It has been widely reported recently that China is seeking PR advice from an International agency. I first saw this reported in the Financial Times (countless people mailed it to me), but Arun Sudhaman of Media Asia pointed out to me that his publication in fact scooped the FT by several days.

Imagethief doesn't know anything about this, so stop asking. However, I will say this: It's one thing to seek advice, quite another to take it. So perhaps the Chinese government should start with a thrifty approach and simply scour the web, where they might find that James Milward has some pretty decent and free PR advice for them at Open Democracy. Here are two of his six suggestions:

Remember that what you say to a Chinese audience is heard by the world audience

Until recently, Chinese authorities viewed even local Chinese newspapers as "internal circulation" media which a billion-plus Chinese, but not foreigners, were allowed to read. Those days are over. Since broadcasts, newspapers and everything else are now online, and lots of foreigners understand Chinese, Chinese domestic news gets out. Even stories that are squelched in China get out. It is a cliché, but true, that we live in one media universe.

Consider how your statements sound in English

Diatribes by hardline leaders may be aimed to satisfy a domestic Chinese audience, but such rhetoric sounds violent, even hysterical, when translated and broadcast in English. Zhang Qingli, first party secretary in Tibet, infamously called the Dalai Lama a "terrorist"; Xinjiang's first secretary Wang Lequan shouted at a press conference on 9 March 2008 that "those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter who they are!" It would have worked better if he simply said "stopped," or "apprehended": words like "battered" or "crushed" merely contribute to the impression that the Chinese government is inherently violent. (True, President Bush often sounds the same way, with his cowboy swagger - but here I rest my case. His world image is nothing to emulate.)

Also, be aware that many Chinese slogans sound quaint, or worse, in English. "The Three Evil Forces" is one example, "the Dalai Lama Clique," another. And don't call it "splittism"! That word, probably originating in a poor translation, is used only in the Chinese context, mainly by the Chinese government's English-language media. "Separatism" means the same thing, but is the term used when similar situations plague other nations.

I agree with those two points, and the other four, which are equally commonsense. But, then, good PR is generally 90% common sense. As for the other ten percent, Imagethief leaves it to your imagination.