China unveils image-building ad in US for Hu visit

World

China unveils image-building ad in US for Hu visit

Close

19 January,2011 12:46 pm

China has unveiled a 60-second promotional video on the huge screens in New York City's Times Square to coincide with President Hu Jintao's US visit this week -- a flashy bit of soft diplomacy. The video -- which features basketball superstar Yao Ming, piano virtuoso Lang Lang and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei -- aired for the first time late Monday. Chinese state media said it will be shown 300 times a day for the next month. The film is aimed at boosting and raising China's image as being prosperous, developing, democratic, progressive, the press office of the State Council , China's cabinet, said in August when the campaign was first announced, adding it was about presenting China in a new era. Hu arrived in Washington on Tuesday for a visit that comes at a key moment in Sino-US relations, which have been dogged over the past year by everything from the yuan and trade disputes to human rights and Taiwan . The Chinese leader will begin the visit with a private dinner on Tuesday in the White House residence hosted by US President Barack Obama. Obama will then lay on the pageantry of a state visit on Wednesday, including talks in the Oval Office and a state dinner.