Report 8 - December 24, 1999 How is Chinese television? Talking about national (zhongyang, "central") channels, CCTV 1 has a clear tendency towards propagandizing a little bit too much China's economical and military strenght - a few more pictures taken during the broadcast of the grand parade on October 1st are shown here on the right.

While in other countries the News is usually all tragedies and murders, here in China you don't happen to hear about accidents very often. The News always opens with some visit president Jiang Zemin is doing somewhere, and goes on with exhibitions and anniversaries: Macao's return to China is now the main topic. CCTV 6 is on the contrary one of the best channels we've ever seen, airing Chinese and foreign movies (some in English) almost non-stop... alas, the Chinese are really determined to learn foreign languages and what will we do with our Chinese then? They're also determined to fight illiteracy and spread the use of putonghua (Mandarin Chinese), so that almost any program has subtitles.

Actor Tang Guoqiang as Mao Zedong on CCTV 1.

President Jiang Zemin speaking on October 1st.