This scene, would Xi Jinping really dare to come!! Whether the Emperor is truly willing is now hard to say! Rural areas are about to disappear from China! Qiqi Baba TALK 'Refreshing 822' 20261107

This episode features host Qiqi discussing the phenomenon of formalism in the election of deputies to the National People's Congress in China, analyzing the showmanship behind grassroots elections and the sense of alienation among the public based on netizens' experiences. At the same time, the program explores the cold reality and far-reaching impact of severe population outflow, hollowing out, village extinction, and village mergers across vast rural areas in China.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Qiqi Talks. I am Qiqi. As we are approaching the end of 2026, Xi Jinping is out there performing again, because this showmanship segment is back.

At the Huai仁堂 polling station, the five-star red flag was striking and vibrant, and the red ballot box inlaid with the national emblem was placed right in the middle. The voting work was standardized and orderly, and the atmosphere at the scene was solemn and enthusiastic. At about 3:30 p.m., Xi Jinping came to the Huai仁堂 polling station, carefully listened to the explanation of the election matters, handed his voter card to the staff for verification, received a ballot, carefully filled out the ballot at the voting booth, walked to the ballot box, and solemnly cast his vote. Xi Jinping emphasized that electing deputies to the people's congresses is the foundation for upholding, improving, and operating the people's congress system well, and is a major event in the country's political life. It is necessary to practice whole-process people's democracy, uphold the leadership of the Party, fully promote democracy, strictly abide by the law in handling affairs, strengthen supervision over the entire election process, ensure that the direction of the election work is correct and the political atmosphere is clean and upright, and ensure the election of deputies who satisfy the people. That afternoon, Li Qiang voted at the Ziguangge polling station in the Xicheng District Wenjin Street constituency. Zhao Leji voted at the Great Hall of the People polling station in the Xicheng District Zhongnanhai constituency. Wang Huning voted at the Huai仁堂 polling station in the Zhongnanhai constituency. Cai Qi voted at the Huai仁堂 polling station in the Zhongnanhai constituency. Ding Xuexiang voted at the Ziguangge polling station in the Wenjin Street constituency. Li Xi voted at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervisory Commission headquarters polling station in the Dongcheng District Taijichang constituency. Han Zheng entrusted staff to vote at the Huai仁堂 polling station in the Zhongnanhai constituency. Hu Jintao entrusted staff to vote at the Huai仁堂 polling station in the Zhongnanhai constituency. Relevant leading comrades of the CCP Central Committee, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the Central Military Commission, as well as comrades who have retired from leadership positions, voted in their respective Beijing constituencies or entrusted others to vote. On the 6th, Beijing established a total of 13,054 polling stations, and through competitive elections, 4,898 new district people's congress deputies and 11,137 township people's congress deputies will be produced.

Spending so much human, material, and financial resources, well, the whole country has also launched this voting activity that looks so vigorous and enthusiastic. Actually, it is just for show; the formalism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can no longer be described as merely exaggerated. I think there is nothing more formalistic than them. Regarding this, what I actually want everyone to know is that the CCP will indeed have people go and put on a show of voting, because after all, you need to have something to report on or some kind of narrative. Uh, but if you really want to vote, you will find that not a single name on the ballot is someone you know, let alone ever heard of. You don't even know if they are real people; they just simply listed a few names there. Well, a netizen shared their previous experience, saying, uh, it's a deadpan performance of a fake election. He said a few days ago when he went downstairs, community staff saw him and insisted on giving him a ballot, and when he took a look, everyone on it was prearranged. He said, uh, these people are no good, and insisted on voting for someone he liked, but the community person directly said then you are abstaining. At that time, he wanted to take a picture of the ballot, but wasn't even allowed to. Uh, he stood there and argued with those people who made you vote for a long time, and these people who make you vote even took a picture of him. Who knows what they wanted to do with it? Who knows what they wanted to do? Actually, I think many friends might have this kind of experience. If you live in this kind of residential compound, and you are often at home or something, they might suddenly drop by and ask you to go, uh, participate in some kind of election vote, but you haven't heard of any of those names, and there is no introduction whatsoever. When you ask them who to vote for, they say just pick anyone. Just pick anyone. Uh, that is because everyone appearing on these lists, actually, whoever gets up there is the same. And whether this vote is actually counted in the end, whether after you cast your vote, this person is actually tallied, I think everyone knows in their hearts. Because who gets a certain position should surely not depend on this vote, otherwise, for the 19-year-old girl below, I really think it is quite unlikely that she could become a deputy to the National People's Congress.

