David Lom / NBC News

Huang Annian, a retired professor of American history at Beijing Normal University, casts a ballot in a mock election at the American Embassy in Beijing, China, on Wednesday.

BEIJING — Huang Annian cast his vote this week in his sixth straight U.S. presidential election. But his vote has never been counted. 

Huang, a retired professor of American history at Beijing Normal University and a Chinese national who has been casting ballots at U.S. election parties in China for about 25 years, said the Obama-Romney race was especially significant.

“This year was a very important election,” Huang told NBC News from the American Embassy’s party on Wednesday morning, Beijing time. “The most important issue China and the U.S. will face is whether they develop together or tear each other down.”

Hosted by organizations like the American Chamber of Commerce and the American Embassy, the events usually include a mock ballot that allow Chinese nationals to cast a vote. 

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That this celebration of American democracy was coming on the eve of a critical, once-a-decade leadership change in China’s ruling Communist Party was not lost on the attendees.  It served to contrast the rowdy American election that risked overwhelmed viewers worldwide with too much information, with China’s crucial transfer of power, which has been shrouded in secrecy.

‘I voted’
Past “election” events have been relatively lavish affairs complete with fully catered breakfasts at Western-brand hotel chains.  This year’s was more modest. The 400-plus guests – about 100 Chinese nationals, the rest Americans working in China – were only offered light snacks: muffins, cookies and fruit to go with their coffee. A reflection, maybe, of the austere times the American government is experiencing.

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Still, there were abundant signs of celebration – balloons festooned the hotel ballroom and TVs were setup with videos that explained how elections in the United States work and what it means to Americans. Chinese guests who participated in the vote appeared to enjoy the pageantry of voting – going into the booth, filling out the ballot and sliding it into the ballot box.

Slideshow: Election 2012

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Campaigning with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, voting and election results.

Launch slideshow

By the end of the day many of them were gathering around the booths for photos, “I voted” pins proudly displayed on their jacket lapels.

Among them was Huang.

Huang, a self-described American politics junkie in his 70s who blogs regularly about the U.S. elections, was among the first to arrive. Accompanied by his wife, who has attended every one of the election events with him, the two cheerfully marched up to the voting booths when voting opened.

In the past Huang has cast “winning” votes for the likes of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.  

This year? His vote went to the eventual winner, Barack Obama, who won over 150 of the 200 ballots cast at the mock election.

All smiles upon exiting the booth, Huang urged embassy staff to invite him and his wife to the 2016 event.

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But he had a more serious message too, urging collaboration, not competition between the countries.

“There will be many more conflicts between China and the U.S., but there will be more cooperation as well because the two countries are codependent,” he said. “China cannot continue to develop without the United States and the U.S. cannot remain on top without China.”

Indeed, when the euphoria of his re-election passes, Obama will face a barrage of issues that will challenge the Sino-US relationship.  These range from concerns about trade imbalances that American trade officials say allow China to undercut U.S. competitiveness to Beijing’s concerns about the true intention of the Obama administration’s “pivot” back to the Asia-Pacific region.

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Despite the tensions between the two countries, Obama appears to have been the choice of officials and academics who attended the party.

Neither candidate would have significantly altered the direction of the Sino-U.S. relationship, and Obama provided familiarity and comfort born from experience, professor He Xingqiang told NBC News.

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“I think both China and the U.S. want to keep stable relations,” the associate professor at the Institute for American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told NBC News after Obama’s victory was announced.

“If Obama gets reelected, he can continue his China policy,” he said. “ If Romney got elected, no big problem for China-U.S. relations, but a little trouble … because Romney has said some tough words about China.”

NBC News’ Johanna Armstrong and Le Li contributed to this report.

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Bobby Yip / Reuters

A villager shows off his ballot before dropping it into the ballot box beside an election worker at a polling station at a school in Wukan village in Guangdong province on Feb. 1.

BEIJING – Wukan, a village in Guangdong province in southern China, is making headlines again – this time for taking the first steps toward open and transparent elections, which 7,688 villagers participated in on Wednesday.

