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

Mar 5, 2023, 24 tweets

CCTV FOLLIES 3.5 National People's Congress

-CPPCC meet followed by NPC meet.
-Even on sidelines, Xi has to be number one
-Li Keqiang's last report: abject ventriloquist act for Xi
-Lei Feng craze takes unsuspecting nation by storm
-Nord Stream steams
-Ohio is a train wreck

Mild-mannered Xi can hardly bear a minute not in the limelight. He needs adulation and applause like a fish needs water and fish food.

It's all about you know who, even when it isn't.

Li Keqiang's swan song is a pathetic chirp and battle calls to the tune of Xi...
Li says the PLA should intensify “military training and preparedness across the board” to boost combat readiness.

Still, it's sad to see a relatively sympathetic character go, not that it will make much difference.

"President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party, took part in a deliberation with his fellow deputies from the delegation of Jiangsu Province, at the first session of the 14th NPC, China's national legislature."

His "fellow" deputies applaud.

It's nice that the Han-dominated CCP lets minorities engage in performative ethnicity, it would be nicer still if they had the option to opt out of the dog and pony show and not to pose for the cameras decked out in extravagantly impractical, albeit charming, costumes.

A fresh "learn from Lei Feng" craze is sweeping the nation. Citizens are spontaneously cleaning up litter and chanting slogans about self-sacrifice for the party.

What could be more educational than watching videos about a fabricated hero who may not even have existed?

So many little Lei Fengs just waiting to be inculcated.

Some Lei Feng events include free haircuts for old people.

Lei Feng's spirit will never rust.

But one does get nervous any time the Lei Feng spirit comes in close contact with a telephone pole.

The Lei Feng spirit has been extended to policing, mass meetings, free haircuts for kids, and selfie shots.

In foreign news, foreigners sing praise of China during the "Two Meetings" in the New Era under Xi with Chinese-style modernization
(Montenegro, Argentina, England)

The compliments keep rolling in (Zambia, Saudi Arabia, America) but time constraints limit the window for praise, because Nord Stream news is up next.

In case you haven't heard about Seymour Hersh and his famous report, an American scholar and a French delegate to the UN weigh in.

It's now that special time of day when CCTV runs an update on Ukraine straight from the capital of the country who invaded it.

CCTV shows its journalistic savvy by consulting the experts. Instead of commenting on Ukraine directly, they let the Russians do all the talking.

Ukraine fights back.
(how's that for "fair and balanced"?)

Ohio train wreck (the most recent one)

Ohio train wreck (the second most recent one)

Need a palette cleanser after all that foreign news?
I know I do.
CCTV has you covered. Let's visit some mountains, to the tune of "I love you China."

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