Comrades, flowing water does not compete for the first place; what it contends for is endless rushing. Much like a fledgling eagle learning to fly, it is not about the bravery of a split second. The winter plum blossom blooms, not competing for the fleeting beauty of a single morning or evening. The path of life is the same; it lies not in a moment of sprinting ahead, but in continuous struggle and progress. One day, you and I will all reach the other shore of our dreams. Before that, please firmly believe in yourself millions and millions of times.

Uh, I don't know if the Chinese people partitioned into this representative's district have ever heard his name, or, uh, know what he looks like, or have heard some of his political views, his thoughts, or whether he wants to seek some welfare for the people living in the area where he lives, or do something, uh? I don't know if they have heard him speak. But he is already a deputy to the National People's Congress for this district. However, I think in all probability, all the people in the district he supposedly represents probably don't know who he is, probably don't know what he looks like, nor do they know his political views or ideas, or the policy-driven things he wants to do, probably none of this is known. And this, uh, is what is called a deputy to the National People's Congress elected by the people—not recognizing one's own deputy to the National People's Congress. I remember very clearly, uh, Taiwanese friends previously told me very carefully that they are very, very familiar with the councilors and such elected from their own districts. Why? Because, because they need to go door-to-door through the streets and alleys, or have many, many opportunities to get close, and furthermore, they have to explain clearly to them what their political philosophy is and what their policies are, uh? Why should I vote for you? Right? You must have something that meets my expectations before I will give you my vote. But look at China's version, I don't even know them, it's even called a People's Congress representative, but I don't know them, a people's representative, yet the people don't know who their own representative is. Therefore, if you go and ask some elderly people in China's rural areas or county towns who might not quite understand the development of this era, unlike us young people, they might blurt out some astonishing remarks, saying something like, uh, they are the masters, and we are just commoners, we have no qualification at all to discuss politics and such. Young people might just put on a show, right, right, this people's representative completely represents us and all that, but deep down inside, they are very clear that the relationship between this people's representative and the people is that there is completely no relationship, or rather, those people are the masters.

Well.

Ah, we exist in a relationship where we are slaves. Actually, what I am curious about now is, what will the vote be like next year? The vote to elect the Chairman, that is. Because ever since Xi Jinping had that 100% approval rate last time, he has been mocked for it ever since—for many, many years now. Uh, because everyone knows that a 100% vote means he must be a tyrant; he is definitely a tyrant. This idea, this concept, has been exactly the same from ancient times to the present, from the West to the East. Only a tyrant would have a 100% approval rating. So, I am very curious, do you think that in this next vote, he will symbolically allow himself to have at least a few opposing votes? I feel that if it is still a 100% approval rate, we can only say that Chairman Xi Jinping truly cannot tolerate even a grain of sand in his eyes, or perhaps not a single deputy to the National People's Congress dares to cast an opposing vote. Even if the Emperor requested it, they still wouldn't dare to cast one, because if they did, and they were caught with some small leverage later, right? It wouldn't be good to be targeted. Because we can look at it from another angle: if the Emperor pointed at a minister and said, "I will wash your feet. Ah! Take off your shoes, I will wash your feet for you." Even if the Emperor were acting out of complete sincerity and complete willingness, I believe this minister would rather bash his head against a pillar than dare to do it! Because the potential consequences could be more terrifying than death.

