Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to the Beijing headquarters of three state media outlets on Friday – CCTV, People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency.
His visit generated much excitement among mainland Chinese reporters graced by his presence, with CCTV especially proud of their “exclusive”.
A banner spotted at the office stated: “CCTV’s family is The Party; Absolute loyalty; Please inspect us”.
Foreign correspondents and journalists on Twitter were also greatly amused by the surreal scenes.
So CCTV news tonight will lead with Xi Jinping visiting CCTV to present the news about Xi Jinping visiting CCTV. https://t.co/TbHCrmIjBq
— Chris Buckley 储百亮 (@ChuBailiang) February 19, 2016
“And now, a word from our sponsor.”pic.twitter.com/rM4OKqzLyg
— Mike Forsythe 傅才德 (@PekingMike) February 19, 2016
Xi Jinping considers new job as CCTV news anchor, because it’s basically 30 minutes about what he did that day. pic.twitter.com/TRbHuIpCIj
— Chris Buckley 储百亮 (@ChuBailiang) February 19, 2016
— Human Lives Over Stock Portfolios (@MiaInChina) February 19, 2016
@ChuBailiang pic.twitter.com/89XvdT5pEb
— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) February 19, 2016
It’s Bring Your Disappointed Asian Father to Work Day at Chinese state media. pic.twitter.com/6d3CpcwNZM
— Haidi Lun Stroud-Watts 伦海迪 (@HaidiLun) February 19, 2016
“You stay classy, San Diego.” pic.twitter.com/aocDkTTaT8
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) February 19, 2016
China Xinhua News tweeted Xi’s wisdom from its official account: “President #XiJinping visits Xinhua HQ in Beijing, encourages journalists to write stories that ‘people like to read’”…
also use chartbeat, tweet often, write eye-catching headlines and employ listicles liberally https://t.co/sgDdiYOgbW
— isabella steger (@stegersaurus) February 19, 2016
Over in the mainland, Chinese netizens were so fervent in their outpouring of admiration, it was difficult to gauge whether some were being ironic. A post about Xi Jinping visiting CCTV was liked and shared more than 10,000 times on Weibo.
“Xi Dada is so cute!” netizens said.
