China Airs Commercial in U.S. to Bolster Image During Hu’s Visit

January 17, 2011, 11:46 PM EST

By Bloomberg News

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — China unveiled a 60-second promotional video on the giant screens of New York’s Times Square last night as the nation seeks to present a more positive image for President Hu Jintao’s U.S. visit this week.

The marketing film, featuring Chinese celebrities including basketball player Yao Ming, astronaut Yang Liwei, and pianist Lang Lang, will show 300 times a day on six screens, according to the official Xinhua News agency. The clip will also air on television during Hu’s tour from today to Jan. 21, said Wang Lijun, a spokeswoman for producer Shanghai Lowe & Partners.

Hu arrives in Washington today for his first state visit following a year of rising tensions over trade, human rights and security issues. One in five Americans identified China as the greatest threat to the U.S., more than any other nation, a survey released last week by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed.

“China has focused in recent decades on economic development without paying much attention to how it presents itself to the world,” said Shen Wangshu, a researcher at the Communist Party’s Beijing Academy of Social Science. “It is urgent and necessary that we tell our own story instead of complaining about how the outside world has misread China.”

Hu meets President Barack Obama tonight and will be a guest of honor at a formal White House dinner tomorrow, before visiting Chicago. While Hu is in Chicago, U.S. and Chinese companies will announce about 40 agreements, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs said.

Jobless

Obama’s administration and U.S. lawmakers have been pressing China to accelerate appreciation of the yuan, which they say is undervalued and gives the nation’s exporters an unfair advantage. The two countries have also sparred over China’s territorial claims and support for North Korea, and over U.S. military maneuvers in Asian waters.

Unemployment in the U.S. at 9.4 percent is almost twice the level at the beginning of 2008 as the country struggles to exit from the financial crisis sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. China’s economic growth is estimated to have topped 10 percent last year as foreign exchange reserves reached $2.85 trillion, or 31 percent of the global total.

China had a $252 billion trade surplus with the U.S. in the first 11 months of 2010, according to Commerce Department data.

China wants the U.S. to lift its ban on exports of some technology to help balance trade.

The marketing video will also be broadcast in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, the Beijing News newspaper reported, citing Wang Zhongwei, vice director of the State Council’s Information Office.

Peace Prize

“The Chinese government needs to demonstrate its respect for human rights through concrete actions,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, an advocacy group. “A significant step would be the release of individuals, including Liu Xiaobo, who are imprisoned for the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms.”

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu last year sparked an angry response from the government, which branded the award-giving committee “clowns” and accused them of meddling in China’s domestic affairs. Obama, who was himself given the prize in 2009, said Liu was “far more deserving” than him.

China began preparing the commercials in July to promote a “prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious” image of China, the State Council Information Office said at the time.

–Yidi Zhao in Beijing. Editors: Ben Richardson, Mark Williams

To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Yidi Zhao in Beijing at yzhao7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg in Hong Kong at phirschberg@bloomberg.net