Imagethief

Lee Kuan Yew's foreign media management advice for China

2008-05-13T10:02:00Z

In a fairly wide ranging interview conducted with a Bloomberg reporter and published the on Journalism.sg, Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has offered his advice for the Chinese government on dealing with foreign media. Much of it is pretty solid:

You take Tibet. Who started it? It was started by the Tibetans. The March incident, March 14. I was reading Jonathan Eyal who writes for our Straits Times. He was a commentator from London. He is from I think Chatham House, a very thoughtful man. He said if they had called in the newspapers right from the word go, and said, look, this is what happened. The Economist correspondent was in Lhasa when it happened and wrote about it. He was favorable to them. The rioters started killing people and they were not reacting. The orders were not to shoot, not to take on the rioters because they didn't want trouble. Had they engaged the west, all this would have turned out differently.
Why didn't they? Because there was a chasm between their mental make up and that of the west. So they say all western correspondents out, that means you have got something to hide. I think that was not very wise. Supposing it was Singapore, do we say all correspondents out? No. I say look come on, stay, watch it, see what happens, see who started what.
Are they [the Chinese] stupid? They can't do what we do? No. Its just people at the people at the top have not been educated in the west, they have not been exposed to that kind of environment, that kind of rules of the game, and are not playing by those rules of the game.

On the other hand, he can't stop a little of the old reactionary sentiment from sneaking through:

So when you write an article with a little sting at the end, which is not true. I claim the right of reply. You have written 5,000 words, I claim 500 words. They refused, and in that case, I will restrict you. I will not block you because you will say I'm afraid of what you said. But I will restrict you and allow the other people, the other subscribers to photostat, fax, and now scan. So now you allow me the right of reply, I get the right of reply, the writer who puts in all these poison barbs no longer appears so smart. You can twist my arm, I'll wring your neck.

I'm not sure that all foreign media organizations feel that the PAP's application of its rights of reply and litigation are conducted on an entirely level playing field. Still, at least foreign newspapers and magazines can be printed and relatively freely distributed in Singapore (barring the occasional punitive restriction). In Imagethief's book, that counts for a lot.

Love him or hate him, the blunt-spoken Mr. Lee is seldom a dull interview. It's an interesting read. A complete transcript of the discussion is also available (pdf).

The counterfeit hackware ain't your major problem

2008-05-13T02:19:00Z

Imagethief was interested to see an article discussing the security problems of Chinese counterfeits of networking equipment on the breathlessly named "Law and Justice" section of the ABC television network's website. What I found interesting was not that there are Chinese counterfeits of Cisco gear, nor that there is some concern over whether such gear may present security risks. It's that the only confirmed security breach in the story was the FBI's leak of its presentation on the investigation, which was apparently not meant to be public:

Counterfeit Chinese Technology: Gateway for Hackers?
The FBI is investigating whether counterfeit routers and computer hardware from China installed in U.S. government computer networks might provide a secret gateway for hackers to tap into secure government databases.
Sources told ABC News the counterfeit hardware could represent a major breach to national security. An FBI PowerPoint presentation, which somehow ended up on a Web site, lays out the concerns and the breadth of what has been a far-reaching investigation.
Friday afternoon a somewhat miffed FBI released a statement that read: "At the request of another federal government agency, on Jan. 11, 2008, the FBI's Cyber Division provided an unclassified PowerPoint presentation and briefing on efforts to counter the production and distribution of counterfeit network hardware," said FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James Finch. "This unclassified briefing was never intended for broad distribution or posting to the Internet."

Still, "FBI accidentally publishes PowerPoint" just won't suck in the readers the same way that a headline that implies a vast, shadowy Chinese spy plot will. Meanwhile, a Cisco spokesperson had this rather less alarming thing to say:

[The] company has extensively tested counterfeit equipment purporting to be made by the company, and though not "technically inconceivable," the company's tests "have not found a single instance of software or hardware that was modified to make them more vulnerable to security threats."

