strictly speaking, downloading/streaming copyright protected content using p2p is illegal since the action itself include providing access to the infringed material, and this definitely violates the right of replication of the original work.
as for pplive, i guess the guy wrote the post is more interested in watching CCTV rather than CNN, and I am not sure whether the federal government is interested in protect the rights owned by Chinese television, not to mention that CCTV don't really care about these rights being infringed themselves.