Thread by @jinpeili

CCTV FOLLIES 11/01

-Xi receives first foreign leader since claiming mandate
-Nguyen Phu Trong is granted a mask-free audience, a mark of respect.
-"Never let anyone interfere" is theme of talk.
-Protocol is paramount, though Nguyen is more at ease and less wooden than Xi

Goose-stepping soldiers are China's way of saying hello and laying it on.
Xi treats the elder from the south of the border like a teacher rewarding a child.
Trong gets awarded a prized pendant

Just in case you're not getting enough Xi on TV you can read his thoughts and grasp the profundity of his thinking in print and other formats as well. Note the simulated page turning of the electronic text.

The next segment is a real hall of mirrors.
It's hard to tell who's in the same room and who's talking to who. So many screens.
The demoted Li Keqiang looking tired and sad. Li doesn't have much to be happy about yet he plays along still, not showing a whit of resistance.

Still trying to figure out who's talking live and who's on tape.

If you ever wondered how to say Li Zhanshu in Vietnamese, it's "Lat Chien Tu."
The CCP elite seem to be all in on Zoom these days.
Powerpoint style presentations and big screen projection also popular.

Are any of these people even in the same room?

The People's Daily is exhorting people to thoroughly study the 20th Congress Spirit to make the world a more beautiful place for humankind.

Oh, my! How the CCP has grown, from a humble meeting hall in Shanghai to the expropriated palace of emperors, dowagers and eunuchs in Zhongnanhai.
Even the red carpet gets the red treatment.

Doing business in China is a cinch.
Just look at how the foreign businessmen line up at the "Special Area One-Stop Solution to Make Business Easier" in the vast pavilion.
If one studies the photo carefully, one can detect the latest trend in business confidence.

"Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" is the way to go, says a tax and revenue deputy.

The "protection watchdog for tillers of the soil" cites the report of the 20th Congress as one of his inspirations.

This science report is mercifully free of 20th Congress mumbo-jumbo, just plain space talk.
The Mengtian lab module has docked with the Tianhe core module and the Wentian lab module at China's space station.

China takes the lead in 5G
Some impressive drone shots illustrate the story.

China opposes the US use of human rights to interfere in China's domestic affairs!
Dozens of small countries and human-rights hating allies like Russia and Belarus agree!
Down with foreign intervention!

Yet Russia intervenes in Ukraine every day in the worst possible way and they get a free pass. In fact, they get pride of place in "telling Ukraine's story and telling it well."

More of the usual Russian Defense Ministry pyrotechnical footage.

Airborne missile strike. There's never any battle context to these "pretty" Russian shots, it's more a kind of "show off and awe."

CCTV sums more or less the same way each day.
Russia attacks carefully selected military targets in Ukraine, Ukraine fights back.

Tellingly, in terms of real-versus-imagined sovereignty, Russia always seems to be in the air, while Ukraine is firmly on the ground.

But Ukraine gets little airtime and the footage is often underwhelming.
below:
Ukraine fights back like kids playing with firecrackers.

But the real root of the conflict is the selfish hegemon that fans the flames.
The US, of course.
CCTV seems to think pallet movers are the key link.
caption:
"Only the US reaps benefit from continuing the Russo-Ukraine conflict."

And now, some world news.

Remember the England that China used to respect?
The Thames, the Parliament, Tower Bridge?

Well guess what. London is now teeming with homeless.

But you won't see such scenes in China, not on CCTV.
As Xi Jinping says, "the people are the mountains, the mountains are the people."
Not sure what it means, but it sure beats homelessness.

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