CCTV FOLLIES 11.30 Xinwen Lianbo, part two
"Jiang was a great Marxist...an outstanding leader of our great cause...an incalculable loss"
"In accordance with China's practice, foreign governments, political parties and friendly personages will not be invited."
Xi Jinping (top of the list, large print) heads the honorary funeral committee. This section includes hundreds of names and goes on for a mind-numbing five minutes.
Fun fact: Hu Jintao ranks 36th in the titular hierarchy.
Sometimes CCTV wows its viewers with spectacular images.
Sometimes it bores people out of their minds.
(list truncated in interests of space and time)
What does the viewer get out of five minutes of this?
Then its back to the anchors who work a double shift on this historic day.
Every name on the screen was carefully announced.
"...express the incomparable esteem and profound mourning of the whole party, the entire military and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups for Comrade Jiang Zemin..."
It's so sad. But the show must go on.
In a now familiar sequence, a limo carrying a VIP visitor pulls up the the Great Hall to mount the steps for an audience with paramount leader Xi.
Xi greets Lao leader Thongloun.
The wives of both men are present and part of the ceremonial proceedings.
It's a sparkling occasion.
Then again, it's just another work day, with the usual pomp and circumstance, though the military trumpeteers are notably absent.
Xi expounds, Thongloun listens.
"The victorious 20th...new era...socialism with Chinese characteristics..."
Do I detect a note of panic in Xi's bearing as he glances at an exhibit of plain white paper?
Oh, no. Not at all. It's just the lighting
These are Sino-Lao friendship documents about turning Laos from a land-locked country to a land-linked country
There goes your independence!
And now to Russia for the latest update on Ukraine...
It's more of the usual pyrotechnic images from the Russian Ministry of Defense, almost entirely devoid of content or context...
But the heavy weaponry presumably makes Russia look invincible...
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is not happy with NATO. It's stopping the good guys from winning. It's pathological.
Russia had no desire to invade Ukraine, the US and NATO made them do what they did in self-defense.
CCTV has been airing this line for months now
NATO is a "criminal entity" supporting "extremist regimes"
Whatever happened to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed in 2010?
Russia's foreign ministry is not amused.
Meanwhile, unfair US sanctions are driving up the cost of energy in Europe, causing everyone to suffer but the US which selfishly benefits from the Ukraine conflict.
And that's the state-of-play in China and the rest of the world on the day of the "insurmountable loss" of Xi Jinping's predecessor, comrade Jiang Zemin.
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