It is not news that even Chinese netizens mock China Central Television’s (CCTV) annual Spring Festival Gala, calling the performances corny and full of lies; nothing but “psychological opium.” However, the Potemkin village-nature of the gala is probably also true of another CCTV program: the news.
On Sunday, the China Times reported that according to CCTV, a Taiwanese family living in Mexico had to turn to the Chinese embassy after they failed to receive help from Taiwanese officials after a family member was killed on Jan. 9, saying that the Chinese ambassador went to great lengths to offer assistance.
The state-run CCTV posted the news clip on Facebook — a platform blocked in China — on Friday last week, which was Lunar New Year’s Eve, when families traditionally gather.
It was probably no coincidence that the clip was posted on that day — although China said that delays were caused by Mexico’s handling of events — with Taiwanese in the video saying: “One can see from this incident that both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] naturally belong together,” while a Chinese official in Mexico said that all Chinese “belong to the same family.”
The Representative Office Of Taiwan in Mexico City promptly denied the family’s claim that it had nothing to offer in terms of help, stressing that Taipei officials had maintained close contact with Mexican authorities.
It would not be a wild guess to suspect that China, with its diplomatic strength, could exert greater influence. The family cannot be blamed for turning to the most effective way to get help.
While some commented on the video, echoing the Chinese mantra of two sides of the Strait being one family and castigating the government for trying to move away from Beijing — with the pro-Beijing China Times kind enough to allow comments — for those with a better sense of judgement, Beijing’s swift aid was not only a “united front” tactic, but a “perk” that ironically would only apply to Taiwanese and not Chinese.
Imagine a Chinese no-name businessman in a foreign country — out of probably tens of thousands — being killed and his family contacting the Chinese embassy. Action might be taken, but it is difficult to imagine the same swiftness, effort and publicity that the Taiwanese family enjoyed without some special connections.
After all, the Chinese government is more keen to kidnap than save its citizens in foreign lands. It “took” those it deemed a danger to the regime from Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Hong Kong — the Causeway Bay Books disappearances in 2015 and last year are examples, with the latest being the “abduction” — despite his denial — of Xiao Jianhua (肖建華), one of China’s richest men, from Hong Kong, reportedly as part of Beijing’s anti-graft campaign.
Chinese netizens might share the Chinese government’s extravagant “anti-separatism” sentiment, but they are also well aware of the gala’s political agenda.
This year’s event included a figure who CCTV called part of the “old red guard” from the time of the Cultural Revolution, but netizens said he would have been six years old at the time.
“Is it not possible [for the CCTV] to stop faking for just one day out of 365, not even on Lunar New Year’s Eve?” a netizen wrote.
Although the report might not have been a wholesale lie, it was probably just a twisting of the facts by CCTV in the same way it retouches news with political comments and ideological chants.
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