Sounds like we're a ways short of technical armageddon. Sounds like US government institutions might want to check their sourcing, and the FBI might want to check its document policies. Meanwhile, as long as people will clock on anything that promises a glimpse of Par!s Hilton's tits (a secret not unknown to the Chinese), a good, old-fashioned Trojan Horse is probably still the best way into most networks. As always, the worst security risks are the most prosaic.

Was the torch relay a success or failure?

2008-05-12T00:03:00Z

That's a good question, and it was posed in an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal by Geoffrey Fowler. As the article notes, the answer is "yes", depending on who you ask:

Was China's Olympic-torch relay around the world a miserable failure or a surprising success?
Yes.
To observers in the U.S. and Europe, Beijing's international spectacle was a public-relations disaster as protesters in both those regions tried to snatch or snuff the torch. Outside China, the relay seemed to symbolize the divisiveness of issues such as China's treatment of its Tibetan population. At home, it represented a profound sense of national unity.

That "profound sense of national unity" is a big payoff for the government. The problem is that it came at some cost in terms of external perceptions of China. The government no doubt has its priorities, but whether that cost will have been worth it is a question still unsettled. Arguably the same result could have been achieved less painfully.

Also, I note Davesgonechina has achieved international fame, with his "schizolympics" moniker cited in the article.

H/T: David Wolf.

Discussing how to PR the "Genocide Olympics"

Also worth a look is an article from New York Times Magazine that gets behind the scenes of Dream for Darfur's campaign against the Olympic sponsors. The article is several weeks old, but it provides an interesting look at how aspects of the campaign were engineered:

Late last month [Dream for Darfur Executive Director Jill Savitt] arranged a meeting with M+R Strategic Services, a national consultancy specializing in high-tech campaigning that happens to have its New York offices in the same building as Dream for Darfur. The goal was to gather advice on how to better focus the campaign and to come up with a plan to galvanize a grass-roots insurgency. She asked the consultants what actions to take consistent with her resources and size. Michael Ward, who consulted for Savitt when she was at Human Rights First, suggested making use of existing databases of activists, sending out mass e-mail messages frequently and leveraging free-marketing venues like social-networking Web sites. “Facebook should be the place,” he advised.
“O.K.,” Savitt said, looking pointedly at her staff, Allison Johnson and James Dunham, both in their mid-20s.
Savitt next asked for advice to give Ben Cohen for his jihad against the Olympic mascots. “Tell him to keep his message short,” Ward said. “The message here isn’t hard: Genocide bad; China helping.”
Looking over a list of Olympic sponsors, Ward advised Savitt to streamline her targets: “Choose two or even one company and hammer it. Everyone had sweatshops but it took that woman” — referring to Kathy Lee Gifford — “to make it real. McDonald’s is a phenomenal target; they are so retail. Johnson & Johnson is less of a brand and therefore less useful. Same goes with General Electric.”
“O.K.,” Savitt said. “But then we have to give up on my crazy bumper-sticker idea. She jumped to a white board and wrote “(GE)nocide.” She looked at Ward and deadpanned, “The only problem is G.E. isn’t actually responsible for any genocide”
“That’s an issue,” Ward said with a smile.

It sure is. Arguably the Chinese government isn't responsible for any genocide either. But that depends on how you look at things.

Some changes to Imagethief

2008-05-10T11:52:00Z

First of all, a quick apology. My posts this month have been about zilch as a result of work and parenting demands. There are some things I'd like to write, as always, and with any luck in the next week or so I'll get one or two things up.

Also, I've added a Twitter feed at upper right. I've been having a pretty good time with Twitter, but it is not to blame to falloff in posting.

Finally, I've heard from a couple of people who use BlackBerries to read Imagethief that the formatting means about a zillion scrolls to get to content. Now, my first blush reaction to this is to tell Research In Motion to use put a better browser in their units. But it was a prod to get me to take care of a couple of things that I've been considering anyway.

First, I've taken the month-by-month archive out of the sidebar. After forty-eight months it was getting a bit long. It's still on the site, but it's got its own page (and there is still a link to it from the sidebar).

