CCTV FOLLIES 3.14 PI(E) IN THE SKY
Sky's the limit for Xi's new quality productive forces -Experts support Xi! -China blossoms under wise reforms -Putin threats edited -Germans neutral about rapacious war of invasion -Boeing is bad.
“First put forward by Xi Jinping in 2023 the term "new quality productive forces" refers to advanced productivity freed from the traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths and features high-tech, high efficiency and high quality and comes in line with the new development philosophy.” (China Daily explainer)
CCTV illustrates Xi’s freshly coined, exhilirating new buzzword with familiar footage of container shipping, humanoid robots, sterile labs, and steel being forged.
Oh, what a wonder is Xi’s China! Now more than ever in this new quality era.
Modest and retiring by nature, having spent part of his youth in a cave, Xi practically has to be coaxed to appear on camera, not to assuage his own ego, but to address his fan base (arguably the world’s biggest) CCTV viewers can’t get enough of Xi celebrity shots.
On camera-shy days like today, the producers draw on their deep archives of Xi memorabilia to illustrate the news, because a day with Xi is like a day without sunshine.
Who’s responsible for making China great again? Look no further than the top story of CCTV evening news which is always about him, even if it isn’t news.
It takes a high-quality leader to raise a high-quality country.
From a rustic cave in rural Shaanxi to the regal enclave of Zhongnanhai, Xi is the bloodline and life force behind China’s modernization, the secret sauce of its science, and perhaps the greatest reformer in 5000 years of Chinese history.
Xinhua has just dropped a mind-boggling 6000-word essay called Profile: Xi Jinping the reformer. It’s too long to reproduce here but you can read it in the link, make sure to find a comfortable place to sit and have a strong cup of something on hand as it’s a long one. Interestingly, Deng gets some credit, but the gist of it is that he had a much easier time of it because things were so much more backward then. As you’ll soon appreicate, Xi has had a hand in almost everything. He’s China’s answer to Forrest Gump (except perhaps in ping pong) and the special effects are comparable.
Suffice to say, this is how it opens…
“Chinese leader Xi Jinping has sounded the clarion call…”
The clarion call has been heard. Not the reform clarion call, but the clarion call for new quality productive forces.
China logistics map.
Graceful birds soar loftily over a rugged, massive dam.
China’s high-quality exports are lined up and waiting to be shipped around the world.
“One needs to fully grasp Xi Jinping’s New Era Chinese-style Socialist Thought…”
In other news, new books published by the CCP! What really makes this television promo news is that the books aren’t BY Xin Jinping, they are ABOUT his vision of governance. Premier Li Qiang’s recent work report to the rubber stamp congress results in a book with Li’s name on the cover!
Editor’s note: Li is a puppet and master ventriloquist for the one he serves, and you can be sure it was carefully edited by Xi and Xi’s team.
A New Era spring springs eternal in the eternal motherland..
Dammed if you want it and dammed if you don’t.
Lanzhou to get a gigantic new airport and China is building smart ports.
Smart ports mean smart customs
China is very concerned about maritime traffic safety. They really care.
(which is why they bully and repel random foreign boats in international waters)
The University of Chicago, among the first to kick out its Confucius Institute, gets China-educated about the Two Sessions and other exciting topics by diplomats participating in the “China in the spring” global media dialogue.
Israel bombs Gaza (IDF footage)
Palestine militant-sourced footage of fight against Israel.
IDF aerial footage from South Lebanon of a car said to be carrying an important Hamas leader as it is struck with a bomb.
The Kremlin update on Ukraine is accompanied by the usual border-free map in which Russia bleeds into Ukraine. (Belgorod, Russia labeled below)
Russia claims downing two Ukraine copters
Ukraine claims drone strike inside Russia
Russia Defense Ministry footage.
Russian footage always dominates CCTV’s Ukraine “crisis” report, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish it from the undistinguished footage of Ukraine fighting back. The derring-do of hot dog Russian pilots fighting the air war and the shots of missiles being launched by sea are replaced grunts on the ground.
Ukraine fights back.
There’s a broken window in Belgorod and it’s trying the patience of one of Xi’s best friends. In fact, it’s the kind of provocation that gets him worked up into a lather until he has to grant an interview in which new threats are made on top of old ones.
CCTV says Putin says “no amount of outside support for Ukraine in weapons and personnel is going to change the situation on the battlefield.”
CCTV says nothing about the nuclear threats Putin made in the same interview.
Germans for neutrality show their protest signs to the CCTV camera crew. The state-run broadcaster also snags a valuable on-the-spot interview. Although the demonstrations are always peaceful, and almost always small, and are carefully cherry-picked to support the party line, it’s good practice for CCTV crews who would be beat up and rough-handled if they tried the same thing in China.*
*China Daily, to its credit as a national newspaper, today complained about the bad treatment of Chinese journalists in China this week.
China Daily dances and sings the party line, of course, but it has just enough of a fig-leaf of journalistic credibility left, though the fig-leaf is getting smaller, to publish something like the complaint above. It’s not 100% naked propaganda yet.
And CCTV, while hardly a paragon of journalistic credibility, uses the tools of journalism quite effectively at times when it echoes concerns of concern to China.
China is dependent on world trade and very concerned about keeping the sea lanes open, even if the Houthis grant Chinese ships a free pass.
CCTV goes straight to Centcom for its Red Sea Updates.
Images from Haiti tap another Chinese fear, that of a nation descending into chaos.
The UN to evacuate non-essential personnel from Haiti.
But perhaps CCTV’s best use of credible journalism is echoing credible complaints made by the US media addressing grievous US problem areas that align with China’s worldview.