Xi Jinping eats simple food, shuns “formalist” party dogma and takes his wife abroad with him on trips. In case anyone could possibly doubt that China’s new president is a man of the people, he was even reported to have recently hailed a taxi. Last week a website approved by the State Council Information Office carried a story with a too-good-to-be-true quote from a Beijing cabby who was supposed to have been flagged down by the leader-in-disguise. “Has anyone ever told you that you look like general secretary Xi?” he is said to have asked unsuspectingly – presumably in Beijing’s equivalent of a Cockney accent.
習近平喫得簡樸，捨棄中共「形式主義」教條，攜夫人一同出國訪問。如果還有人對新任中國國家主席是人民之子表示懷疑，就看看不久前流傳的一條新聞吧——習近平竟然乘坐了一次計程車。上週，一家經中國國務院新聞辦公室(State Council Information Office)審批的網站刊登了一則新聞，引用了一位北京計程車司機讓人難以置信的話。據說，這位司機被微服私訪的習近平攔下來之後，還毫不懷疑地問道：有沒有人說你長得像習總書記？這位司機可能操著一口「京片子」（「京片子」，北京當地口音，相當於倫敦東區口音）。