Phil Cunningham Profile picture
金培力 CCTV FOLLIES at https://t.co/Ytx660bYM5 Fulbright, Knight, Nieman Fellow. @jinpeili.bsky.social @jinpeili@ieji.de

Sep 30, 2022, 22 tweets

CCTV FOLLIES: 9/30 7PM Xinwen Lianbo

-Xi and company launch another lavish round of humble brags in accordance with CCP's obsessive-compulsive protocol and lip service to ideals replete with sour-puss shots and hints of toxic self-regard

(Guizhou Xijiu Maotai ad on clock)

The people's square where China's youth once put on spirited peaceful protests and erected the Goddess of Democracy is hijacked by Xi and company to stage a stuffy, soulless, goose-stepping, sieg heil circle jerk.
Hail Xi, hail our communist heroes!

Heralding in the era of Xi Jinping thought, Xi Jinping diplomacy, Xi Jinping politics, Xi Jinping worship on the eve of National Day.

Control is more important than content

Clockwork moves timed to wow the easily-impressed

Hail Victory!!!

More good Xi news...Xi meets aeronautic engineers who designed the C919, China's homemade passenger jet.

Xi deigns to congratulate them for their hard work but they burst into spontaneous applause, applauding him.

Then they stand as stiff as toy solders looking off into space so as not to entrap the gaze of the paramount leader.

Xi instructs top engineers in the finer points of aircraft design.

The nose of the plane should go up like this when it flies...

Wait! How did they get that jet inside the Great Hall?
Oh, it's file footage from a hangar somewhere.

It's banquet time. But first they have to stop clapping.

Xi sits contentedly with his back to the keynote speaker, Premier Li Keqiang

When Li Keqiang speaks, nobody listens, not even the Olympic athletes.
What's on the menu?

Everyone gets three glasses of water and wine filled to the exact same level, and one giant peach per head.

Foreign envoys are received by Premier Li.
-Mask rules apply here
-Bowing Japanese-style is the new handshake

Still working on how to bow...

Xi being trailed by the politburo in rank order

China has happy foreign friends offering their heartfelt congratulations to the fest of self-congratulation.

In other news, Putin says the Nord Stream explosion was the act of international terrorists.

And here's the proof...

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