CCTV FOLLIES 10.19 A NEW WORLD ORDER!

There's a specter haunting the world and it reeks of fascism -Putin joins Xi to herald roll out of a new world odor -War is peace -Lies are true -Might makes right -Gangsters rule -Cash in or cash out

There's a specter haunting the world and it reeks of fascism. The sight of Putin and Xi bursting through the magnificent golden doors to enter the Golden Hall in Beijing was perhaps the most symbolic and politically freighted image of the entire Belt and Road forum this week. The lavish jubilee of hierarchical self-regard and dictatorial optics was used as a gala backdrop to release a new authoritarian line:

A new world order, with a distinct anti-democratic odor, has just been rolled out in Beijing. The narcissistic Xi humors Putin’s not inconsiderable ego as they enter the Golden Hall simultaneously, almost as equals. The rest of the leaders present, representing Europe, South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Mideast line up obediently behind them, ready and eager to follow in their footsteps on the red carpet.

It’s a Xi-led, Putin-enabled new world order, a shameless parade in which strongmen dominate and conspire to quash the remnants of civil society, everyday decency and human rights in their woebegone realms.

High ritual, preening displays of raw power and quasi-feudal, quasi-fascist ceremonial rites are deployed to signal control, backed by security forces which act as the whips and reins of the new Reich.

The “Golden Hall” and the choreography that took place within appear to draw inspiration from the grandiose set of Charlie Chaplin’s legendary anti-Hitler rant, “The Great Dictator”

Lesser leaders, many of them major egoists in their own right, have no choice but to sit at length and bide their time and patiently listen as big boss Xi steals the show.

There’s only one super VIP, surnamed Xi, but there are subsidiary VIPs as well, none more cold-blooded, cloying and sycophantic (when he has to be) than Vladimir Putin.

The rest of the delegates, relegated to the back benches, often looked bored, even in the official state footage, which is the only footage to speak of, at least until the speeches were over and the entertainment began.

But don’t let the charm of Chinese music, the exquisite pageantry and colorful dancers distract from the essence of this jamboree so full of faux jubilation.

It’s a summit of authoritarian minds demanding and commanding the respect and attention of not just those parties present in the Golden Hall but the entire world.

The authoritarian leaders of China and Russia definitively signal to fellow citizens of planet Earth that they have broken the back of Pax Americana and they are well on their way to humiliating and belittling, if not burying, the West.

They spout the pieties of a multipolar order in which China is the center ring of the big top circus and Xi Jinping Thought is the central ideological tent pole, but it’s a big tent and the Russian clown show is not to be missed.

The entire Belt and Road scheme, as banal and underwhelming though it is despite the grandiose self-regard, and as hare-brained though it might be in terms of boondoggle economics and debt-trap diplomacy, is another brick in the facade of Xi’s self-vision as a leader for all mankind. The whole kit and caboodle of the Belt and Xi’s other global initiatives have been hijacked in service of an odious, but growing global personality cult.

Support for Xi Jinping, his visionary Belt and Road scheme and his Sinocentric dreams of a shared future for humanity can be found not just in every corner of the conference hall, but in voices hailing from every corner of the world, from Pakistan to Serbia, from CEOs to energy czars, from Egypt to Algeria.

Watching CCTV is enough to make one think that Xi adulation has reached a fever pitch and is spreading fast around the globe reaching new heights of obsequious ubiquity.

Hong Kong, whatever it is, is a perfect buckle on this Belt, an ideal bump in this Road, because it is politically integrated with China but economically linked to the world.

Any leader short-sighted enough to sign on to the trickle-down boondoggle is due to learn more about the one way flow of power from high to low, as power does and must inexorably flow, from Xi’s book-lined ersatz study in his Zhongnanhai command post to the ponderous bureaucracy of Beijing and from there to all of China as a whole, and from China as a whole to the whole world.

The feudal, imperial mindset of the Celestial Central Kingdom, pitted at the center of it all, centered around the folksy, under-educated, self-proclaimed rusticated successor to both Confucius and Marx, namely Xi Jinping, epitomizes the toxic essence Beijing’s current ambitions, now unveiled and on display for all the world to see.

Were it not for a few stubborn stalwarts and standouts such as the US, UK, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Canada—all of which come in for daily drubbings and abuse on Chinese state TV for their non-compliance, you might get the impression the entire planet has eagerly signed up for the scheme.

But pockets of resistance linger. Italy is begging to decouple, with Giorgia Meloni pleading to be let off the dubious fast train as it races heedlessly down Xi’s Belt and Road network to nowhere. Other nations showing a degree of resistance to the global entrapment scheme led by Xi, with Putin as his deputy, include France, Germany, New Zealand, Czechia and Poland. And of course, Ukraine.

But Xi has done a creditable job of rallying the troops of a massive anti-Western coalition, assembling prominent delegates from over 150 nations in Beijing. These countries have already bought into the Belt and Road, for better or worse, and many of them owe China big-time, so it’s all-but-obligatory to attend Xi’s sordid narcissistic love-fest that is centered around showcasing his own faux humble visionary brilliance.

