China’s Massive Image Problem

As China gears up to host this year’s Summer Olympics, I can’t help but notice what a lousy image problem that the Jolly Red Giant has to contend with over the next several months.

There isn’t any getting around it — China remains a communist nation, one that is embracing capitalism at the same time. Here in the west, in the U.S. in particular, the communist side of things isn’t emphasized all that much — gee, we don’t want to hurt their feelings or have them get mad at us or something….

Anyway, back to the image problem.

The Ghost of Tiananmen Square — Inasmuch as the party leadership (Communist Party, that is) would like to forget the event, June 4, 1989 is a day that untold millions will never forget. China, in a bid to suppress a protest, turned on those demonstrators killing hundreds, perhaps thousands in the process. To this day, human rights activists continue to expose China’s forced labor camps, mistreatment of dissidents, and the curtailment of free speech among other offenses.

Dissent Groups Are Still Very Much Alive — The Falun Gong, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, et al, are very active within the country, with separatist-minded regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet giving the authorities the most problems. China’s revelation of a recent hijacking attempt was too vague to believe and likely a way for the central planning committee to tell dissidents to back off or else.

Product Quality Is Deplorable — Sure, not everything made in China stinks, but when pets die and tainted paint is found in children’s toys, consumers have every right to be concerned. Blaming it on changing standards and foreign designs just doesn’t cut it — if consumers perceive your products to be inferior, they’ll stay away.

Beijing Is Terribly Polluted — Ethiopian marathon runner, Haile Gebrselassie, is the best example of an athlete who is concerned about Beijing’s air pollution problem. Gebrselassie (who has asthma) mentioned on BBC recently that he would not run the marathon; instead, he stated that he would participate in the 10,000m event. Oddly, the BBC broadcast mysteriously disappeared when it was aired in China. You, think?!

Personally, I’m glad that when it comes to marketing my work is with small businesses, an easier area of concentration. I’ll be watching the Olympics this summer in part to see the athletes in action but also to observe how the People’s Republic of China handles what just could be a major publicity disaster in the making.

Do you, Baidu?

A Communist By Any Other Name…

…Is A Repressed Capitalist!

Seeing Red In The People’s Republic Of China

I’m about to violate at least two precepts related to blogging today: I’m going to be a bit “off topic” and I will cross the great political divide. As this is the most personal of my blogs, I am hoping that you will indulge me just this once. At least for the next five minutes or so.

Search Engine Redirects — Government Retaliation?

In the news today there are reports that three U.S.-based search engines — Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft — are currently being hijacked in China and users there are being redirected to Baidu, a search engine owned by the Chinese government. According to a published report, this activity began soon after President Bush awarded the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award offered by lawmakers.

Calling For An End To Religious Repression

In a highly symbolic ceremony held in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building, President Bush praised the Dalai Lama while calling for an end to religious repression. Certainly, the meeting with the Dalai Lama and the words the president used were considered provocative by the Chinese government, thus the apparent retaliation against the search engines.

What Is Really Going On

I’m certain that many people are dismissing what President Bush did as yet another of his political missteps. This isn’t about Iraq, the war on terror, or illegal immigration, rather the president’s action underscores two things related to China:

1. We in the west are highly ignorant to what is going on in China. Thousands of people are imprisoned even executed for their religious beliefs, whether they are called Buddhist, Falun Gong1, Christian, or Muslim. Religious intolerance is unwritten government policy and has been in place since the communists took power in 1949.
2. Doing business with China means doing business on their terms. You may gain the right to offer your products or services in China, but it must be done according to their laws.2 I’m not saying that a company shouldn’t do business in and with the People’s Republic of China, but it is clear that you are expected to behave in a way you wouldn’t in a democratic society.

Am I being anti-Chinese? No, but as a Christian I am against religious persecution no matter what the belief. I know that the “little red book” pictured above isn’t the backbone of Chinese politics today, but state control is.

My Google Analytic stats for this site are telling — while the number of visitors from Pacific Rim countries is good, e.g. the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and Japan, I receive no traffic from mainland China. Other webmasters have observed the same giving support to what is widely known, but rarely discussed: China continues to repress her people.

Photo Credit: Meghan Anderson-Colangelo; Albuquerque, New Mexico