China's latest viral app makes you clap for Xi Jinping

Stop what you’re doing and prove your love for China’s illustrious leader

The 19th National Congress may have brought with it tightened security measures, cancellations on all AirBnb reservations, and the closure of Beijing’s bars and livehouses, but it’s now also brought us a savvy new type of propaganda in the form of China’s latest viral app.

'For Chairman Xi, I will clap like a crazy person. Our Chairman Xi Jinping is the most handsome guy in the world.' A comment from a member of Clap for Xi Jinping's target audience on Weibo.

It’s called Clap for Xi Jinping, and it’s succeeded in garnering China’s president a torrent of virtual acclaim in the form of animated claps. For those of you who couldn’t get a seat at this week’s Communist Party Congress, but are still desperate to demonstrate your appreciation for President Xi’s three-and-a-half-hour address on Wednesday, this smartphone game lets you do that.

A snippet of Xi Jinping's speech at the Congress.

Developed by Tencent Holdings (the operator of WeChat), Clap for Xi Jinping is fairly self-explanatory. Players are led into Beijing’s Great Hall of the People and shown snippets of President Xi’s speech on topics such as affordable housing and the ‘rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’. The game itself then begins, where users are challenged to tap the screen as many times as they can within 18 seconds, with each tap counting for a clap. (Tip: you can use as many fingers as you like to tap the screen).

After you’ve finished this show of loyalty, the final screen displays your total number of taps along with the percentage of people you’ve proven yourself superior to. According to What’s on Weibo, Clap for Xi Jinping had been played over 400 million times by 9pm on Wednesday, with some users on WeChat boasting that they’ve managed to reach 1695 claps.

What a disgrace. 72 claps only makes you better than 8 percent of users.

At the time of the post, over 1,210,000,000 claps had been given in the game, according to a tally displayed at the end of the sequence. 

To play the game and show your ardent admiration for China's top dog, hit '阅读原文'.

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