POSITIVE MEDIA REACTION IN GUILIN AND LIUZHOU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000085 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM, EAP/PD, EAP/TC, INR/EAP, S/P E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO PREL PGOV SOCI SCUL OPRC ECON CH TW SUBJECT: POSITIVE MEDIA REACTION IN GUILIN AND LIUZHOU REF: A) GUANGZHOU 75, B) GUANGZHOU 76, C) 09 GUANGZHOU 707 GUANGZHOU 00000085 001.2 OF 002 (U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. Not for release outside U.S. government channels. Not for internet publication. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Consul General Goldbeck's February 1-3 visit to Guilin and Liuzhou garnered unprecedented media coverage for a Consulate Guangzhou event outside of Guangzhou city. The positive media coverage from over 100 outlets reached over 700 million people in and outside of China (ref A). This phenomenon was due to a strategy of targeted press invitations and press releases emphasizing mutual understanding and civil society. However, success also represents good fortune on the timing and location of this particular trip. Pictures of the CG at the Guilin Flying Tigers airfield, and exclusive sound bytes extolling NGOs and friendship, were well timed and well received given recent reaction in China about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. End summary. Breaking Records -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Beside "700 Million Served," this trip also set several U.S. Consulate and VPP Nanning media "firsts" for the Guangxi region. This was the first time in the Guangxi region that we succeeded with: A) Media covering an NGO meeting (which also garnered an additional online photo spread story); B) Giving a media availability at an NGO; C) Publishing results of a separate media interview of the CG; and D) All major Chinese online media plus People's Daily news wire picking up a Consulate press release (on Guilin). ¶3. (SBU) Consulate VPP trips regularly garner some Chinese media coverage, but we are rarely allowed the freedom of operation to successfully arrange any of our own press. This time, coverage led by China News (CN) after an exclusive with the CG ran on the Xinhua wire, in People's Daily, in China Daily and on China's five most influential websites. Coverage was published not only in mainland China but also in Chinese language sources in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and the United States. Good News, Mutual Understanding Welcome in Guilin and Liuzhou... -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Most of the coverage focused on the Consul General's visit to and remarks about the Flying Tigers Heritage Park, related US-China historical connections and IPR cooperation possibilities (ref A). In Guilin, the Consulate delegation was able to thank authorities for their cooperation in prosecuting IPR offenders (ref B). ¶5. (SBU) Coverage was led by China News (CN),which was present at events in Guilin and Liuzhou, and which enjoyed exclusive coverage of the CG's visit to the NGO Xingyu center for autism in Liuzhou. CN's coverage of American concern for autistic kids, in conjunction with coverage of the CG answering a question posed later about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, attracted interest in the international Chinese community. ¶6. (SBU) The Guilin and Liuzhou Foreign Affairs Offices were unusually friendly toward the Consulate delegation. Besides the natural charm of those areas, Guilin and Liuzhou enjoy more positive shared history with the United States than do many other areas. Many municipal and Party leaders in these cities have direct experience with American tourists and in the United States, and in fact some have children studying in U.S. schools. Guilin entertains 60,000 American tourists a year and wants to increase this share of its 1.2 million annual foreign tourists and 6 million total annual tourists. Liuzhou's active Sister City relationship with Cincinnati, Ohio means they enjoy significant ongoing people-to-people contact with Americans, and reap economic and cultural benefits (ref A). These ties and their important economic benefits help explain the positive reception the CG received in these locations. GUANGZHOU 00000085 002.2 OF 002 ¶7. (SBU) While Post deliberately planned the Flying Tigers trip to highlight positives, the depth of mutual feeling among the delegations at the Guilin Museum and at the Flying Tigers site was remarkable. Local officials building the new Flying Tigers memorial expressed genuine admiration for the United States, and they had no idea that Americans such as CG and VPP Nanning officer actually grew up reading, hearing, watching and admiring Flying Tigers stories. In Guilin, people-to-people contacts are longstanding and widely recognized for the value they bring to the local community. ...And Less Welcome Elsewhere -------------- ¶8. (SBU) In contrast to the unusually good news from Guilin and Liuzhou, other recent Consulate Guangzhou / VPP Nanning trips have worked on ties in the Guangxi region but encountered limitations. For instance, the Guangxi capital of Nanning is a political center keen to develop its ties to ASEAN countries and proud of Nanning's cultural achievements in setting up Confucius Centers in several neighboring countries. While Guangxi Normal University (Guilin) recently expressed hope they can obtain an American Corner, Guangxi Nationalities University (Nanning) was very defensive about the same subject earlier (ref C). Comment: It's likely that trends in the bilateral relationship have more direct impact on our dealings with local officials in the regional capital, with its heightened sensitivity to political appearances. End comment. Press Strategy and Limitations: In Guangxi, Use National Outlets -------------- -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Virtual Presence Post (VPP) Nanning has learned that local Foreign Affairs Offices (FAOs) in the Guangxi region are very reticent to allow local media coverage of the Consul General and Consulate events. Therefore, to avoid local media being "uninvited" by FAOs after Post invites them, Post now coordinates with FAO to ask "advice" whether we can invite media. We do not invite local media if FAO opposes it. In practice, FAOs often cancel local media even if they tell Post it is alright. However, Post has learned in trips to Beihai (ref C) and now to Guilin and Liuzhou that local outlets of national media are generally happy to attend U.S. public diplomacy events and media availabilities. Thus, local outlets of Chinese national media are the keys to coverage in Guangxi for now. ¶10. (SBU) What was different in Guilin and Liuzhou is that the national media's local outlet actually was allowed to publish its story garnered from our invitation and availability, rather than having such content redacted and publishing only a flat government-issued summary. (Censorship kept out any news of Post giving a press availability in Beihai in December 2009.) Paradoxically the CG's visit to Guilin and Liuzhou has become a national and international story, but few of Guangxi's regional media tracked coverage, except for Guangxi News Wire and Liuzhou News Wire republishing the China News story. Media inside Guilin and Liuzhou used their own government-guided releases, not the Consulate's. ¶11. (SBU) Comment: Part of the widespread and positive coverage about the Guilin and Liuzhou trip was due to concern about bilateral frictions over Taiwan, and China News' interpretation that the CG's trip represented "top leaders working to restore relations" in the immediate aftermath of those bilateral frictions. Ironically, on the Taiwan connection to the CG's trip, media coverage and elite attention was more positive than popular blogger reaction in mainland China, much of which professed to remain suspicious. Some of the negative response may have come from "bloggers" who are paid to reproduce PRC-friendly comments. End Comment. JACOBSEN