Also, I've set up a separate page for the blogroll. At this point, I'm only putting only a short list of my absolute favorite China blogs in the sidebar. Everything else is on the dedicated blogroll page, where I've been able to add a bit of annotation. By way of trade-off, I'll probably add links to the blogroll categories from the sidebar, and also elevate one or two other category blogs that I like into my absolute favorites. I've not had time to do this yet, so stick with me.

If you feel your blog was relegated, I do apologize. The link is still there, and as always, I like everything in the blogroll. But the real-estate demands were getting ludicrous. Feel free to pop me a note and bitch if you feel hard-done-by.

Other comments on the changes are welcome. Coming soon: More actual content. I hope.

-Will

Imagethief drinks the Twitter Kool-Aid

2008-05-06T11:03:00Z

Facebook communication has been in something of a precipitous decline over the past couple of months. This hasn't bothered me much, since it cut down on the number of invitations to naff applications. Barring those from the occasional late adopter, stumbling in energetically like someone arriving at a party just as dawn breaks, after the keg is empty and the remaining guests are either passed out on the floor, being sick in the bathroom or making out in the host's parents' bedroom.

So where did everyone go? They went to Twitter, it seems. I had to work myself up to join, since it seems like one more thing that will eat away my time and erode my already dormouse-like attention span. Plus I confess some months ago I actually wrote a short piece for Media disparaging Twitter as finally slicing content too small to be interesting. Silly me. In the modern era no content is too small to be interesting. That piece is destined to live on as one of those "just didn't get it..." moments. Thank god Media's content is subscription gated.

Or is it? The Facebook bubble is clearly deflating. Is Twitter just the lasted fashionable village to be sacked by a roving horde of digerati vandals? Or will it have bloglike legs? We'll find out, because after resisting heroically for a while, it's my turn to stumble into the party. Let's hope there are a few guests left.

https://twitter.com/imagethief

Be warned: I literally just did this, so there is only one update as of this writing. Don't get too excited yet!

"Politics is one thing but the people have to eat..."

2008-05-01T13:54:00Z

Nationalist outrage succumbs to low, low prices. And lowering of the control rods by the government. From the New York Times:

On Thursday, the first day of a planned boycott against Carrefour, a French department store chain here, there were a few low-key protests around the country but most Carrefour outlets did a brisk business in peanut oil, petit fours and family packs of lychee juice.

The boycott call, publicized through text messages and popular websites, has been urging Chinese consumers to avoid the stores as a way to punish France for what China considers its shabby reception of the Olympic torch.

***

On Thursday, the start of a three-day national holiday here, there were reports of small rallies at a dozen Carrefour outlets around the country but the absence of any mammoth groundswell, coupled by the throngs of unapologetic shoppers, suggested that nationalistic fury may be fading. “Politics is one thing but the people have to eat,” said Zheng Wu, 55, a Beijing housewife whose shopping cart was loaded with a 12-roll bundle of toilet paper, two large sacks of rice, a box of corn flakes, three pairs of pink flip flops and a plunger.

Having swung by the Shuangjing Carrefour today (on my way to the next door B&Q to pick up blackout curtains so the baby stops waking up at the unreasonably early crack of dawn) I can report no protest was in evidence. The only outrage on display was mine, kindled by the indifferent service from B&Q's curtain department. Honestly, don't make me wander around your loading docks with a baby and a receipt. Just go back and get the goddamned curtains for me.

But I digress. Outrage in China burns hot, but it also often burns briefly, especially when dialed down by the filtering mechanisms that limit SMS and Internet coordination. Perhaps this renders the issue of Carrefour's crisis management moot. At least until the French do something else to annoy China.

Wrenching change ahead for China's air travelers

2008-04-30T11:13:00Z

This advisory was just sent to us by CITS, the local travel service:

民航总局严格手提行李规定
New Regulation of Carry-on Luggage

根据中国民航总局的规定，５月１日开始，在国内航班上持头等舱客票的旅客，每人可随身携带两件物品；持公务舱或经济舱客票的旅，每人只能随身携带1件物品。每件物品的体积均不得超过20×40×55厘米，上述两项总重量均不得超过5公斤。

According to CAAC , new regulation of carry-on luggage will be launched effective from 01May. Base on this regulation, on domestic flights, first class travelers can take 2 pieces carry-on luggages, whilst business and economy class travelers can only take 1 piece.The size of each luggage should not exceed 20 x 40 x 55 cm, and the total weight of these carry-on luggage should not exceed 5 kg.

