Thread by @jinpeili

CCTV FOLLIES 11.30 Another slow news day

Dark attire is first indication that something happened.
It did.
Jiang Zemin is dead.
CCTV can make the protests go away with a magic wand, they can make Jiang's successor and Xi's predecessor disappear from the stage in real time,

but how long can they deny this story? Perhaps a short delay in the announcement of Jiang's passing to conjure up a narrative favorable to Xi, but they can't hide it for long.

Here he is. A man who helped Xi in his unexpected rise but got no gratitude. Banished like a Buddha on a shelf.

The leading organs of the Chinese Communist Party join in making this notice. This goes on for ten unblinking minutes.
What a difference a day makes!
Xi Jinping's image appeared 13 times in the first ten minutes of yesterday's news. It was all about him, and still is, in a way...

Next, some (grainy) images of Jiang Zemin during his heyday. This section is laudatory but accounts for only 3 minutes of this special edition of Xinwen Lianbo that runs way over time to 70 minutes.

(otherwise there would hardly be room to show Xi in action and cheer Russia.)

The images will evoke nostalgia in many, if only because China is a much more cold, closed and clammy place now.

Scenes of Jiang mixing with the masses, inspecting crop yields and showing solicitude to farmers, while not so different from today's photo ops, show a human touch.

And then there's the industrial sector to play act for.
Helmets on!

And science and other things.

There's lots of posing involved, but Jiang, in contrast to his current successor, was well-educated, urbane, a man of science and spoke several languages fluently.

He could recite the Gettysburg address in English.

He also show a sense of humor, albeit it somewhat corny, and a range of human emotions not obvious in the current paramount leader.

Jiang could be charming, even sweet, at times.

And he paid his dues, playing to the camera, inspecting flood zones and the like.

He presided over the return of Hong Kong in 1997.
That's Li Peng on his right.

And he could really ham it up. I saw him speak at Harvard and he was good with the crowd. I shouted out a question about human rights (only to be denied floor by host Ezra Vogel) by Jiang said he had good hearing and tried to respond anyway.

He studied electrical engineering in the Soviet Union and presided over opening the controversial Three Gorges Dam, a scheme first dreamed up by Mao and long a pet CCP project.

He was open to "foreign influences" and pushed hard for modernization, even if it meant diluting the what Xi Jinping calls "the original mission" of the party.

Diplomats found him funny, even "fuzzy." He played the Titanic theme song for a group of American visitors in his home in Zhongnanhai.
Can't picture Xi doing that (though Xi reported likes at least one Hollywood movie--"The Godfather")

Jiang was the first Chinese leader to readily participate in international summitry.

So now, the party under Xi Jinping, perhaps sensing that some people may miss those less stringent days, heaps rote praise upon the deceased former leader in a way that gives Xi the last word.

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