China’s State Council Information Office, or SCIO, confirmed to China Real Time yesterday that it has hired a local advertising agency, Shanghai Lintas Advertising, to produce a commercial to be aired in the U.S. ahead of President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington, D.C. next week as part of a broad effort to soften China’s image abroad.
The commercial– “part of our annual working plan,” said an SCIO employee familiar with the effort–is supposed to depict Chinese people from different walks of life, including famous public figures like NBA player Yao Ming. The spot will air in the U.S. first, during Mr. Hu’s visit, followed by Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. It will also be available on the Internet, according to a report on government Web portal China.org.cn.
Efforts to improve its global image are part of China’s latest five-year plan, which calls on the government to “promote vigorous development and prosperity of socialist culture and the soft power of national culture,” in part by improving “external propaganda work and culture exchange, to innovate the ‘Going Out’ strategy for cultural industry and to enhance the international competitiveness and influence of Chinese culture.”
The CCP doesn't get it. The problem is not just PR but the CCP itself... I think the apt expression here is "putting lipstick on a pig."
You can see their strategy of equating Chinese culture/history to socialism but it's simply a lie. We keep hearing about the 5000 years of Chinese history but PRC is only 60 years old. My guess is that most Westerners have no issues with the Chinese "people" but rather the oppressive policies of the CCP.
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