CCTV FOLLIES 9.21 A NEW LEADER FOR CHINA?
-As for leaders pointing at things Li Qiang is the hands-down winner! -Wang Huning's charmless charm shines in Xinjiang! -Hangzhou games to host several dictators -UN in news but Zelensky is snubbed!
Xi Jinping gets a lot of air time and much of that time he can be seen pointing at things. Xi’s adept at signalling dominance and making authoritative hand gestures, but he’s no match for his number two, and the formidable (potential) leader-in-waiting, Li Qiang, who has the most expressive hands on the politburo.
Li Qiang rules the room with his quick, colorful and expressive hand gestures, even when he’s sitting down giving a dull, prepared speech.
When Li Qiang gets going, even if it’s just visiting some new high tech enterprises in Beijing, there’s no stopping him. With more hand gestures than can easily be counted, and he commands attention easily
Number three ranked leader Zhao Leji is a bit of a slouch when it comes to pointing at things. He tends to keep his arms limp at his side, sometimes even clasps his hands in the presence of subordinates, which is not an alpha male move, but it corresponds nicely to his ersatz role as the people’s representative.
But the legislative commandant couldn’t make it in the rough and tumble world of the politburo without a few boss moves of his own. Here in action, in Shandong.
Wang Huning, the number four man in China, lags way behind his peers when it comes to expressiveness. He lifts a nary a finger, let alone point or gesticulate. There are times he looks as limp as a puppet whose strings have been cut.
When he visits an exhibition, he doesn’t point at every item like Xi reflexively does—it’s as if no one can tell the paramount leader anything new because he knows it all already. No so for Wang, who’s a quiet listener. But the self-effacing, withdrawing Wang Huning is a man of words, an eminence grise, who wields the power of ideas.
Even a lovely, lively bout of colorfully dressed natives dancing to welcome Wang Hunong to Xinjiang doesn’t exactly get him snapping his fingers. But he warms up a bit when he visits a typical Xinjiang family in a typical home for a typical lunch.
The excessive coverage of the yet-to-open Hangzhou games finally explained! His eminence Xi will grace the stadium with his over-sized security entourage. Every sports meet is a replay of Munich 1936 for Xi, with CCTV expressing the will of the great leader in the tradition of Leni Riefenstahl.
The Hangzhou VIP RSVP list already includes Kuwait, Korea, Cambodia and Syria!
CCTV teases viewers with scenes taken from a rehearsal below. Lots of the usual impressive dramatic flair and special effects.
A virtual lesson from space. Earthlings wave red flags at the astronauts who teach them space tricks in return, like playing ping pong with spherical globules of water.
There were five UN stories in the news!
-China leads group of 80 nations in human rights effort
-Chile complains again about US intervention in 1973 coup
-Iran leader Raisi visits UN
-Zelensky speaks to UN
-China supports law of sea.
Guess which story got no coverage? Zelensky of course.
Iran’s Raisi gets two photos, Zelensky none.
Russian Defense News straight up from Moscow!
Ukraine fights back, sort of. The lackluster pictures CCTV selects to show Ukraine serves to suggest that they have no fight in them, which accords nicely with Beijing’s position. Why not just give in to Russia and achieve peace with Xi as peace-broker?
Ukraine-Poland agricultural spat is good news for China which is always looking for cracks in the facade of US-aligned Europe
Benjamin Franklin in the news again! Jacked up interest rates and US economic woes hurt US consumers.
Pain at the US gas pump? (note the Japanese writing and super-clean gas station)
Italy battles migrants!
(repeat footage—CCTV has taken a liking to this story)
17 American soldiers nabbed for dealing drugs in South Korea, and that’s it for today!