Imagethief can't imagine anything more traumatic for China's air travelers, who suffer the dual curses of lack of faith in the baggage-checking system and partiality for large carry-on items. As a regular domestic traveler, Imagethief long ago gave up trying to carry on even a modestly-sized trolley-bag. The life-or-death struggle for overhead bin space was reminiscent of the carnage one normally associates with African water holes and nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw documentaries. Now I limit myself to whatever I can cram under the seat in front of me.

Fortunately, my bags have always made it out the far side. But this will be a painful adjustment for legions of Chinese business travelers accustomed to trying to cram steamer trunks, cargo containers and live Afghan hounds into the overhead bins.

If, that is, it is enforced.

Previously:

Stewardess, my elephant won't fit in the overhead compartment (October, 2005)

We wuz gonna fly Air China...

Jing Jing, Bang Bang! Now we know who shot up CNN's logo

2008-04-30T10:34:00Z

My colleague was downstairs at the Olympic souvenir stand in the mall when she spotted this notebook and bookmark set featuring Jing Jing, one of the five "Fuwa" mascots of the Beijing Olympics. Shooting is an Olympic sport (and several of the Olympic sports have military antecedents), so this makes sense from a certain perspective. Nevertheless, it struck us both as perhaps just a tad inappropriate under the current tense circumstances:

Look out! The panda is packing heat!

Whoops: Unintended consequences of being the world's workshop

2008-04-30T06:39:00Z

Here's an unusual case of supply-chain risk. From the BBC:

'Free Tibet' flags made in China

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.

Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.

Well, color them embarrassed. Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!

Inside Carrefour's crisis management in China

2008-04-30T06:16:00Z

From ESWN, a translation of a China Business story (中) that gets under the hood of Carrefour's crisis management in China following the calls for a boycott. The story is very critical of Carrefour's management of the issue, and its worth a read for anyone interested in crisis communication in China:

It is not known what emergency meetings were held at Carrefour headquarters over those two days. But the slowness of communication was surprising. From April 14 on, the media began to descend on Carrefour. According to inside information, Carrefour did not have a consistent message when the media showed up. "The headquarters did not tell the various local public relations people what to say or respond. Everything was based upon their own careful handling by virtue of professional experience and guesswork!"

To the outside world, the slowness of the response was against the first rule in crisis management. Carrefour did not make a quick evaluation of the situation in the first instance and it did not attempt to control the situation. According to people who understand how Carrefour works, this speed is consistent with the normal way by which Carrefour handles crises. The senior managers at Carrefour have a unwritten rule: Silence is golden. In many of the previous public crises, it was very rare to see senior managers coming out to clarify or explain.

Carrefour has been expanding in the China market, and crises have been occurring continuously. "The Chongqing Carrefour stampede," "Bacterial counts in mineral water violated standards" ... In each crisis, the response by Carrefour was half a beat too slow. At the Carrefour boycott by the Shanghai Seed and Nut Roasters Association, the reporters recalled that it took more than a week for Carrefour to issue a simple written opinion to the media.

Some of the basic rules of crisis communication for foreign firms in China:

Be prepared to respond fast. Silence often equals guilt in the eyes of the public. Have an issues management kit that anticipates possible crisis scenarios in place beforehand. Don't rely on guidance from overseas headquarters.
Pay close attention to the tone of public communications. Address concerns. State positions. Don't condescend or talk down to Chinese audiences.
Get everybody on the same page. Limit public comments to the minimum number of spokespeople and throttle unauthorized communication.
Brief employees so they know what is expected of them and how to respond to media queries, ambushes, etc.
For consumer brands, ongoing monitoring of the Internet is a good idea. Internet scandals are often flashes-in-the-pan, but they can erupt into the mainstream. It's better not to be caught by surprise.

