By Dan Bloom
- Danny Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Propaganda comes in all sizes, and communist China wants a piece of
Times Square in New York City now.
Xinhua, the state-controlled propaganda agency of the
Chinese Communist Party, has leased
a longterm advertising logo space in Manhattan’s iconic Times Square, renting
a huge LED sign called a “spectacular” in U.S. advertising parlance.
According to the New York Times, the Xinhua
sign is underneath a sign for Prudential and above signs for
Samsung, Coca-Cola and Hyundai brands.
The problem is that Xinhua is not a brand. It is rather the mark of branded
disinformation and propaganda, and Ameicans need to know that.
Like the former USSR, today’s China thinks it can fool the Western world with glass
skyscrapers, space flights and glowing Times Square signs.
But the West knows better — or does it? — and Xinhua is merely
flexing its public relations muscles as it attempts to pull the wool over
gullible eyes in America and Europe.
Xinhua is a news agency? Let’s be honest: it’s the propaganda arm of a
one-party state in an undemocratic land ruled
by fear and paranoia — that uses trumped-up jail terms to keep
dissidents in line. Xinhua is akin to the old Soviet
propaganda machines of yesteryear that served Russia so well in the
1970s and 80s. Remember Tass?
It’s one thing for Times Square to open its advertising space to
private brands from across the globe, and surely
Chinese brands like Haier and Levono are welcome to showcase their
logos there. But a so-called “news agency” that prints
blatant falsehoods and untruths about events inside China and in the
West, and has the unmitigated gall to call its workers “journalists”?
Whoever let Xinhua in to Times Square ought to have their heads
examined.
A New York real estate firm called Sherwood Equities, which owns
properties that include
Times Square, seems to think there’s nothing wrong with
pocketing the hefty monthly rental fees from Xinhua. After all,
America wants to be pals
with Beijing, and what better way to show it than to let the say ”ni
hao” in Times Square.
Why China’s soft public relations push in Times Square? Well, for one thing,
Xinhua has introduced a CNN-like 24-hour English-language broadcast
service — China Network Corporation (CNC World), that seeks to reach
millions of gullible viewers around the world — with
state-sanctioned propaganda of the most nefarious and sophisticated kind.
Xinhua is also flexing its propaganda tentacles with an English-language
wire service, hoping to compete with veteran news agencies like
The Associated Press and Reuters.
Does anybody not remember that official disseminator of
government news releases in the former Soviet Union? Xinhua
is just Tass in sheep’s clothing. Wake up, America!
Behind the Times Square sign is China’s desire to counter what it
insists is ”widespread bias against China” in the Western media,
from CNN to the New York Times.
But as the New York Times itself said
in a recent article about the new Xinhua sign in Times Square, Xinhua
has some work to do. “Reports by Xinhua on topics like Taiwan and
Tibet, which are of
considerable political concern to its government bosses, are not
necessarily known for being objective,” the Times editorialized.
Welcome to Times Square, Xinhua wolves in sheep’s clothing. Maybe
you’ll learn something about
freedom and democracy while you’re there.
**
Dan Bloom is a freelance writer who has lived in Asia for 20 years. He may be contacted at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com