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

Jan 10, 2023, 39 tweets

CCTV FOLLIES 1.10 Xi Thought, compass for New Era
-Xi's big speech gets a recap
-Xi inspires CCDI; a unanimous vote and applause
-A new Xi book
-CCP self-love leaves little time for Covid update
-Party's done a good job.
-Scoop: "British run spy tech powers Ukraine proxy war"

For those of you who didn't get enough of Xi hogging up the news cycle yesterday, there's a recap today showing Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang,and Li Xi as his faithful scribes
So historic, Xi addressing the CCDI in person, whipping up enthusiasm for internal discipline

Up now, the next day's meeting of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Li Xi presides at this conclave at which Xi's landmark speech, the focus of all thought, is reviewed with rapt attention.

Whoever agrees with what Chairman Xi said, follow me by raising your hand...

Hands vie for the sky in crisp unison...
CCTV really captures the moment: the enthusiasm is never less than infectious.

And it's such an open, transparent democratic process!

If anyone dares to disagree, raise your hand now...

Wow.
Unanimity.

Let's us now roll up our sleeves and thoroughly study the words muttered by Chairman Xi in his authoritative, memorable New Era speech with, surprise, surprise, Xi Jinping Thought and the spirit of the 20th at its core.

Ten tedious minutes of head shots from different angles later, CCTV's top story of the day concludes with a round of self-congratulatory applause.

A victorious meeting!

Another meeting? Xi whisperer Wang Huning brings good tidings to the United Front, repeating Xi jargon of the day.

This valuable instruction session was simulcast across the nation, to virtual meetings in all four cardinal directions. It was especially well-received in Tibet.

"Xi Walks Among the Commoners" is out!
This lavishly illustrated volume laden with wise words shows Xi humbly mixing with ordinary people.

(Among memorable Mao impersonators over the years including one who just moved to the US, Xi Jinping is probably the best fake Mao of all)

Run to your nearest state-owned bookstore now before it runs out! Buy it in triplicate for your friends!

Perhaps you'd like to thumb through it before rushing out to buy a copy? CCTV has you covered. Prime time news has time to go through the preface and table of contents.

One apt Xi-ism: "Let us be happy like the happy musical notes in the Yellow River Cantata!"

Wow.

While on that high note, CCTV slips in some bad news about the economy. Millions out of work, recent graduates can't find jobs.

But worry not. The Party has warm-heartedly organized some job fairs.

...and it has opened a "warm-hearted campaign" to get more people in the work force.

But back to the main news. Who doesn't want to know more about that victorious meeting on party discipline?
CCTV found the best way to get candid answers is to zoom in on name and rank of the people it interviews...
"As the Chairman said...."
"As the Chairman said..."

"As the Chairman said..."
"In the important speech of the Chairman..."
"One must grasp the eight points..."
"And don't forget the four everythings, they are very scientific..."

"It's all there in the Party's report on the 20th"

But CCTV doesn't just editorialize, it dramatizes, taking the viewer to the real China, such as Shijingshan district in Beijing.

"Ten years ago, before the 18th (when Xi came to power) the place we are standing on this street looked like...

...this.
But now it looks like....this!

Viewers-can you spot the difference?

A cursory examination suggests that one or two unsightly telephone poles have been removed and a exceedingly fat red cat has been added.

Ten years of Xi and that's it?

I won't even try to parse the meaning of the fat red cat.

To keep China's cities looking clean, we must combat the "four winds," most especially the "liberal wind."

Only then, fully infused with the spirit of the 20th, will our cities look like postcards.

Just when you think the news couldn't reach another climax, you get hit with "National Police Day."

The People's Police pledge their loyalty to the party...
with Xi as the core.

The police are friendly, like their cartoon mascots, and they are brave, like this man painting the word "Zhongguo" on a dangerous border post.
They guard the frontier with vigilance to prevent foreigners from trying to sneak into this veritable paradise on earth.

The nation is in good hands because the party makes sure pharmacy shelves are stocked and doctors do their work.
But let's not dwell on that, there's bigger news"
The 4th installment of "Forever Blow Your Horn" is on CCTV tonight.

And the horn is blown in unmasking corruption.
This sneak preview is such a teaser...

And there's yet another patriotic show!
This one sponsored by the Public Security Bureau.

The offerings on CCTV these days are an embarrassment....of riches.

So it's only fair that CCTV celebrate itself, awarding itself awards for its own in-house documentaries.
Highlights included.

CCTV knows how to throw a gala fete. VIPs sit apart. (just for comfort, as there are no class distinctions)
Still trying to figure out who gets to sit in those super cushy white chairs up front, though the red-draped chairs in the back are far from shabby.

CCTV's old building is alive with rehearsals for the upcoming Spring Festival show.
It looks to be youth-oriented and rabbit-themed.

CCTV's been dispensing so many high notes of happiness, it comes as a bit of a low note to realize its pact with Russia's Defense Ministry means that scenes of Russian rockets bombarding Ukraine are still obligatory viewing.

CCTV doesn't do scoops,not about China anyway, but sometimes a borrowed scoop will do. Russia provided, and CCTV aired, "inside" information on the falsehoods of the "so-called Bucha massacre" and US biolabs in Ukraine.

The US outlet Grayzone is also a go-to source for CCTV.

The Grayzone scoop: "A Washington DC-area Anomaly 6 firm is marketing illegal spy tech that can scrape an individual’s most sensitive personal data by tracking their smartphone. The British Ministry of Defence and GCHQ are potential buyers."

CCTV milks it for all it's worth, worried about the lives it puts at stake and quoting a Grayzone correspondent who says "they've opened Pandora's box."

Slam dunk?

The next scoop is more typical of CCTV's handling of the news.
An intrepid CCTV crew is on the scene covering this earthshaking demonstration rocking Canada to the core.

The crowd scenes are fantastic, and they scored an interview, too.

"We want peace not war"

Bravo, CCTV!

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