Wukan was in the spotlight late last year for a high-profile protest by villagers against local officials believed to be illegally selling public land to developers. 

The 11-day rebellion was defused peacefully in late December after senior Communist Party officials reached an agreement with Wukan’s protest leaders – promising free elections and an investigation into the murky real-estate deals. They also promised to investigate the death of a protester who had died in police custody.

In another surprise, the local Communist Party appointed Lin Zuluan, one of the well-respected leaders of the defiant revolt, as the village party secretary. So Lin served as the chief in command for the first balloting that took place in the Wukan Elementary School Wednesday.

Villagers gathered in a festive scene to cast votes, for many the first time ever, to select an independent election committee to oversee upcoming ballots.  

Initial steps
Dozens of aluminum ballot boxes were placed around classrooms at the elementary school and students were mobilized to help count the ballots before they were distributed. Teachers helped elderly villagers who could not read or write.  A media counter was set up outside the school, and journalists were allowed in after registration.

“My biggest impression here at Wukan is that the atmosphere here is very different from any other Chinese villages,” one Chinese reporter at the scene wrote on Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblog. “The people here are very used to foreign journalists walking around filming. The village committee is open to everyone. Every family invites you to go to their house to stay, to eat or to drink tea. Brave and lucky Wukan villagers made their home different than any other Chinese villages with the same problems.”

Str / AFP - Getty Images

Residents register before casting their votes during the first-ever open democratic elections for the village committee in Wukan, in China's Guangdong province, on Feb. 1.

The election lasted nine hours (with a two-hour break). It began at 9 a.m. with the national anthem playing and fireworks being set off – a Chinese tradition during the new lunar year.

The final results came at 11 p.m.: Out of the 50 candidates, 11 (including one woman) were elected to be on the election committee.

The new members will be responsible for organizing an upcoming election for the Wukan Village Committee. They will devise a plan for the election process; mobilize and familiarize the villagers with the new plan; scrutinize and publish the candidate list; and, most importantly, organize the villagers to vote. The election is due to start in early March.

Not a new idea
Village-level elections are not a new concept to Chinese people, but seldom are they transparent or democratic. The Communist Party still maintains single-party authority across the government – from Beijing to the smallest village – and has absolute control.

There have been experiments with grassroots elections since the 1980s – the outcome is usually just pre-determined from above. Representatives are often appointed by higher-level government officials and the process is usually murky or manipulated.

In Wukan, the former village head had been in power for 40 years without ever being properly elected. He was accused of misappropriating public land and embezzling compensation money that belonged to villagers.

So many are hopeful Wukan’s experiment will spread.

“Wukan is a start of China’s local political reform! I hope to see a real self-rule in the countryside,” wrote a Weibo user going by the name “Orient leaping towards wealth."

Str / AFP - Getty Images

A Chinese man fills out his voting form as residents cast their votes during the first-ever open democratic elections for the village committee in Wukan, China on Feb. 1.

The user added, “Villagers that have both traditional legal culture and modern citizen spirit, they are the hope of China’s democracy.”
‘An experiment in democracy’
But others are not so sure about declaring a democratic victory in Wukan.

Chang Ping, a veteran journalist based in Hong Kong who has been closely following events in Wukan, is not so optimistic about its future.

“Their path is not going to be very smooth. The Guangdong government was smart about not cracking down with violence like other local governments, but that doesn’t mean they agree with complete self-rule. They will try to absorb Wukan into their old system, which they can still control. If that happens, the election will be the same election happening everywhere else,” Chang told NBC News in a phone interview. “Wukan’s protest has no end. Democracy doesn’t arrive just because you had three months of protest.”

However, Chang agreed that the event is revolutionary – if only as an exercise in how elections are supposed to work.

“Most of the elections we see are usually manipulated or the villagers don’t really know what their vote means. But Wukan villagers have their own understanding of voting, after their protest to finally obtain this right,” said Chang.  “It is an experiment in democracy, and it will affect other places in China.”

Related stories on Wukan:

Photo Blog: Chinese village takes halting democratic step

Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police

Villagers defiant as government creates new narrative

A contagion of conflict in China?