Interesting China PR, communication and media-related stories from the past week:

Murdoch gets the Journal
The board of Dow Jones has, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, approved the sale of the company to Rupert Murdoch. That means that Murdoch will own, among other things, the Wall Street Journal. Last week Journal editor-at-large Paul Steiger took pains to point out that the ownership change would not affect China coverage. It took less than a day for the Columbia Journalism Review to suggest that Steiger might be overconfident.

In fact, we'll all have to wait to see what it means. Imagethief believes that the Journal has some of the best China journalism around -- especially when it comes to business (here's an example -- Jason Dean's new piece about Foxconn). But seven of the nine or ten journalists in the China bureau were among sixty-odd Journal reporters who publicly opposed the sale. Is it conceivable that there won't be some change in the year ahead, even if its voluntary?

Olympics: One year and counting
Last Wednesday was celebrated in China as marking one year to go until the opening of the Beijing Olympiad. A gala celebration was duly held on Tian'anmen Square. Unfortunately, the reverberations of the protests earlier in the week hung over foreign coverage of the events. As did a pall of Beijing's legendary perma-haze. Unfortunately, a comment from IOC President Jacques Rogge that pollution might mean postponing certain events dominated much of the foreign coverage. Domestic English language coverage took a more upbeat point of view. Writing for the Independent (via the New Zealand Herald), Cliff Coonan pointed out that it would be hard for Bejing to avoid political issues in the run-up to the Olympics.

The Olympics have kindled an urge in some foreign journalists to stake out points of view. US Public Radio reporter Jocelyn Ford published an op-ed piece in the International Herald Tribune on Friday looking at the environment for journalists in China. Ford was quoted in Mure Dickie's Financial Times article on the detention of foreign journalists at the RSF protest in Beijing a week ago. Perhaps that was motivation for her. Newsweek bureau chief (and Foreign Correspondents Club of China president) Melinda Liu also published an online article with a bit of advocacy in it. Richard Spencer of the Telegraph, in his blog, pleads with people to get past the idea of the Olympics as a "coming out party" for China. China's already out, he notes.

The Guardian, meanwhile, published an article by Jonathan Watts based upon an interview with Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei, who participated in the design of some of the Olympic venues. Ai was scathing in denouncing the Olympics and distancing himself from them and from some of the other artists who are participating:

"All the shitty directors in the world are involved. It's disgusting," said Ai. "I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment. It is mindless."

Strong stuff. Ai points out that he was hired not by the Chinese government but by a Swiss design team. Nevertheless, his rejection seems a bit discordant with even removed participation.

Chinese cars: Do they suck, or is the fix in?
An in-depth piece by Andrew Osborne in the Wall Street Journal (there they go again!) looks at the fortunes of Chinese cars in export markets. In particular, it scrutinizes their questionable safety, which will be a hot issue. The question is, are the cars actually deficient or are competitors using safety fears --nicely turbocharged* by recent product quality scandals-- as convenient PR leverage for attacking cheap, Chinese competitors? The article does raise that possibility.

Chery and Landwind have both been accused of failing to make the grades in crash tests. Unfortunately for them, nasty-looking crash videos of both vehicles are available on YouTube (Chery Amulet here, Landwind SUV here). What good is an airbag if your torso has been severed at the waist? Well, I suppose it makes the corpse easier to identify if your facial features aren't crushed.

From a PR point of view, the solution is relatively simple. If, that is, Chery and Landwind feel the tests were conducted unfairly. Simply conduct rigorously executed, unbiased tests and invite journalists to attend. On the other hand, if your safety standards really do suck, they'll have to find another angle. Still, people like a good value. As the article notes, Cherys are still selling briskly in Russia, where one of the videos originated.

Via Danwei: See also China Car Times' online video profile of Geely. 

China has the US by the financial short and curlies: Discuss
Via The Horse's Mouth, an article from the Telegraph reported that China has threatened in its oblique way to crash the dollar and destroy its worth as a reserve currency if the US persists in twisting China's arm about the value of the RMB. This article was rapidly fisked by Andrew Leonard of Salon, who questioned both the credentials of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the author of the Telegraph article, and the analysis upon which the conclusion is based.

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, political newsletter Counterpunch immediately leaped into the fray, with two articles from Paul Craig Roberts arguing that the threat is very real indeed.

Today AP reports that Xinhua is telling everyone to keep cool.

So what will actually happen? Don't ask Imagethief. My economics knowledge is limited to what I skim in The Economist, a magazine I read mostly because I think they have the most talented obituary writer in the game. (Well, the news analysis is good too.) But from my point of view the dollar hasn't needed much help from China to crash.

See also: Danwei. 

Children, can you spell "Zheng Xiaoyu"? I knew you could!
From Reuters, Beijing is making anti-corruption a part of its official school curriculum:

Schoolchildren in the Chinese capital will get compulsory anti-corruption lessons this school year, including case studies on executed officials, a state newspaper said yesterday.

The tone of the textbooks for the "honest education" classes would start off positive and gradually become darker, the Beijing Youth Daily said. It would also try to stop corruption in student elections.

This should complement the recently released (and immediately withdrawn) Incorruptible Warrior nicely. If, that is, they can ever get Incorruptible Warrior online again.

Learning from the best
People's Daily reports that a delegation of media professionals from Myanmar will be visiting China to learn best practices:

A Myanmar media delegation made up of official and private media personnel left Yangon Sunday afternoon for Beijing to start a week-long visit to China, aimed at strengthening the exchange and cooperation between the two countries in the sector of information.

Imagethief can say with complete sincerity and a total lack of irony that this can only improve the quality of Myanmar's media.