Speed of response is one of the most critical things, and it's something that we emphasize. You don't want to rush into a response without thinking, but you also don't want to let a situation fester or give the appearance of indifference to the concerns of Chinese customers. We've observed several situations where lack of a timely response has caused a minor issue to blossom into a full-blown crisis.

Any rule can be broken in the right situation, but it's best to break rules in a calculated fashion rather than because you're just groping along in the dark.

Also worth considering is whether it constitutes a kind of mini-crisis when the Chinese authorities decide the name of your company is a sensitive word in Internet searches. After all, there must be a fair number of searches for "Carrefour" in the course of regular business, although not as many as if they were an Internet retailer.

Crisis? What crisis?

See also:

The Nation: Battle of the Beijing boycotts

Reuters: Beijing strips Carrefour workers of goodwill hats

Evildoers beware!

2008-04-28T14:35:00Z

From a report on attacks on the Green Zone in Baghdad. I remember this term being thrown about by the President earlier in the GWOT, but I hadn't seen it for a while:

The violence is a continuation of hostilities between American and Iraqi troops and Shiite militants, labeled "criminals" and "evildoers" in U.S. military releases.
***
The U.S. military reported other incidents on Sunday:
A U.S. aerial weapons team killed one "criminal" in northeastern Baghdad after he attacked U.S. soldiers with small-arms fire at 8:30 a.m., and U.S. soldiers killed one "evildoer" at about 10:50 a.m. in northeastern Baghdad after he attacked their checkpoint with small-arms fire.

If you ask me, garden-variety "evildoers" are small potatoes. Frankly I won't be satisfied that we're getting our tax dollars' worth until I hear we're wiping out some arch-superfiends. And, anyway, what kind of evil was he doing? I want details.

Let's face it. I'm just jealous because we seldom get to use the term "evildoer" in corporate press releases.

Weekend Olympic roundup

2008-04-28T04:57:00Z

Imagethief is aware that this blog is at risk of becoming "all Olympics, all the time". This isn't intentional, but when you write about PR, communication and China its rather hard to ignore the symbolism, conflict and dueling narratives swirling around recent events. I promise I'll write something funny soon, if for no other reason than I could use a post that isn't a troll-magnet. The last week or so has yielded some real peaches.

Here are some of the things that caught my eye over the last couple of days:

Best short description of the challenges of sponsorship
The Chicago Tribune has a long-ish and interesting business story on the challenges and goals of Olympic sponsorship. In it, Russ Meyer, chief strategist for branding company Landor, provides an observation that really sums up the challenges of managing a sponsorship successfully:

"In many ways, there are three brands interacting here: the sponsors' brands, the Olympics brand and the China brand," said [Mr. Meyer]. "It becomes very tricky to balance the three. Outside the country, China looks like the most vulnerable brand, but in every case, inside China, China is the leading brand."

I am not sure "vulnerability" is the word I'd use. In fact I think it's that the China brand is ferociously strong outside China, in the sense that it is widely recognized and transmits a set of widely recognized values and attributes. The problem is that for much of the foreign public, those values and attributes are overwhelmingly negative. Thus, managing the (sponsor brand) + (Olympic brand) + (China brand) equation is fundamentally different inside and outside the country. The risk is that the internal and external solutions for the equation conflict in a way that either --or worse, both-- audiences notice.

Something else interesting in that article, on the subject of "activation":

One example [of activation]: Coke has enlisted 28 million people through an online campaign to sign up as "ambassadors" to welcome the torch when it arrives in mainland China on May 7. Over their cell phones, the 28 million will receive a text message advising them to do something—exactly what, Coke will not disclose—that the company has designed as a communal eruption of excitement throughout China over the arrival of the Olympic flame.

Does anybody else see a potential risk here?

