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RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC 0252
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RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0436
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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