Yesterday there was a story in the Washington Post pointing out a the rash of anti-Google stories that have appeared in the Chinese press. Among these are the questions raised in the Beijing News concerning the validity of Google's license as a Chinese Internet content provider, later picked up in other news organizations, and the scathing, nationalist attack in the China Business Times.

It is possible that the Chinese press has spontaneously decided it is time to take Google down a peg, and that the implementation of their Chinese service is offensive. Certainly the editors will be following the debate in the United States over the conduct of US Internet firms in China. And, if nothing else, they'll have got their marching orders from the Propaganda Department telling them to not cover the hearings.

But this is the kind of thing that sets off Imagethief's PR spidey-sense (Imagethief read a lot of Spider Man as a kid). When I start seeing awfully simultaneous looking criticism in Chinese newspapers I start to suspect what we in the biz refer to as a "depositioning campaign". This is when your business rivals launch a behind-the-scenes PR campaign not to generate good press about themselves, but to generate negative press about you. Casual e-mails, lunch conversations, a friendly phone call; there are a lot ways to get this sort of thing started. While there is nothing conclusive, it wouldn't surprise me at all if one of Google's domestic rivals was working behind the scenes to help drive this negative coverage.

After all, kicking your competitor while he is down and doing your best to trash his brand is a time-honored business and PR tactic.

As for the hearings, which I have not really discussed yet, I have some thoughts on how the US Internet companies blew it. But I'll save those for the weekend.

Update: I see others have had the same thought. Here is Chinabyte, bia Billsdue.