Jacques Rogge's plea for time for China: Evolution of an idea in print
In an interview with the Financial Times (subscription), IOC chief Jacques Rogge said that the west should take a more subtle approach to airing its grievances with China. The story itself, with the headline "IOC chief asks for more time for China," is part profile and part analysis of the current challenges surrounding the Olympics. Rogge's exhortation is at the very end of the story:

“You don’t obtain anything in China with a loud voice. That is the big mistake of people in the west wanting to add their views. To keep face [in Asia] is of paramount importance. All the Chinese specialists will tell you that only one thing works – respectful, quiet but firm discussion.
“Otherwise, the Chinese will close themselves. That is what is happening today. There is a lot of protest, a lot of very strong verbal power, and the Chinese, they close themselves.”

The FT itself seems to have spotted that this was something of a hook, because ninety minutes later they had put that quote right up front in another story apparently sparked by the China's offer of dialogue with the Dalai Lama. They also introduced the idea of "hectoring" in the lede and used the somewhat catchier headline:

Olympic chief warns west
The west must stop hectoring China over human rights, the Olympics chief has warned, even as Beijing yesterday showed the first signs of bowing to international protests by saying it would hold talks with aides to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice," said Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee. This was the "big mistake of people in the west".
"It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949," he said, a time when the UK and other European nations were also colonial powers, "with all the abuse attached to colonial powers".

In the original story the quote about the French Revolution was presented several paragraphs above the "loud voice" quote, as part of some context-setting on the kind of time-scales on which political development can unfold.

Reuters ran it almost the same way. The headline is even stronger this time:

West must curb protests on China's human rights-Rogge
The West must stop hectoring China over human rights, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said in an interview.

"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice," Rogge told Saturday's Financial Times. "That is the big mistake of people in the west wanting to add their views".

"To keep face (in Asia) is of paramount importance. All the Chinese specialists will tell you that only one thing works -- respectful, quiet but firm discussion.
"Otherwise the Chinese will close themselves. That is what is happening today. There is a lot of protest, a lot of very strong verbal power, and the Chinese, they close themselves."

Reuters also plugs their new China blog at the bottom. Everyone's doing it, it seems.

Finally Xinhua got around to doing their own rewrite. Rogge's statement, which was not characterized in the original FT article, has become a (no doubt just) "demand":

Rogge demands end to hectoring China
The west must stop hectoring China over human rights, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge has demanded.

"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice." This was the "big mistake of people in the west", the IOC chief said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday.

Rogge said, "It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949," a time when Britain and other European nations were also colonial powers, "with all the abuse attached to colonial powers". "It was only 40 years ago that we gave liberty to the colonies. Let's be a little bit more modest."

Nice to see ol' Jacques taking such a firm stand.

So much for detente
Last week's offer to conduct dialogue with the Dalai Lama, which was initially accompanied by hot rhetoric and smacked of PR, doesn't seem to have resulted in detente. From the Associated Press:

China heaped more criticism on the Dalai Lama and his followers on Sunday, accusing them of using empty words and concepts as a facade for their goal of independence.
The editorial attacking the Dalai Lama in the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper was part of an ongoing campaign to blame the exiled spiritual leader for inciting recent anti-government protests in Tibet and neighboring provinces in western China.
"The Dalai clique has always been proficient in playing with words. They put forward different kinds of concepts to dazzle people," said the opinion published in Sunday's paper.

Well, perhaps the back-channels are more constructive?

China's protesters do the country proud
Differing points of view abound on the demeanor of the pro-China protesters who ~~were bussed in~~ spontaneously appeared to cheer on the Torch Relay at the last few cities. Biased Western media, including the Australian Herald Sun, New York Times, Voice of America and BBC all report scuffles, with most of them laying the blame at the feet of the Chinese protesters. The China Daily, however, paints a rather different story in a piece called, "Lads like them would do any country proud":

I could spot no Tibetan on the pro-separatist side, which comprised a purely Japanese-speaking community. Aside from the "snow-lion" flags, there were a lot of Japanese right-wing flags and anti-China slogans.
When a Chinese youth with a five-star red flag mark painted on his cheek passed by the anti-Chinese protestors, several of them screamed and pounced on the lad, covering him with fists and kicks.
My first reaction was a shout of "Tamu!" (No!) And I tried to stop them. But they continued kicking the young man before the police came.
The Chinese young man never hit back. "Be restrained", I heard him shouting to his friends. "We must be civilized!"
He kept standing despite the beating, and was never subdued.

