Thread by @jinpeili

CCTV FOLLIES 11.28 China's clarion call to the world

News opens at Tiananmen. It features scenes of mass gatherings, enthusiastic youth and heroic accomplishments. It will tell a fairy tale about a nation that has rejuvenated itself under the firm guidance of a very wise man.

Today, the big news:
-Xi welcomes the Mongolian president
-Xi has a meeting with the Mongolian president
-The legendary story of how China rejuvenated under Xi
-Russia strikes military targets in Kherson

The audience is about to begin. Mongolia's president is taken to Tiananmen Square. He treads the VIP red carpet to mount the steps into the Great Hall of the People.

His arrival is not unexpected. He bows lightly in deference to his aloof and lofty host.

Interesting to note that Peng Liyuan has more prominence as of late. By all accounts a vivacious woman, but still it reeks of Jiang Qing in the late Mao days.

The military trumpeters announce the next stage of the choreographed program.

A gun salute on Tiananmen Square!

Note that every last person is masked but the VIPs.
Does the virus respect and recognize rank?
Is Xi somehow above it all?

More pomp and circumstance...

Mask compliance is complete among women soldiers

Here come da...

Even with the sound off, you can almost hear the ponderous echoes...

And now, the heart of tonight's news program:

"Unite and Struggle to step into the Great Revival"

CCTV takes us to the other side of Tiananmen Square where there lies a great museum. We will visit that museum that tell well the China story in terms of the party's story, and in terms of the leader of the party's story.

Ten years ago, a historic personage stepped inside...

Xi Jinping,copyright owner of the "Chinese Dream" (TM) then expounded on just how completely the entire country was indebted to the great works of the communist party of which he was annointed leader.

What would China be without the wise guidance of the Communist Party?
Or Xi Jinping for that matter?

Communist recruits swear allegiance to the party, even in the middle of the desert.
The big ocean wave must be symbolic of something.

The party brings you wide highways, tall buildings and tractors that rumble through the fertile fields like tanks
(CCTV likes this shot and uses it often)

When Xi speaks, the youth of China gather reverentially to listen to every word and then applaud at great lengths to show their heartfelt appreciation for the imparted pearls of wisdom.

Forget about those rabble-rousers and counter-revolutionary thugs in 1989, this is what a real Tiananmen demonstration should look like!

Those university kids were such amateurs!

(I'm ad-libbing a bit here)

The party gets all the credit for everything.

Incredibly enough, it rarely makes mistakes which is perhaps why it is not good at apologizing.

But, oh, how the people sing praise of the party.
And dance. Those minorities can really move. And the CCTV producers makes sure they move on cue.

If you want to find the intellectual roots of rejuvenation, Xi's many books are the place to start. A singularly profound thinker, he has started a new era.

China's cities hear the call and build themselves up to present day heights.

Minorities dress up in full costume to work happily in the fields. Residents write words of thanks to the party on the side of their homes.

The red billboard: "Targeted poverty elimination makes for a grateful nation."

More coming up...

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(con't) A thread on the CCTV Xinwen Lianbo news of November 28, 2022

The news reviews the remarkable accomplishments of a remarkable man.

Xi is definitely one of the better Mao impersonators.

A victory lap for the "victorious" 20th party congress

pssst! Anyone see Hu Jintao?

Both the moon and the earth are beneficiaries of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the new era in keeping with the spirit of the victorious 20th congress and the Chinese dream.

Chongqing has tall buildings with a river view, even mountains yield to the ineffable "red" spirit, and of course there are rainbows all over China.

What more could a restive population ask for?

The party truly loves nature.
Thus it dedicates productive cropland to scribble out Xi quotes and slogans such as "China Dream"

People in all walks of life are supporters of the government.

captcha question:
Which picture does not contain the color red?

It looks like the heroic white suits are here to stay

But you can always watch reruns of the victorious and successful winter games at which Vladimir Putin made a special guest appearance.

In the "new era" everyone is happy all the time.

(Except perhaps for the woman who forgot to pose on bottom left.)

Delivery drivers love their work because it allows them to be of service and study in their free time.
Construction workers reach new heights...

But CCTV keeps swerving back to the amazing Winter Games that proved to the world that China had arrived.

And thus concludes the middle section of the 11.28 news with its modest, illustrated invocation of China's greatness.

(thread) The last ten minutes of the news has various domestic and international stories...

China's space program is impressive, but what if science takes back seat to politics?

The astronauts speak:
"I'd go back into space again for the motherland"
"Struggling for the dream"

"There's no higher happiness than to be on call to serve the motherland..."

Covid-19 on the rise, scare stories coming up...

-Best listen to the government.
-Continue to uphold effective and scientific prevention

-Friendly neighborhood policeman is there to help you.
-China will continue its scientifically precise approach.
-The virus is our common enemy

"The government and people are as tightly linked and united as one strong rope"

People in hazmat suits will continue to handle food (is this a scientific necessity?) and distribute food in dangerous areas.

Your friendly neighborhood food depot.

The next segment, from Harbin, looks a bit like the zillions of phone photos circulating on line but it's a pro-government story about uncompromising prevention combined with serving the urgent needs of the masses.

Scenes of Guangzhou show so little traffic that it appears to be under strict lockdown, but the story is upbeat, about how the government is helping to keep things moving.

Slightly scary stories about rising numbers combined with a list of affected provinces.

The list has an almost a one to one correlation with provinces where protests broke out.

Repeat of snow pictures from yesterday's news.

And news from elsewhere, namely Russia.
Interestingly, the Russian reports on Ukraine are not in international news, but a category of its own.

Russia pounds (with consummate precision) legitimate military targets in Kherson.

(Western studies show only 3% of Russia's strikes hit military targets, but I digress)

Why quibble about precision when it's obvious that the US and NATO are to blame for everything?
(China's line is that it is "fanning the flames" for selfish benefit)

Bad things happen in bad countries.
...US Covid woes have no end in sight...

The news concludes on a curiously upbeat note.

Iran, which, like China, has no social problems and where everything is just fine, has put in a bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

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