Chinese internet users have evaded censors to take potshots at President Hu Jintao’s assessment of his performance in a farewell speech, saying the country is walking down a dead-end road in “broken shoes”.
Hu launched a week-long Communist Party congress in Beijing on Thursday with a speech that touted his political leadership but also warned in stark terms of worsening problems such as corruption that threaten the party’s legitimacy.
However, Hu also insisted that only the party was capable of guiding the world’s second-biggest economy.
“We must not take the old path that is closed and rigid, nor must we take the evil road of changing flags and banners,” the party’s outgoing general-secretary said in the speech.
Users of the country’s hugely popular microblogging sites – the only major forum for relatively open expression in the tightly controlled country – reacted with cynicism.
“No matter if it’s the new or old road, if you put on two broken shoes, how can you walk down a good path?” said one user of Sina Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like microblogging service.