Proud indeed. But it will take more than this story to overcome the impressions made by some of the more negative stories and photos doing the rounds.

Doing their country proud in Korea

Apparently it's our inferiority complex
I was interested to read this op-ed in the English version of People's Daily Online (translated from this Chinese original) that gets under the hood of Western anxieties about China. Apparently it all comes down to our inferiority complex:

When Westerners are facing the displacement of industrial enterprises overseas, outsourcing their work opportunities and seeing "China-made" products pile up in shops or stores in their countries and tourists from China walk in groups along streets of Paris, London and New York, they would instinctively envy, fear and even hate this big nation that has been developing without being based on the Western mode.

If they say so. In fact, I'll give them two out of three. I think fear and even, regrettably, hate sometimes do figure into mainstream western attitudes about China. I give less credence to envy. The rest of the article has much rant about the "Western mode" (code for heinous liberal democracy). Skipping past all of that, I'll ask what to the PR man is the obvious question: If a major constituency envies, hates and fears you, what are you going to do to solve the problem? Hint: Blaming the media isn't a solution. Sounds like somebody needs to improve their PR. Unfortunately, the only suggestion this article makes is, "Westerners should adjust their mentality with respect to China's development."

I'm trying. Honest I am.

The Wall Street Journal's China blog
Yep, they've got one too. Good to see they're all attracting the same high quality comments as the rest of us. Example:

Freedom of Speech != Degenerated Racist Comment in Public given CNN status. CNN comment is way out of line. I do not care much about China. As a Chinese decedent, I am totally offended by this and fully support whatever to get this guy fired.

I don't think "decedent" was actually the word he was looking for...

And finally, it wouldn't be complete without North Korea...
Creating just the kind of imagery that the IOC must have been craving, the torch arrived in North Korea today. That's right, North Korea.

The relay kicked off under the towering Juche monument in Pyongyang. It was, needless to say, completely trouble free. Nevertheless, the boys in blue were on hand. Just in case:

Don't miss the video of the ceremony on CNN's site. Imagethief is sincerely looking forward to the China leg of the relay when, he hopes, we'll see some actual grass-roots enthusiasm.

China to meet DL's representative: Spot the difference in language

2008-04-25T10:20:00Z

From CNN.com, a report that the Chinese government will meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama. This strikes Imagethief as something that be the result of a piece of external advice. You know, it would really look good if you would at least sit down with them... But who knows. Perhaps its a totally sincere effort at a constructive resolution.

In the CNN story is this quote from the Dalai Lama's secretary, Tenzin Takhla:

"His Holiness, since March 10th, has made every effort to reach out to the Chinese leadership.
"He has long said: 'The only way we can solve our differences is with face-to-face dialog.'"

CNN also carries a quote from a nameless Chinese government official, taken from a terse Xinhua report that is apparently the source of the story:

"It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks."

Quite a difference in tone there, with the Chinese striking a conspicuously aggressive stance. I'm afraid that the contrast will leave western audiences as sympathetic as ever to the Dalai Lama. But of course, that can always be attributed to CNN's "biased reporting".

Humorless heat hassles Hashers

2008-04-25T10:08:00Z

Back when he lived in Singapore many of Imagethief's friends used to run with the Hash House Harriers, the "drinking club with a running problem". Imagethief, being a solitary, sober runner used to give that miss. But it did sound like a sloshing good time.

