ESSAY: America in the eyes of Chinese TV
Train wrecks, gun violence, rampant homelessness, industrial accidents, racial tensions and never-ending reports of economic gloom confirm the US is in decline. As for foreign policy....
US-China relations are frosty. There are sometimes signs of a thaw, cracks in the ice here and there, though it’s far from being a full-blown spring. Watching CCTV’s evening news over the past year or two, it is the rare day when the US isn’t subject to an editorial browbeating for its arrogant hegemony, nefarious supply of weapons to Ukraine, blatantly fanning the flames of war and the economic havoc wrought by unfair sanctions against Russia and other countries.
The US media is more diverse in its voices, but many of the voices are likewise angry. One need go no further than Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton’s cringe-worthy televised grilling of Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of Tiktok, during a political hearing in Washington, DC.
“Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?”
“Senator, I’m Singaporean,” replied Chew.
“Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?”
Despite Tom Cotton’s overbearing attitude, and a line of interrogation worthy of Joseph McCarthy, Chew did not really answer the question. CCP influence works in strange and stealthy ways, and Singapore is no exception. However, it would not surprise Cotton that CCTV’s anti-American voices line up behind the party line; at state TV there is no other line.
Take for example, CCTV’s month-long campaign railing against the White House for its alleged involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline bombing, as reported by American reporter Seymour Hersh last year, or regular Russian-sourced stories about secretive US biolabs in Ukraine, or CCTV’s penchant for quoting various African experts who echo the line that US sanctions are causing a global economic decline, and you get a not-so-rosy picture of the US as a nefarious rival to rising China.
Despite the high percentage of propaganda-to-news on CCTV, sometimes straight up journalistic reporting suffices to do the hit job. One need only to tune into the seemingly daily carnage on America’s streets, sometimes even in its schools, from gun violence, to get a very negative impression of the country as a whole. CCTV graphics routinely illustrate the grueling statistics of US gun deaths and depressing re-runs of crime footage first aired on American networks are as effective as the best-crafted propaganda at knocking the US down a notch.
Add to that frequent industrial accidents, investigative specials into the US epidemic of homelessness, racial tensions and what seems to be a never-ending series of literal train wrecks and one could get the impression, in keeping with general editorial aims, that the US is truly in the throes of irreversible decline. And the beauty of it is that you don’t have to trust CCTV; America’s own news sources and commentary writers are saying so, too!
Add to that tales of extreme weather, rampant wildfires, and official neglect in face of the same—this was especially hyped up in the case of the Maui wildfires last August which served to distract from the devastating floods hitting China at the same time—and you have a negative mirror image of China, as portrayed on CCTV, where domestic news is almost always good news, where the party always serves the people and the rare disasters are met with a quick, comprehensive and effective CCP-led humanitarian response
As for political reporting, on most days, few American faces make the news, not even President Biden, even when he’s being talked about. A shot of the White House as seen through a black wrought-iron fence is a stand-in for the US presidency, just as the River Entrance of the Pentagon is a stand-in for the US military and the security barriers around the Capitol serve as a short-hand for a messy, troubled democracy.
Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco changed the tone of coverage, at least for a while. Instead of seeing homeless drifters on the streets of San Francisco, (Governor Gavin Newsom, freshly inspired from political posturing at a little summit of his own in China, had the streets forcefully cleaned) Viewers in China saw small, enthusiastic crowds waving red flags of welcome on clean streets. Only on American TV could the dissidents be glimpsed on the sidelines and maybe get a word or two in.
The Xi-Biden summit was reported in great detail on CCTV and President Biden was presented in courtly and respectful manner, though little things were cut out, such as when he put his arm around Xi in alpha male fashion, or when Xi’s limo overshot its mark and almost ran over the marine guard who stood at attention on the red carpet.
In the CCTV-curated footage of the gala reception for Xi at the Hyatt Hotel, the US didn’t look so much like a land in decline as a land of can-do businessmen anxious to do business with China at any price while absorbing the ineffable wisdom of honored guest speaker, his excellency Xi Jinping.
One area where one might expect the US to be portrayed in a wholly negative light is in reports on the Middle East, but it is not as clear-cut as that. CCTV has refused to condemn Hamas for its attack of 10/7, just as it refuses to condemn Russia for its 2/24 invasion of Ukraine, rendering China’s risible claims to neutrality a bad joke. But in regards to tensions in the Red Sea, China state TV relies on US military footage on most days, showing everything from ships dispatched to scenes of US bases in Iraq and elsewhere that have come under military attack.
US military footage, usually credited onscreen as such, is also a form of propaganda, but CCTV finds it useful to show kinetic scenes of conflict beyond the reach of CCTV’s cameras, such as the US shipboard launch of missiles aimed at the Houthi rebels in Yemen. What is perhaps more surprising is CCTV’s increasingly frequent use of press releases from US military sources, such as Centcom and other Pentagon outlets, to summarize the news story in question. This has become more noticeable as tensions have flared in the Red Sea, though China continues to lend media support to Iran.
It’s not that China is ready to believe everything the US government says, and China’s protests of neutrality in Ukraine and Gaza set the tone for what it’s worth, or isn’t worth, but there is a degree of overlap in concern about keeping the Red Sea open, for it serves as an essential water bridge between Asia and Europe.
China shipping has already been rerouted or setback by hostilities in the region despite the Houthis signaling a willingness to let Chinese ships pass and China’s willingness to take advantage of that to some extent. Almost any disruption of trade is bound to be a cause for anxiety in Beijing which sees exports as its lifeblood in a time of economic decline. Trade and shipping are among the few bright spots in China’s crumbling real estate-shackled economy, and an increased push of exports is key policy at this time of economic woes.
The Xinwen Lianbo news program on January 31 went so far as to show President Biden, dare I say it, looking presidential, in the company of a friendly entourage. The weighty topic of how the US would respond to the bombing of a US base on the tripartite border of Syria, Jordan and Iraq was discussed. The news quoted the White House as saying a decision had been made and posted English language statements on the screen. Subsequently coverage of the US revenge bombing was neither unduly critical or overblown, but reported without much comment.
China news providers under state control have their reasons to keep the US at bay editorially speaking, and CCTV gives Iran more air time than US strategists would like, but both the US and China recognize that disruption of trade and a downward spiral of violence in the Mideast is not a winning scenario for either side.
The broadcaster’s ritualistic browbeating of the US for its domestic faults, while not absent in recent weeks, has been greatly reduced since San Francisco, which underscores the lasting importance that in-person, collegial meetings between leaders can have. Meeting face-to-face, and trying not to make the other side lose face, are factors that may inadvertently lend credibility to a dictatorial strongman, but also help to reduce the heat, if not produce immediate results in areas of bilateral concern.
In late January, Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi met in Bangkok, and while Wang Yi performed his usual “if only you would agree with us we’d have no major differences” song and dance, and no big breakthroughs have been reported, there appears to have been some concrete progress made on stemming China sourcing of precursors fueling the US fentanyl epidemic.
No one’s expecting to see a switch from gloomy reports about the US to sunny, “no-limits” praise of the kind reserved for Vladimir Putin and Russian exceptionalism. Both the US and China have strategic reasons, and reasons of pride, not to give too much credit to the other side, or to bask in the glow of the other, but now and then one can get a glimpse of a ray of light slipping in.
Help support China News and the Follies with a subscription or a paperback book order.
Thanks for this great essay. "Questioner, I'm not a Chinese national" is definitively not enough to say someone's unaffiliated with the CCP or its aims. Qiaowu, anyone? Yuen Pau Woo? Mary Ng? Sam Dastyari?