marxist rhetoric in favour of more accessible sound bites.
Under Mr Xi, interminable, cliché-ridden speeches have occasionally been replaced by off-the-cuff remarks. Tuesday, however, witnessed the 59-year-old leader's most unusual attempt to reconnect with the masses to date.
During his first interview with the foreign media, Mr Xi was asked which team he believed would win the 2014 football World Cup in Brazil.
But instead of evoking Chairman Mao or the Chinese sage Confucius, China's most powerful man pinned his colours to Paul the Octopus, the UK-born football oracle who made headlines by correctly predicting eight results in the 2010 competition.
"Unpredictability is what makes a sport match, especially a football match exciting," Mr Xi told his Brazilian interviewer, according to an official transcript of the interview. "During the last World Cup, we had Paul the Octopus. I wonder if next year, there will be another octopus who can predict match results," Mr Xi mused.
Paul himself died just months after the 2010 tournament ended. The comments were reproduced by China's state media, which painted Mr Xi as a "sports enthusiast" with a sense of humour. Chinese internet users appeared to respond well to their leader's seemingly spontaneous foray into the world of sage-like cephalopods.
"Rarely in recent years have our party leaders said anything quite like that," wrote one user of the Weibo micro-blog called Zheng Subei. "[It was] simple and [said] with true emotion. This can be counted as a new look."
"I like the way 'Boss Xi' talks," wrote another user, under the name Bai Li-cindy.
