'Time for the Chinese miracle': Beijing's new English language propaganda push

[freemexy]

'Time for the Chinese miracle': Beijing's new English language propaganda push
Chinese state media dropped a music video over the weekend featuring a little-known Chinese performer named Su Han. In the video Su raps over images of his country’s achievements, including a rover landing on the far side of the moon, a pair of cloned monkeys, high rise buildings, a group of smiling women in ethnic dress, and curiously, a server room.To get more world news in China, you can visit shine news official website.

The not-always-comprehensible song was released to mark China’s largest political event of the year, a meeting of advisory and legislative delegates known as the lianghui, or “Two Sessions”, which began this week. Among the more intelligible lines is this: “Monkey King to the West, legendary dragon to the sky, y’all know it’s time for Chinese miracle”. It goes on: “We’ve got Two Sessions, we’ve got Two Sessions for the fragrance we’re blessing, to the world we show our affection.”
The video, produced by state news agency Xinhua and Su, is China’s latest attempt at youth-friendly propaganda. It is part of a suite of content aimed at drumming up enthusiasm for the Two Sessions, which many see as little more than a political spectacle.

The two weeks of meetings and speeches are largely formulaic, providing some new details of already known policies. The National People’s Congress (NPC) of almost 3,000 delegates, which opened on Tuesday, ratifies Chinese laws that have already been approved.

China’s main state media outlets all have special features on the Two Sessions, including videos of “mini Ted talks” by delegates. The People’s Daily newspaper gives readers an option to read and listen to selected quotes by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China Daily has a quiz on the history of the sessions while Xinhua has unveiled a new female AI anchor to cover the event.
This year’s efforts are especially focused on international audiences. In addition to the rap video, CGTN, the international version of CCTV, published a sleek data interactive showing the number of women in the NPC (about 25%), the average age of delegates (54) and other trivia. In a Xinhua video, two women uncomfortably answer questions as they are quizzed on “fun facts” about the Two Sessions.

In another video by Xinhua titled, “Chinese democracy in the eyes of an American,” a reporter for Xinhua says: “It is widely acknowledged that a key to China’s success is its system of democracy”. He advises interested viewers to follow the Two Sessions to see Chinese democracy in action.China officially has several political parties, but the country’s real power lies with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), overseen by Xi. Officials and defenders of the system say China has its “own style of democracy” in which the interests of the people are represented by the government’s decisions.