Apparently there is a chapter here in Beijing as well, where, as we all know, a frosty beer can really help rinse the post-run coal soot out of your throat. However it seems that the group recently ran afoul of Beijing's tightening pre-Olympic security and lack of tolerance for zany foreign behavior. The story is now posted online. By way of background, hashers use funny nicknames and mark their path with flour:

At one point during the circle, one of the female hashers went inside the Rickshaw to purchase food. While she was there, she was informed that the police had been there earlier looking for a group of runners. Back outside she went, only to find no less than10 policemen, complete with 4 cars all standing around. When asked if she was part of the running group who had been going around the area, she realized that the shorts, t-shirts and runners she was wearing would make ‘no’, not really an option.
Over to the circle the police came and wanted to know about the suspicious substance that they had been throwing around the streets of Beijing. The Hashers were told that the police were tipped off about a group of foreigners running around the area, throwing and mysterious white substance onto the ground. The police had apparently discovered the trail and had been following the hashers and their trail all the way back to the Rickshaw. Turns out that the hashers were all live hares and were being pursued by the police. The Hashers were also informed that they were running in an “Olympic Zone” and the police were worried about the mysterious powder and terrorist activities. The Hashers tried to explain that it was only flour and had just purchased the bag at Jinkelong for 13 kuai. They even provided the empty bag as proof (aka exhibit A). The police were not convinced.
Getting cold, and having to await the arrival of the police El Capitaine, the Hashers decided to go into the Rickshaw and have some food and Beer. Long Legs nicely purchased a round and Trixxxie was seen eating 2 chilidogs. After a short time however, the manager of the Rickshaw was not too pleased with Police in his bar and informed the Hashers that they must immediately leave. Off to the Police station it was decided they go. They piled into the police cars and as they drove away they heard the words “I don’t think there will be any Hash events at the Rickshaw again anytime soon”, uttered by its manager.

At the police station, the 7 remaining Hashers who failed to earlier escape, were asked for ids and passport numbers. Willy Wanker, dressed back again in his spiffy work attire, broke out the diplomatic id, and was from then on only referred to by the Beijing police, and “the one who works for the Embassy”. With a few clicks of a button, the Hashers’ Chinese paper work was printed out to be analyzed. The clock on the wall read “106 days till the Olympics” and the hashers were feeling the One World, One Dream sentiment.

The rest is online. And you'd think that runners would be appreciated in this time of sporting celebration.

Hat tip to reader and runner L. for sending this story along.

He's not speaking for me...

2008-04-22T11:11:00Z

I am trying to figure out if "Mr. Fred J.M. Slot" (who's English is just slightly suspect) is taking the piss in this letter to Shanghai Daily:

ON behalf of myself and many of my friends I would like to apologize to the Chinese people for the way the Tibetan issue is handled by the far majority of the Western news agencies.

Of course I cannot speak for them, but at least I can give you my opinion.

An issue like this one with deep historical roots needs a much more delicate and balanced approach.

The truth in this case is not mentioned by any of the public media publishers with frontrunner CNN. So, we have to look for the reasons why China is attacked by the media in such an unfair and untruthful way.

The most important reason is envy and fear: a dangerous combination in the hands of the few media moguls who control almost anything printed and broadcast in the Western world.

Envy about the tremendous success of the Chinese people bringing the larger part of the population out of poverty in just a decade or two, which no nation in the world's history has ever achieved before.

Envy about the success and progress of the Chinese economy and fear for the Chinese impact on the world's economies, and therefore fear for a growing political influence by China.

News about China's success does not sell newspapers or attract a large number of viewers anymore.

The one-sided commentaries on the latest Tibet events and consequently the Olympics 2008 do sell newspapers and peaks the broadcasting of advertisements.

To me the Tibet events look "staged," with no other reason than to do damage.

The public support by some of the Western leaders for the Dalai Lama who wants to bring back the brutal rule to the Tibetan people has surely contributed and maybe even triggered the riots and the killing of many innocent Chinese.

The Chinese government was already condemned before the matter was investigated.

Upon review, I reckon he means it.

The part about success stories not selling as many newspapers or attracting as many viewers is true. Controversy, scandal and distress sell newspapers and attract viewers. However emphasizing these things is less an example of conspiracy or a manifestation of the envy of media barons (many of whom eye China hungrily) than the result of commercial forces at work. It is also a reflection of the fact that media play to their own constituencies.

As for events being "staged"...well, you can make up your own minds about that.