There has been much discussion in the Western media as to what effect Chinese President Hu Jingtao’s recent State visit to the U.S. will have on the future trajectory of Sino-U.S. relations, if any. Due to the fact the world economy has been in a slump, with the U.S. at it’s center struggling to recover, trade was the central topic on Barack Obama’s agenda. And for his part, he received some trade concessions, such as the US$45 billion trade package, which will allow American business a bit more access to certain Chinese markets. Still, when compared to the US$400 billion trade deficit the U.S. is running with China, US$45 billion is a “drop in the bucket”. I will leave that discussion to my more knowledgeable colleague to elaborate on.
Something else was left in the wake of Mr. Hu’s visit. Something many Americans are now aware of, something I first saw here in Europe, on CNN International. “Propaganda”, in the form of a Chinese government’s public relations campaign seeking to remove the negative stereotypes in the mind of many Westerns, especially Americans, due to China’s economic and political rise. As the Wall Street Journal reports, these ads have even taken up the 6 television screens in New York’s Time Square.
As footage posted on YouTube (see above) show, each group of people in the ad is pictured with a banner, some more literal than others. A photo of Yao Ming and other athletes standing in front of the Birds Nest national stadium is titled “Thrilling Chinese Athletics.” Meanwhile, an image of Mr. Li standing alongside two other technology entrepreneurs, Netease founder Ding Lei and Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, the banner reads “Chinese Wealth,” a label probably more immediately meaningful (and more appealing) to Chinese viewers than the hundreds of thousands of daily passersby in Times Square.
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I have to agree with David Wolf as to why he questioned the effectiveness of these ads:
By flaunting all of China’s material accomplishments, says David Wolf, chief executive of marketing strategy firm Wolf Group Asia, the commercial was more scary than friendly. “With these ads, China probably hoped to open its arms to the American people,” he said. “Instead, without realizing as much, it gave them the finger.”
A popular meme that started circulating through the media in the days ahead of Hu’s visit was that any deals made with China by American President Barack Obama would likely bring lackluster results because, as is supposed to be common knowledge, Mr. Hu is a “lame duck” president, soon to leave office. The idea being that his successor, who is likely to be Xi Jingping, might have his own conflicting policy agenda. I think the Silicon Hutong blog did a nice job “elucidating” why this is faulty reasoning on the part of Western observers who are clearly revealing their unfamiliarity with the Chinese political system. The “long and short” of it is that China is an oligarchy led by a “first among equals”, not a dictatorship where to the winner goes all the spoils, or a “cult of personality” based regime. Well this has been true since Deng Xiaoping died. But even then, the shadow of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution (Wenge) showed the survivors that such a “cult of personality”, powerful enough to do what he desires, in a system sans true popular mandate has been deemed as too dangerous and unstable by the CCP zeitgeist. While Mr. Xi might have his own power bases and leadership “flare”, it is highly unlikely he will make radical change to the Chinese government, especially in regard to Chinese policy toward the United States. In his first few years in office, a time when Mr. Hu’ shadow will still loom large in the background, expect no radical shifts, even if the talk gets tougher. No, to the contrary, it is likely Hu Jintao is at the height of his power.
Speaking of Mr. Xi, this blog has previously tried to piece together the rise of President Hu’s shadowy heir apparent, but the New York Times has an excellent article which somewhat illuminates the life, and from which, attempts to deduce the attitudes of the man who will reign over the world’s greatest rising power.
