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Don't miss James Fallows' superb story in Atlantic Monthly on China's national communication woes. Fallows gets into all the things that China does to undermine its own attempts to improve its international image. It's a fascinating read for anyone interested China and communication:Such self-inflicted damage occurs routinely, without the pressure ...

Imagethief, being an arrogant son of a bitch and a bona-fide member of the Ivory Tower Elite, is seldom interested in what the common man has to say. Nothing gets me to change the channel faster than an ''iReport'' segment on CNN, or the BBC equivalent. Of course, most professional pundits are equally useless, so in a sense, my contempt is ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The interesting top banner from Sina's page dedicated to the perfidy of western media:   Click on the image or the web page link above for the (large) full size version. The Chinese reads (as best I can translate it):Rise up! Angrily resist the demonization of the Tibet affair!Chinese netizens roast CNN and other western media! Note the ...

CNN hasn't had a good go of things in China recently. Roundly pilloried for allegedly ''biased'' coverage of the riots in Tibet, they found themselves the subject of a popular website, ''Anti-CNN'', and featured in a critical video that went viral in China and on YouTube (and is now part of a running series). At a somewhat more sinister level, the ...

A few days ago, a journalist asked me if a grand gesture, like a release of imprisoned dissidents, would be a good pre-Olympic PR move for the Chinese government. I told him that I thought at this point any such maneuver, no matter how positive, would be interpreted as a PR stunt and greeted with skepticism. It would also set expectations that the ...

Outside of Young Frankenstein there isn't really any such thing as a ''good time'' for rioting, but this might be an especially bad time for China to have a bout of punishing ethnic unrest. It hasn't really been a banner start to the Olympic year so far, what with the worst storms anyone can remember, the Darfur activists on a tear, the ...

The temperature is rising. From AP, via CNN:The president of the International Olympic Committee rejected the idea of boycotting the Summer Games in Beijing over China's crackdown in Tibet, saying it would only hurt athletes.''We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything,'' Jacques Rogge told reporters Saturday on this Caribbean island. ''On ...