China hires Washington lobbyists for aggressive PR campaign

[kurth]

After Silence, China Mounts Product Safety PR Offensive
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 14, 2007; A01

BEIJING -- Scanning the headlines in the Chinese press, it's easy to conclude that the global brouhaha over product safety is not about China -- but about America. Investigative reports in the state-run media delve into the case of an exploding cellphone purportedly made by U.S.-based Motorola that allegedly killed a young man. They warn consumers not to use contact-lens solution produced by U.S.-based Advanced Medical Optics, which has been linked to rare cases of blindness. And they play up recalls of U.S. beef.

Faced with mounting international concern over the safety of some of the products it exports, the Chinese government -- often perceived as defensive and clumsy in how it handles public relations -- is firing back. In Washington, China has put together a team of lobbyists who have been practically living on Capitol Hill for the past few weeks. In Beijing, the government has taken the unusual step of seeking advice from outsiders, including public relations powerhouses Ogilvy and Edelman, about how to get positive messages out to Chinese and American consumers.

The result has been an aggressive campaign to save the "Made in China" label by presenting an alternate view on consumer safety and globalization. The message is that China isn't the only country that has had problems with the products it exports. China, as government officials have been pointing out in recent days, rejects U.S. imports at a rate that is just a little less than the 1 percent of Chinese products rejected by the United States...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071302010.html

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And the whores are lining up to take their money.

[aquart]

1. Aww, they're gonna trash us to protect themselves. How nice.

[Hosnon]

2. Nothing less could be expected. Most everything is a battle of interests and

the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. The U.S. will hit, China will hit back.

[Vincardog]

3. And China will continue to export to the us at a 2% tariff and we export to them a 250%