You think your hometown just has fewer people? Some villages have already disappeared from the map forever—can you believe that? From 1985 to now, on average, 14 administrative villages and five natural villages have disappeared every day. The field path you walked along with your grandfather when you were a child might not even have a road anymore. The mountain hollow in your memory that had a dozen households now barely has anyone who remembers its name. First, look at the coldest set of numbers: at the end of 2025, the national rural resident population was 453 million. It sounds like there are still many people, but compared to the peak in 1995, the rural population has decreased by 47.5%. Nearly half of the people have disappeared from the villages over these 30 years. In your father's generation, the village had a school, a supply and marketing cooperative, barefoot doctors, and crowds of people gathering to watch open-air movies at night. By your generation, only the elderly and dogs are left in the village, and the elderly are using their last bit of strength to guard these villages. A survey report on "empty-nest villages" in Tieling, Liaoning, breaks this down clearly. The Langjiatun village has a registered population of 1,060, but a resident population of only 420, accounting for less than 40%. And among these 420 people, 305 are over 60 years old, 267 are empty-nest elderly, and the empty-nest rate is 87.54%. Another Korean ethnic village is even more extreme: 530 registered, only 60 residents left. All the young and middle-aged people between 20 and 60 have left, and the empty-nest rate is close to 90%. You calculate this structure: out of ten residents in a village, nearly nine are elderly. Who is taking care of these elderly people? A 2026 report by Xinhua News Agency gave a cruel answer. Most of the nursing staff in rural nursing homes are elderly people in their 50s or 60s, taking care of even older people in their 70s or 80s, with a monthly salary of two or three thousand yuan. Young people are unwilling to do it and cannot be retained. But the demise of a village does not happen suddenly one day; it is the failure of one organ after another. The first to close was the school. From 2020 to 2025, the number of ordinary primary schools nationwide decreased from 158,000 to 128,300. Nearly 30,000 schools disappeared in five years. Rural primary schools are the hardest hit; the source of students followed their parents who went to work in the cities. With fewer and fewer children in the village, the schools could no longer operate. Once the school closes, the last bit of young voices in the village is gone. The second thing to shrink: more than 95% of village clinics have been included in medical insurance. It sounds like good coverage, but if you go in and look, many clinics only have one village doctor, whose age is often older than the elderly coming for treatment. Once the village doctor retires, there is no one to take over. You can still endure a headache or fever, but if a real emergency happens, the nearest hospital is in the town, dozens of kilometers of mountain roads away, and the elderly cannot walk there themselves. Then there is public service: postal outlets were withdrawn, credit union agency points were closed, and passenger transport lines changed from two trips a day to only running on market days. The owner of the last small shop in the village is also old; after it closes, you have to take a bus to town to buy a bottle of soy sauce. Finally, there is the popularity. There aren't enough people to help with weddings and funerals. People come back for the Spring Festival for a few lively days, but once the first lunar month passes, only the elderly and the dog raised by the elderly are left in the village. In Nankeng Village, Jiangxi, only one person is left. His name is Zhong Zhaowu, 64 years old. The village is rumored to have migrated from Lishui, Zhejiang, in the late Qing Dynasty. After more than ten years of villagers migrating, fewer and fewer people remained in the village, and finally, he was the only one left in the entire Nankeng Village. His wife went to the county seat to help their son take care of the children, and his daughter, who cannot take care of herself, stayed by his side. He raised a dog; after nightfall, that dog is his only source of courage. Nankeng Village is not an isolated case. There are 73,000 administrative villages nationwide that have shown significant hollowing out, accounting for 12.8% of the total number of administrative villages. These villages nominally still have their establishment and are still marked with names on the map, but the actual resident population is already sparse. So what will happen to these villages in the end? In the official context, there is a term called "withdrawal and merger." Some with smaller population scales.

Villages with severe hollowing-out may be merged or dissolved. In Damujia Town, Shandong, 64% of the 83 administrative villages have been merged, disappearing from the administrative map and reorganized into 30 new villages. Hebei is promoting the merger of towns and villages, integrating five villages into one central village. The name of the village where you were born may only exist in the address column of your ID card in a few years. The last generation of people born in the countryside, raised in the countryside, and destined to disappear in the countryside are growing old. Most of them were born in the 1940s and 1950s, spending their youth digging for food in the fields. In middle age, they sent their children to the city to study and work, and in their old age, they guard empty houses alone, waiting for a return that may never come. When was the last time you went back to your hometown? Is the big tree at the entrance of the village still there? Do you still remember the name of the old man sitting at the door basking in the sun? For some places, a goodbye is forever. I am the Institute of Obscure Things that loves to tell cold knowledge. Follow me for a hard-core truth that will make you understand every day.

Many people, or almost everyone, focus their attention on first-tier cities. After all, no matter which country it is, these cities are indeed too important in the economic proportion. However, for a country with the size of China, the number of rural villages and the population they account for are actually an absolutely non-negligible part of the composition of the whole country, and they are inextricably linked to cities. Whether it is students who walked out of the mountains and were admitted to prestigious universities, or migrant workers who built the cities, the relationship between cities and the countryside is actually complex. The overall desolation and depression of the countryside now actually have a very, very large impact on the cities. I think many people may have ignored this problem a bit. Alright, that's all for this episode. If you want to support me, please join the membership channel. Also, I especially hope to chat with everyone in real-time during the live broadcast. That's it for this episode, see you next time.