CCTV FOLLIES 2.8 OF BANQUETS AND BOMBS

Air time today is divided between a big banquet in Beijing and a big bomb in Baghdad -Xi presides over peers -Fervent fans and Xi fanatics clap hard -US drone strike in Iraq is the only foreign news.

“Xi extends Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese urging efforts to write new chapter in the book of advancing Chinese modernization”

“Xi Jinping, on behalf of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese Thursday at a reception in Beijing. Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered a speech at the gathering at the Great Hall of the People, greeting Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese. The outgoing Year of the Rabbit marked the beginning of the full implementation of the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress on all fronts, Xi said, noting that the country faced an exceptionally complicated international environment and arduous tasks of reform, development, and maintaining stability.”

"We pooled strength from Chinese modernization, kept in mind both domestic and i…