Phil Cunningham Profile picture
Dec 6 23 tweets 17 min read
CCTV FOLLIES 12.06 Great Hall Memorial
-Xi dominates dull proceedings with half-hour rote speech read in slow motion.
-Delegates can be seen looking at watches
-Russia shooting rockets at Ukraine
-Ukraine strikes Russian airfield
-Volcanoes around the world
The morning news cycle was thrown off by the live event from the Great Hall, so the news program that follows is disorganized and slapdash but rather interesting.
But first you have to endure the Kremlin Follies brought to you by Igor Konashenkov in Moscow...
lots of missiles in the skies of Ukraine, firing repeatedly
different missiles, different angles
What are the targets?
How many human lives are destroyed by this futile "show of strength"?
Ukraine fights back.
Something new today. It's file footage, but it's rare to see any footage from Ukraine other than the most desultory kind. Someone at CCTV wants to show that Ukraine actually has jets and an air force.
And perhaps there's some weird connection about possible escalation being made because Ukraine drones struck deep into Russian territory

CCTV's biggest objection seems to be the satellite footage--Ukraine got it from American company Maxar. And CCTV shows some of that footage.
Obligatory scenes of Russian prowess after admission their airfield was hit by a drone. Russia fights back!
Bang, bang, bang!
And some obligatory Russian truculence from FM Sergei Lavrov:
-It's all the fault of NATO, they made us do it!
-We will never let Ukraine take control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant! Never!
-NATO is so arrogant that they wouldn't listen to the proposal of our President Putin!
CCTV enables Lavrov's frothing visions by running stock footage of NATO troops training.

A less-than-alert viewer might well conclude that the unmentionable war was started by this apparent NATO offensive.
In keeping with the theme of Russia, Dmitry Peskov comments on Western price cap on Russian oil, saying that sanctions only hurt Europe and Russia will not abide by any of these US-led moves.
India is going its own way, too.
Russia still sells a great deal of energy to Europe, as the Indians correctly point out, with oil shipped by sea and gas going in by pipeline.
The next story is catnip for the American-mockers at CCTV

A power substation in North Carolina gets shot up and leaves thousands of Americans without power

The typical American interviewed below "has neither a place to burn things or a stove or firewood."
How's she gonna cook?
And then, after an out-of-order sequence of domestic stories (Covid now not as bad as before. Beijing policies were correct then, and they're correct now) and then an unexpected twist:

Ten minutes of volcanoes!

We start in Hawaii...
then go to Sicily and then on to Chile
People watching the volcano erupt.
and then there's Indonesia, and the volcano, the highest in Java, is no joke. Villagers evacuate.
Then there's an earthquake in Mexico, a mud slide in Columbia and a drought in the Andes...

"We have no water. It is too dry!"

and that's the news of the world on December 6, 2022!

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More from @jinpeili

Dec 7
CCTV FOLLIES 12.07 A day of meetings
-Spirit of 20th congress spreads like a prairie fire
-All parties, ethnic groups, youth, seniors heed the call
-Next year is year of the "20th spirit"
-Russia still blowing things up in Ukraine
-US humiliated by power blackout in N. Carolina Image
The first eight minutes of the news is unbearably boring, just a long readout, but it's got Xi's thumbprint in every inch of it, so there's that.
In short, implementation of "spirit of 20th." ImageImageImageImage
Meeting in Zhongnanhai shows where these exceedingly bureaucratic ideas originate. Image
Read 28 tweets
Dec 5
The Shenzhou 14 crew flies back to Beijing after a successful mission but needs ground assist to get out of plane since they've been in zero-gravity for half a year. ImageImageImage
China's space program is on a roll. A new crew, ferried to the Tiangong space station by the Shenzhou 15 capsule atop a Long March rocket, is now in space. ImageImage
Read 10 tweets
Dec 5
CCTV FOLLIES 12.05 Hu shows up?

The news today is three-fold: Jiang's funeral, Shenzhou astronauts return and usual Russian bombing footage in Ukraine.
-Hu Jintao makes a low key appearance to pay respects to his predecessor Jiang Zemin.
Hu stands between Xi Jinping and Li Zhanshu, bringing to mind the seating chart on the dais of the 20th party congress from which Hu was ejected.
Everyone's following a script here, so it's hard to say what's really happening, but it's news enough just to see Hu in attendance.
Hu Jintao pauses to show respect as he passes the open-coffin of Jiang Zemin
Read 9 tweets
Dec 4
CCTV FOLLIES 12.04 Xi: Constitution is me
-Jiang accolades keep coming in:
-All ethnic groups in Tibet loved Jiang
-Jiang was a precursor to Xi Jinping (Hu, not so much)
-Constitution is the authority and will of the Party
-Russian rockets flare
-Pasta pricey in Italy Image
Tibet party branch secretary on the passing of Comrade Jiang Zemin...
"We are deeply saddened because we really have deep memories of him." ImageImageImageImage
"Jiang exerted great effort to build a new, modern socialist Tibet"
"We must turn our grief into power to unite and struggle"
(last line sounds like a Xi soundbite) ImageImageImage
Read 19 tweets
Dec 3
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 Image
Chinese remember Jiang at home...
Foreign leaders phone it in.
(foreigners not invited to funeral ceremonies) ImageImageImageImage
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. ImageImageImageImage
Read 26 tweets
Dec 1
CCTV FOLLIES 12.01 Mourning and museums

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 ImageImageImageImage
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. ImageImageImageImage
The Nightly News recounts the drama of Jiang Zemin's body being flown into Beijing. ImageImageImageImage
Read 21 tweets

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