CCTV FOLLIES 8.15 China running on autopilot?

Still no sign of Xi -It's National Ecology Day! -Flood story drowned out by pretty landscapes -Ding Xuexiang, the only Xi aide to show his face lately, steps up -Rampant US neglect in Hawaii

Ding Xuexiang is the highest ranking member of the Politburo to have shown his face since the floods. Cai Qi was seen at Beidaihe a week or so ago. No sign of Xi, though the top story about National Ecology Day includes some old file footage of China’s number one green thumb supremo.

For more on Xi's fade from the airwaves, see this

Ding Xuexiang, Xi’s former chief-of-staff and trusted insider presides over the ecology meeting in Hangzhou. The televised scenes are more relaxed than the usual top stories featuring Xi. No only is it not obligatory to take notes or applaud endlessly, but the body language of the audience is more informal and laid-back.

The old footage below of Xi-in-nature brings to mind the film “Being There” in which Peter Sellers plays a humble gardener whose pithy pronouncements gets him mistaken for a brilliant, profound leader.

Being there, and unbeing there.