...is that you might discover something you don't like. Fortunately, in China, you can close the poll, sack the editors (there is no direct link to the poll, but the timing is suspicious) and make the whole thing go away.

Details at Peking Duck, Danwei and Shanghaiist, so I won't repeat them here.

As usual, this is a ham-fisted and unsubtle reaction to a minor problem more easily rectified by a shadowy poll-rigging. Imagethief suggests that next time the Party propaganda office simply work with media organizations to make sure such important polls are worded in a correct, socialist fashion. Imagethief suggests the following:
Q: In a future life would you rather be born as a...
  1. Proud member of the glorious Chinese nation, the history and culture of which extend back for four thousand years, and which is today assuming its rightful place as the axis upon which the world spins or
  2. As a lowly, foreign blogging flack with a big nose.
Please ender your national ID number here:_________________.
Heck, even I would pick option 1. Now, that's democracy!