When the White House created a petitioning website in 2011, it probably did not count on Barack Obama being asked to invade China, rule on the flavour of tofu and investigate a two-decade-old Chinese poisoning case.
But that is exactly what has happened over the past week as Chinese people, motivated variously by a sense of justice, powerlessness or just plain humour, have flooded the White House “We the People” website.
The catalyst for the surge in Chinese petitions was a sad one. Since late April, Chinese internet users had been calling for authorities to reopen an investigation into the 1995 poisoning of Zhu Ling, a student at the prestigious Tsignhua University. She was left disabled and the perpetrator was never found.