You’re stir-fried squid

CHINA doesn’t have free elections. It has reality television instead. The latest such show even has the flavour of a political contest: the competitors are all high-ranking officials. It has been a big hit.

Since May the programme, “Sights of Shanxi”, has been airing live every Friday on a channel in the northern province of that name. In the show, local cities bid to play host to a tourism-development conference. The contestants have to tell four judges why their city is such a great place, in front of a studio audience of 100 people and a panel of experts. The judges grill the contestants, who advance or fail according to votes cast by the audience in the studio, the judges and internet users.