An increasing number of Chinese are tracking, through social media and online live streaming, what the United Nations describes as the ongoing "job interview" for the next UN secretary-general.
Incumbent UN chief Ban Ki-moon's term will end on Dec 31. For the first time, the United Nations selection process is accompanied by candidate campaigns and, as time allows, some questions from the public via live video streaming.
As of Wednesday, five male candidates and four females had been scheduled, one by one, to present informal briefings scheduled from Tuesday to Thursday.
The campaign is intriguing the Chinese public in part because of the color added by female candidates and the candidates' connection with China — eight out of the nine have visited the country.
The UN System's branch in China has offered live video streaming as well as live Chinese language interpretation through its account on Weibo.com, China's largest social network.
Recorded video clips for each candidate — around two hours long each — are also available for netizens.
The video of Montenegro's Foreign Minister Igor Luksic attracted more than 300 comments and 500 reposts alone.
The interpreters for the briefing with Luksic were the subject of complaints as well as praise among Chinese netizens.
One, whose username is @Xiexiaowanying, said that "the interpreter is funny", while @fangxiaobaihua said, "It is so common to see errors when no written materials are provided."
Chen Jian, former UN undersecretary-general and a veteran Chinese diplomat, said the UN's media campaign, especially the use of social networks, "effectively adapts the UN System to the changing media landscape, in which there are increasing, multiple channels and outlets for spreading information".
Chen said the informal briefings "symbolize progress in the procedures of democracy", compared with what he called a lack of transparency in the past.
On Wednesday afternoon, the weibo account of the UN System's China branch confirmed that Vuk Jeremic had become the ninth candidate for the post and said he will present his briefing on Thursday at 9 am New York time (9 pm Beijing time). Jeremic was president of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly and is former Serbian minister of foreign affairs.
Teng Jianqun, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said the interview process is being pushed partly by the rising voices from countries in Eastern Europe and Africa that Teng said had called for openness and transparency in the selection process.
The competition ultimately will be shaped by the votes of the UN Security Council, and the two key factors will be geopolitics and gender, Teng said.
It will be difficult "to estimate who will stand out to be the new UN chief until July", when the General Assembly will discuss the final list of candidates, he added.
