As US media reported the re-election of President Barack Obama today, the election results were shared and discussed widely across Chinese social media networks. On Sina Weibo, one of the country’s leading social media sites, Obama’s re-election was far and away the top topic of discussion, with close to 25 million posts by 3:45 p.m. Beijing time. [Frontpage photo by Becker1999 posted to Flickr.com under Creative Commons license.]

[ABOVE: A screen capture of the right-hand side of the homepage at Sina Weibo shows close to 25 million posts for “Obama wins American presidential election”.]
Here are a few of the posts and comments made to Sina Weibo.
At around 1 p.m., Liu Xiangnan (刘向南), a reporter for the Economic Observer, posted simply:

[Four more years. (Four more years!) — After victory, Obama quickly makes this post to Twitter.]
Four more years.（再干四年！）— 获胜后的奥巴马在第一时间在他的推特上说。]

User “Ling Feng KO” (零封KO) commented: “Obama gets another term. I’m not sure what influence this will have on China and the world. We’ll just have to see.” [奥巴马连任了。不知道对今后的中国和世界有什么影响，拭目以待]
User Yu Shukuan (于树宽) commented, wryly avoided the issue of the Party’s 18th National Congress, which opens in Beijing tomorrow: “This week both the United States and China will have major events happening. The first is that the people of America will decide one-person-one-vote on their next president. The second is that the ‘citizens’ of China, which doesn’t have even the most basic right to vote, will watch anxiously as the citizens of the United States vote to elect their next president. [本周中美两国都将有一件大事发生。一件是美国人民一人一票选举他们的总统。另一件是连最基本的投票权都没有的中国“公民”眼巴巴地看着美国公民投票选举他们的总统.]
User Jing Ting Shan Idler (敬亭山闲人) commented: “The news on the street is that a handful of people in China also want to let our highest-level leaders have another five years. [敬亭山闲人：小道消息，好像中国有一撮人，也想让我们的最高领袖再来五年]
Liu Xiangnan’s post was deleted by 1:19 p.m., yielding an error page reading: “We’re sorry! The page you are visiting is an erroneous address, or the page no longer exists.”

Another Weibo user, Wei Tian Xia (微天下), posted:

[#US Election# – Report from the frontline in Washington] Obama successfully wins re-election. Together with former president Bill Clinton and George W. Bush before him, he makes American history: this is the second time in American history — since Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe — that three consecutive presidents have won second terms in office, each spending eight years in the White House.
微天下：【#美国大选#-华盛顿前方报道】奥巴马此次竞选连任成功，他和前任总统克林顿，小布什共同刷新另外一项美国历史：成为继托马斯-杰弗逊，詹姆斯-麦迪逊和詹姆斯-门罗总统之后，第二回美国历史上，出现三任总统均连续赢得连任，各自坐镇白宫八年的景象.

To this post, user “YouYouisme” responded: “So when will we, in our Great Mother Country, be able to elect our own leaders?” [什么时候我们伟大祖国的领导人也可以被选举而生呢]
“NuanNuan ElaineYu” (暖暖ElaineYu) wrote: “In comparison to the 18th National Congress, we are always far more interested in the politics of other nations, have more views [on their politics], have more belief [in their politics], and perhaps even have a greater sense of happiness [in watching their politics].” [相对于十八大，咱们永远对干涉他国政治更有兴趣，更有灼见，更有信念，仿佛更有幸福感!]
User “Flower in the Sky” (天里开的花) wrote: “So China, which was alone in its support of Romney, will hereafter be facing Obama again! [唯一支持罗姆尼的中国今后还要面对奥巴马了!]
The US presidential election has also been an occasion for the kind of whimsy that would never be accepted (for very long) in reference to Chinese leaders. This afternoon, for example, one of the most popular posts on Sina Weibo (tagged as a “hot topic” post) was this one, re-posted nearly 7,000 times within three hours:

Last night, as Romney saw victory within his grasp, he turned, brimming with confidence, to his wife and said: “Tomorrow night, you can sleep in the president’s bed.” Tonight the results were announced on television: a victory for Obama. [Romney’s] wife turned to him and said excitedly: “Are we inviting Obama over to our house, or should I just go over there?”
昨晚，罗姆尼觉得胜券在握，信心十足地对妻子说：“明天晚上你就可以和美国总统睡觉了。”今天电视上公布了选举结果：奥巴马获胜。妻子激动的说：“是请奥巴马到咱家来，还是我到他那里去?

The post was accompanied by the following image: