CCTV FOLLIES 10.21 CHINA GAZES AT GAZA

I am tracking CCTV’s coverage of the turmoil in the Mideast on a daily basis to better understand Beijjing’s foreign policy thinking and to see how it evolves or doesn’t. Xinwen Lianbo, the orthodox voice of state-run news has no choice but to reflect official thinking in its foreign reports, Xi’s thinking in particular, as channeled by Wang Yi. This news is not about China, but it is valuable to assess the view from Beijing. even though the story doesn’t involve China directly. (yet)

For example, looking at CCTV reports since February 24, 2022, there is an abundance of evidence that China completely favors Russia at the expense of Ukraine, and to date, still won’t criticize Russia’s invasion and the horrific massacres that followed.

Ever since the October 7 Hamas attack and massacres that followed, I have made a point of taking screenshots of each and every CCTV video clip used to assemble the news. It might be noted that Beijing gave scant coverage to the Hamas attack and has edited all the massacres and ghastly actions out of the news. A pro-Palestine slant is expected, given Beijing’s ongoing diplomatic offensive to cast itself as friend, if not savior of Palestine, the Arab world, the Mideast, and the Global South in general. This rather arrogant stance is buttressed by support from Putin’s Russia and Khamenei’s Iran.

All this probably represents too heavy an emphasis on foreign news events for most regular readers of the Follies, so I will be putting most of it behind a paywall and mailing updates only to those who take a special interest in this.

In the case of a big story or breaking news, I will present news developments outside the paywall, in keeping with my free-to-the-public news summaries.

CCTV has committed serious journalistic resources to the Mideast, including Israel. In today’s news, star overseas reporter Chen Huihui does the kind of thing US network personalities do all the time, though it is of dubious news value. She puts on a helmet and flak jacket within the safe confines of a highway in a safe part of Israel and poses until the camera gets a picture of her on the scene with tanks rolling by in the background.

The focus in today’s news is on Gaza, as before. This concern manifests itself in three ways, with scenes of Israel blasts in Gaza and scenes of heavily armed Israelis maneuvering inside Israeli border. The third staple of CCTV coverage is bombed out buildings and rubble left in the wake Israel’s militay actions.

CCTV airs a clips of a video produced by the al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas which show the release of Judith Raanan and her daughter (not shown) both of whom were abducted by Hamas during the attack on Israel.

CCTV shows Hamas fires rockets at Israel and Israel shooting them down, lighting up the sky.

CCTV reporters covering Gaza work freely in Israel, capturing distant pictures of bombs over Gaza, border fencing and militarily strategic pictures of Israeli tanks on the move. It’s hard to imagine China permitting foreign reporters to film its tanks and military movements in peacetime, let alone war.

Chen Huihui is reporting without apparent hindrance in Israel and she proudly wears a jacket labelled PRESS, which would probably get her in trouble in her own country.