According to this report in the Financial Times, China is going shopping for a PR company to repair its image in the wake of the Tibet crisis.

That image, like it or not, appears to be in tatters.

A group of us were speaking yesterday with John Kamm, head of the Dui Hua Foundation. Kamm, a businessman-turned-human rights strategist, is a recipient of one of those MacArthur “genius” grants for his amazing work in what he likes to call the “extraction” business – getting political prisoners out of jail in China.

Kamm’s foundation, based in San Francisco, works a lot with European governments. He noted that he’s on his fifth round-the-world trip so far in the past year. So he’s got his finger pretty well on the pulse of liberal Western images of China.

“What gives me some hope is that I think there’s some recognition … on the part of Chinese officials that China’s image has taken a beating,” Kamm said. “It’s as bad as it’s been since Tiananmen.”

Kamm noted that Chinese officials could hardly feel more upbeat about domestic support. Most Han Chinese are united in anger at ethnic Tibetans over the uprisings, and frustration that foreigners dare criticize how it is handling the matter. But therein lies the huge gap between the domestic and international audiences.

And since China doesn’t live in a vacuum, and despite the isolationist voices that seem to be emerging (quite oddly, considering how China largely survives from an export economy), it’s got to deal with this gap.

Kamm suggested China could start by laying off the Dalai Lama bashing.

“If you counter a negative with a negative, you don’t help yourself,” he said. “If international public opinion is against you, it doesn’t help if you call the Dalai Lama a bunch of names.”

He suggested China take some steps like freeing the remaining 60 to 100 Chinese still in prison for crimes related to the Tiananmen pro-democracy uprising nearly two decades ago. Such a move would put June 4, 1989, completely in the past, he said. He also suggested China could get goodwill by buying helicopters to the international force in Sudan’s Darfur region. China could justify it to the nation by noting that its own troops are there, and they need helicopters.

Those are his ideas. I’m sure a PR agency will come up with its own ideas. It wouldn’t surprise me to see some startling move to right the ship in the coming few months.

A final note: For those who want to understand better the infuriating gap between Chinese and foreign views on Tibet, please read this translation on Roland Soong’s blog of a Chinese employee in a German company and his interaction with his co-workers. It’ll give you insight into the sensitivities at stake.