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

Feb 17, 2023, 14 tweets

CCTV FOLLIES 2.17 CCTV sees what Xi sees

-Non-Western Modernization in bloom
-Flowers a' blossom in the fair land
-The party led by Xi is the answer
-Hersh Nord Stream story still big
-US terrorism
-Ohio still burning (in dated footage)
-Florida on fire (lavish fresh footage

In a surprise cold open, the first person shown in the news tonight is not Xi but a foreigner!

Of course Xi's name opened the program, and the story is about Xi and how Xi is making China prosperous:

"A new look for the regional economy"

The "new look" is what the news is all about.

CCTV's mission is to show the world as Xi sees it, to see his "accomplishments" as he would like to them to be seen.

What does Xi's non-Western modernization look like?

It's container ports
It's fast trains
It's high tech displays

It's constant construction
It's cities rising in the midst
It's agriculture
(the recycled footage of "red" tomatoes on the march from field to market is a CCTV classic)

It's the humble, folksy, charming leader's every gesture, every utterance...
It's lots of file footage

It's THE EXPERT telling the experts what to do...

It's Xi's glorious coronation ceremony at the victorious 20th Party Congress. (In the opening ceremony photo below, Hu Jintao hasn't been forcibly removed yet)

It's...
-The Great Hall overlooking Tiananmen Square
-The Research Institute of Xi Jinping Economic Thought
-Minorities laboring in full costume
-And Xi's victory over Covid-19

It's...
-happy kids
-happy tractors
-harvesting grain
-red fruit on the vine

It's...
-seagulls (someone really likes bird shots, they are a fixture in the news)
-big bridges
-fast trains
-"modern" buildings

It's...
-Chinese labs making computer chips
-Industrial robots
-Construction foremen pointing at things
-It's Xiong'an, Xi's model city

It's...
-impressive pre-existing skylines attributed to Xi
-emerald fields and contour plowing
-men on high tension wires
-slogans in the workplace

It's...
-fashionably-clad beneficiaries of the status quo pointing at flowers
-ecstatic minorities breaking spontaneously into dance
-Shanghai skyscrapers
-it's the man himself, in all his glorious modesty...

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