Xinwen Lianbo

Every night at 7.00pm, the same warm yellow-and-blue glow lights up millions of screens in China. As soothing orchestral tones play, the world turns on its axis.

The opening graphic for Xinwen Lianbo. Photo: CCTV.

These are the sights and sounds of state broadcaster CCTV's evening news show Xinwen Lianbo, which have remained reassuringly unchanged since the 1980s.

It has become something of a nationwide ritual - and like all rituals, it follows a familiar script, a predictable pattern that tells us all is right with the world.

It can be roughly divided into three parts.

Act 1: What President Xi Jinping Did Today

Act 2: Great Things are Happening in China

Act 3: Terrible Things are Happening Abroad

Take Tuesday's Xinwen Lianbo for example. After about 12 minutes eulogising the "Long March Spirit" and highlighting the leadership's diplomatic efforts in Central Asia, another 12 minutes follow on how the economy is booming, Chinese technology is leading the world, and the country is building beautiful new roads. Finally, we get just over five minutes on the war in Ukraine, terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, unbreathable air in Indonesia, rioting in the streets of France, and a deadly fire on an armed forces base in the Canadian province of Alberta.

The script for the unrest in France writes itself. The events are a cautionary tale of freedom run amok, a reminder why a firm hand is necessary to ensure stability.

Wen Wei Po's editorial on the unrest in France. Photo: Wen Wei Po.

"The unrest in France is a mirror, revealing that without the support of the rule of law and public order, freedom will ultimately turn against itself," wrote the editorial board of Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong newspaper under the auspices of the central government's Liaison Office.

"Unlike the prolonged and recurring riots in France," it adds, "Hong Kong swiftly stemmed the violence and restored order" through the Beijing-imposed national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, its homegrown counterpart known locally as Article 23.

Events in France, according to the newspaper - which actively supported Hong Kong's leftist riots of 1967 - show why protest is pointless and "the public should shift its attention from street politics" and instead "cherish" what they already have.

Ta Kung Pao reports on the Alberta referendum. Photo: Ta Kung Pao.

But what of world events that do not fit so seamlessly into the state media script?

That was the question posed by a referendum in the aforementioned province of Alberta on Monday. The plebiscite posed nine questions to the public, but the most important asked if Alberta should stay in Canada or seek independence.

As the ballots were counted, it quickly became clear that the separatists were dealt a decisive defeat, with over three-quarters of Albertans saying they wanted to stay Canadian and talk through their differences with the federal government.

On the one hand, it was, as Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao put it, a "defeat for separatism" and a victory for national unity - common talking points for Beijing, as it has sought to quash the vestiges of any Hong Kong independence movement and punish countries that recognise self-governing Taiwan.

But the means to that end could not be ignored: it was also an example of a country resolving its centrifugal tensions by putting it to the people, and not for the first time in its history.

This narrative friction means that, as this newsletter lands in your inbox, the story has been largely ignored by the biggest state media in the Chinese mainland. Search "Canada" on CCTV's website and you will find breathless coverage of the Alberta army base blaze, yet nothing on its historic vote. The same search on People's Daily and Liberation Daily yields the same results.

CCTV's Canada coverage on October 21, 2026. Photo: Screenshot via CCTV.

Instead of reporting on the referendum in its international pages on Tuesday, People's Daily - the self-described "throat and tongue" of the Communist Party - ran a full-page supplement on Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese. This happened to feature a column aimed at Taiwan's leader Lai Ching-te, in which the writer warned that "those who play with fire will get burned" and Lai's efforts to bolster Taiwan's defences will only turn its people into "cannon fodder."

"Any attempt at separatism is doomed to fail," the piece concluded, adding that the harder Taiwanese try to assert their independence, "the sooner they will die!"

A jarring, if entirely unintended study in contrasts.

Source: HKFP Monitor 20261025