Gloomy mourning rites for Jiang Zemin (10 minutes)
-Things brighten up at a CCP museum exhibit personally inspired by Xi Jinping
(It's like the Wizard of Oz going from B&W to color.)
-Russian update on Ukraine
-US stealing oil
The camera starts with Xi and his wife and then turns its hierarchy-sensitive gaze to the rest of the masked politburo. What? Xi wearing a mask? Outside in the fresh air?
Symbolism.
He's at one with the mourning elite today.
The Nightly News recounts the drama of Jiang Zemin's body being flown into Beijing.
Xi is showing a degree of ritual respect here that was absent in his real life banishment and belittling of Jiang.
Peng Liyuan, fresh from Thailand, offers her hands in a "wai."
Jiang's bereaved wife responds in kind.
The Peng Liyuan greeting may become a meme in China
The open-view casket is carefully taken down the steps, Jiang Zemin's black glasses visible.
Xi makes an obligatory bow.
The casket is carried by goose-stepping soldiers.
Xi and his (as of late) ever-present partner Li Pengyuan do not appear to be present at the indoor ceremony.
CCTV gets some good shots of the "Jiang-mobile" cruising down the emptied out roads of Beijing
But wait, there's more. Here it is gliding down the traffic-cleared streets of Shanghai
Jiang is from the Shanghai area and was once its mayor, so at least some of the public show of respect is real.
Any questions about China's confusing Covid prevention policy?
CCTV has got you covered.
Sun Chunlan, China's Covid Czarina explains that China's correct policy is new, improved and has gotten even more precise and correct.
(Perhaps corrected by mass protest, but I digress)
And now its communist history time!
A daunting museum exhibit of the CCP's heroic and legendary exploits over the ages. It's just the kind of thing the Lao PM flew to China to see.
-Statues of revolutionary heroes
-Replica of the boat used for an early clandestine CCP meeting
PM Thongloun is suitably impressed, not just at the amazing boat but at the One World One Dream clothing on display.
It's a modern museum with fancy graphic displays.
The visiting PM is even allowed to test-drive a model.
Shenzhou 15 successfully docks with space station. This animation shows the craft above the Indonesian archipelago.
"Nipping scams in the bud, building a better legal firewall"
CCTV shows the work in progress on a new gas pipeline
(In anticipation of cheap Russian supply?)
The US, meanwhile, is facing a public health disaster.
Over one million Covid dead and now long Covid looms.
And it's over to Igor Konashenkov at the Russia Defense Ministry, his excited narration of Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine drowned out in Chinese translation.
Bang, bang, bang!
Russia keeps pounding away.
(don't call it a war)
Invasion? What invasion?
CCTV's shamelessly uninformative borderless map of Ukraine gets an upgrade by deftly combining it with combat footage for an interesting fade effect.
Unfair US sanctions on Russia cause inflation and energy woes across Europe.
It's so unfair!
And finally, in closing, "the US illegal troops in Syria are stealing Syrian oil and transporting it away, again."
Again.
CCTV FOLLIES 12.03 Gold and silver in the hills...
News mostly fresh out of the can, but some of the images are pretty.
-Nation mourns, Foreigners send condolences
-China is beautiful. It's an environmental wonderland
-Russia pipeline penetrates Yangtze
-Russia makes war
Chinese remember Jiang at home...
Foreign leaders phone it in.
(foreigners not invited to funeral ceremonies)
The authoritative flagship news program devotes the middle section entirely to pretty pictures.
Airing canned news gives a break to tired staffers overworked from covering, and covering up, the news of recent days.
CCTV FOLLIES 12.02 Jiang Zemin: burying with praise
The first minute of Xinwen Lianbo is promising as it's got some facts about Jiang's childhood and pretty stock pictures. As he gets older, the narration gets more turgid and laden with his increasingly lengthy titles.
He went to high school in Yangzhou and studied at Jiaotong University in Shanghai. He opposed the Japanese invasion and welcomed the CCP liberation of Shanghai. In the 1980's he promoted science and traveled.
The enunciation of slogans soon replaces any meaningful comment about the man's life
The whole "great glorious tribute" seems a power play to bury his memory.
Rote words replace story and it goes on and on
One gets the sinking feeling it will last exactly one hour, and it does
"Jiang was a great Marxist...an outstanding leader of our great cause...an incalculable loss"
"In accordance with China's practice, foreign governments, political parties and friendly personages will not be invited."
Xi Jinping (top of the list, large print) heads the honorary funeral committee. This section includes hundreds of names and goes on for a mind-numbing five minutes.
Fun fact: Hu Jintao ranks 36th in the titular hierarchy.
Sometimes CCTV wows its viewers with spectacular images.
Dark attire is first indication that something happened.
It did.
Jiang Zemin is dead.
CCTV can make the protests go away with a magic wand, they can make Jiang's successor and Xi's predecessor disappear from the stage in real time,
but how long can they deny this story? Perhaps a short delay in the announcement of Jiang's passing to conjure up a narrative favorable to Xi, but they can't hide it for long.
Here he is. A man who helped Xi in his unexpected rise but got no gratitude. Banished like a Buddha on a shelf.
-Ten year's of success under Xi
-No corner of China untouched by the Xi "touch"
-Covid prevention now even more correct than before
-Xi congratulates Russia-China on energy ties
-Putin does too
-Russia bombs Ukrainian tanks
Another big news day at CCTV, which starts out with an 8-minute segment of scenic canned footage. Some of the footage is stunning, but it's all in service to the party line.
CCTV takes us to a far-away, but not forgotten corner of China where the roads are narrow and winding.
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.