All comers have no choice but to politely listen to the paramount leader’s interminable and often turgid speeches, and even after that’s over, each and every step follows predetermined paths which makes each individual leader in attendance a bit player in a much larger, carefully choreographed ceremonial drama exalting Xi.

CCTV’s coverage starts and ends with Xi, as to be expected of a news service that Xi alone has consummate control of, but even people attending in the flesh have to bend to the predetermined script and respond to cues for action.

The forum was crafted in a way not only to keep the focus on the incomparable Xi, but to introduce other world leaders in descending order of perceived rank and usefulness according to Beijing’s narrow and jaundiced view. Seating arrangements reflected status as did the one-on-one ceremonial meetings that involved all seven members of the politburo because there were so many foreigners on hand to grant meetings to. A few of the big fish merited an audience in the big room with Xi, with all the Great Hall trappings that come with it, while smaller fish were content with smaller rooms and at guesthouses such as Diaoyutai. Foreign leaders got news coverage in rank order, Putin being the co-star of the show, and in descending order from that admittedly low bar.

Xi’s top capos on the scene, presented strictly in descending order of rank, included Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. They tag-teamed to meet with various medium ranked leaders.

Xi met with Alberto Fernández, whose debt-stricken homeland Argentina is giving China a useful new ally and an ideological perch in Latin America.

Srettha Thasivin, the neophyte leader of Thailand, got a handshake from Xi, a photo op with Li Qiang, and a sit down with Han Zheng. If it’s any consolation to the proud people of Thailand (and it may not be) their eager-to-please Prime Minister was also all smiles with Vladimir Putin who was anxious to meet as many leaders as possible in a forum where he is at no risk of being nabbed according to the outstanding warrant for his arrest as a war criminal.

Denis Sassou, the President of the Congo, got to meet Xi, but was then pawned off on the relatively low-ranked Han Zheng. (Han Zheng also met the inconsequential Tony Blair earlier in the week)

Putin and Xi are two peas in an authoritarian pod, two long-standing strongmen who have amassed a great deal of personal power at the expense of others and who thus find themselves compelled to cling to power till they drop, because that’s the way it works with dictators.

Their domestic enemies are legion, so their over-the-top paranoia is not without its basis in reality. To reach the top and stay on top in so hierarchical and undemocratic a system means they must continue to step on and squish rivals for power, including competent officials (some of whom have already been disappeared) who were brave enough or careless enough to disagree and then perceived as being in the way.

To put it more simply, they are dictators and it is the paradigm of dictatorship that they are embellishing and selling to the world. No wonder the Viktor Orbans of the “West” finds Xi’s “Eastern” model so attractive, no wonder the quasi-authoritarian states of Southeast Asia where dictators thrive and democracy flounders are signing up for team China. Whatever other team could Burma ever aspire too? Ditto for North Korea, though it’s playing friendly henchman number two off neighboring henchman number one. No wonder Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and even beleaguered Palestine line up and bow to Xi in exchange for Beijing having their back.

It’s not that the leaders of smaller authoritarian states are less ruthless, some of them are ruthlessness personified. But in the global pecking order of strongmen, some strongmen are stronger than others.

Xi Jinping is capo dei capi. He bows to no one. Tough characters in their own right, despots in their own realms, still, the other strongmen need to make a mild genuflection, if not kowtow to him. They, in turn are kowtowed to by their flustered subordinates and their subordinates are kowtowed to by their subordinates and its turtles all the way down.

When Xi speaks, it’s not only not optional not to listen, but it’s strongly frowned upon not to take notes.

Gangster rule with a silky veneer is what it is. It’s a heartless dynamic made familiar in films such \the Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface and The Departed. These films wouldn’t be such big hits were it not for the fact of the matter that there’s something compelling about the amorality play of might triumphing over right, of two wrongs making a right.

It’s neither democratic nor decent, but it’s hard to deny; there’s a charming horror inherent to strongman rule.

But what about the ladies?

Mobsters and molls enjoy their power in different ways. Even in most sordid mafia tales, mafia wives get put on a pedestal, but that’s not to say they’re equal.

China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan plays her part with great panache. She’s attractive and talented and a mentor to the wives of other strongmen as can be seen in the section of the news dedicated to activities appropriate to women and congruent to their interests. There’s embroidery and sewing, for starters, and expensive jewelry to ogle over. First ladies just love children, so it’s only natural they should take joy in seeing obedient kids dressed up in minority costumes performing exotic dances. As the sign at the end of the segment on First Ladies proclaims, Xi’s personally devised Belt and Road scheme is “the Jubilation of the World!”

The chefs behind the scenes at the Belt and Road Banquet in Beijing are cooking up a storm, whipping up all manner of delights. Already the Golden Hall reeks from the odor of the strongmen assembled, with more than a hint of Xi, a pervasive scent with Chinese characteristics. Bon appetit!