Faceless in Beijing
The Beijing Olympics opens in less than a year, yet just 7 per cent of Britons can name China's president. That was the conclusion of a survey by China Now, a British organisation launched this month to promote links between Britain and the mainland. According to the survey, the British associate China mostly with former chairman Mao Zedong , Confucius and Jackie Chan.
Such a lack of knowledge says a lot about the British themselves. But it's an undeniable fact that President Hu Jintao remains a strangely unknown figure even in his homeland. The same can be said for the other senior members of the Chinese government. It's as if Mr Hu and the rest of the Politburo are simply interchangeable men in dark suits. In his defence, he can point to how the cult of personality in politics is an un-Chinese phenomenon, with the notable exception of Mao. Nevertheless, Mr Hu's blandness is an anomaly in a world where US presidential candidates have their own pages on the Facebook website.
Mainland politicians are known in particular for their unrevealing speeches. That was noted by one mischievous moderator at the New Champions summit of the World Economic Forum in Dalian this month. Clay Chandler of Fortune magazine was unimpressed by Premier Wen Jiabao's opening address, which he claimed sounded like every other speech he'd ever heard from a Chinese leader.
Its penchant for cloaking its leaders in anonymity is one of the reasons why China finds it so hard to promote itself effectively. The authorities don't seem to understand the concept of positive public relations - that it's not just a mechanism to deal with problems after they arise, but can be used to avert them. The recent dangerous-toys crisis is an example of that. While the world was heaping opprobrium on the mainland toy industry - even though many of the problems were the result of US design flaws - their response was a series of flat denials. Only after things reached fever pitch did the factories allow the foreign press in to see the constraints they work under.
By then it was too late. But if any journalist had tried to gain access to the factories before the crisis, they would have been turned away. It's been a similar story with almost every recent scandal, from the Sara outbreak and chemical leaks in rivers to slave labourers. The result is further damage to the country's image.
Last week, some of the famed terracotta warriors from Xian went on display at the British Museum in London. The show is shaping up to be the museum's most successful in 35 years. It's a perfect example of positive PR, and the authorities should note its effect. If China really wants to be understood, then it needs to do more than just rely on its leaders' anodyne public statements.
David Eimer is a Beijing-based journalist
