China's CCTV focuses its rosy lens on Cuba

I've not watched a ton of CCTV, but everything I have seen paints a positive picture of China. That is not to say you cannot learn from CCTV, just don't expect a well-rounded presentation.

CCTV America has posted short interviews of six Cuban Experts on reinventing Cuba. The first, by Ted Henken, directly addresses the Cuban Internet and the social media:



The others are indirectly relevant to the Cuban Internet because Chinese companies have played and are playing a major role in its development.

The ALBA-1 undersea cable connecting Cuba to Venezuela and Jamaica was installed by a joint venture made up of Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell and Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe and it has been reported that the project was fincanced by a loan from China. Cuba’s WiFi and home connectivity projects are also using Chinese equipment.

The six videos are:

• There are challenges in accessing the Internet in Cuba but there is progress. For more on this, CCTV’s Elaine Reyes spoke to Ted Henken in Miami. He’s a professor at Baruch College who has studied the Internet and social media in Cuba.
• Healthcare coverage starts at birth for Cubans. So how does the country pay for it? And what exactly is covered? CCTV America’s Elaine Reyes spoke to Robert Huish, assistant professor at Dalhousie University.
• Carlos Alzugaray, former Cuba Ambassador to Belgium talks to CCTV about the current business climate in Cuba.
• For more on Cuba’s healthcare industry and medical innovations, CCTV America’s Phillip Yin spoke to Steve Wilkerson. He is the chairman of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba.
• The Cuban Revolution proved to be a transformative time not just for the political system in Cuba, but also for the arts as well. CCTV America’s Elaine Reyes spoke to Abigail McEwen. She’s an Assistant Professor of Latin American Art at the University of Maryland.
• Gerry Hadden has done several stories in Cuba. He sat down with Elaine Reyes and talked about the changes he’s seeing there, and what the future holds.

CCTV has also produced Reinventing Cuba, a documentary, which will air Sunday August 16th at 7pm EST 11pm GMT & Monday 8/17 7am Beijing. You can watch it live online and it will probably be archived. Here's a (rosy) trailer for the documentary: