So who tries to control the media more firmly, the Chinese government or U.S. companies operating in China? Hint: A blog item earlier this week gives a clue.

As I mentioned then, Intel’s CEO is arriving in China this weekend for a press conference next Monday in the Great Hall of the People, the huge venue on Tiananmen Square.

Word is that Intel may announce a huge investment in Dalian, the seaside city in northeast China, perhaps the biggest high-tech investment yet by a U.S. company in China.

I was planning to go to the press conference. So I had my office assistant Linda Fan look into who was handling press relations. She found that it was the local office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. She wrote an email to the Ogilvy person in charge.

To my surprise, Ogilvy wrote her back and suggested that there isn’t enough space for all the journalists who want to attend, so I won’t be getting an invitation. Here’s the email:

Hi Linda,

My name is Calvin Tchiang, I work with Dustie at Ogilvy PR in Beijing.

I was writing to thank you for your interest in Intel and our press conference.

At this time, we are out of spaces for media, due to the restrictions the Great Hall of the People puts on our event. I hope you can understand, we would love to have you.

I will make sure you recieve our news release for this event and you are on our announcement list for future Intel events/announcments.

Looking forward to working with you in the future. :)

Thanks,

Calvin

Calvin Tchiang
Associate
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Office: +86-10-85206537 

This is curious, isn’t it? Anyone who has been to the Great Hall of the People knows that it can hold many thousands of souls. Was this a mistake? So I wrote to the head of the Ogilvy office. I just got a phone call from another PR person there. The upshot? Can’t go. No way, Jose.

I explained that we have several newspapers in California, including the Sacramento Bee in the state capitol, and that some of our newspaper readers undoubtedly work for Intel. Still nothing.

So it’s not just the Chinese government that limits the free flow of information in China.