Beyond food and toys, China struggles with its global reputation

Today, different issues put further strain on China's relations with the rest of the world, such as its ballooning trade surplus, charges of currency manipulation, the loss of Western jobs to low-wage Chinese factories, widespread use of the death penalty, greenhouse-gas emissions – soon to top the world charts – and persistent human rights abuses.

"Now, China attracts much more diverse attention from all over the world, so its image is complex," says Professor Shi. "China's adaptation to these new issues still leaves much to be desired in Western eyes," he acknowledges.

The spate of negative news reports coming out of China on such topics over the past year or so has taken a toll. Whether it is The Daily Show host Jon Stewart joking about Chinese child laborers applying lead paint to toys for American children to eat, labor union leaders bemoaning the loss of American jobs, or presidential hopefuls berating China's trade policy, unfavorable images of China "are already very much part of American perceptions," says David Zweig, who heads the Center for China's Transnational Relations at Hong Kong's University of Science and Technology.

Though Chinese leaders are clearly aware of their image problem, "it is not the way the Chinese do business to take bold steps," says Bates Gill, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "They move quietly in small steps behind the scenes," which does not impress foreign publics, he adds.

The Olympic Games, however, are providing a spur to action on at least one front, as Chinese diplomats try to head off international protests against Beijing's support for the Sudanese government that threaten to mar the Games.

Last week in Washington, Beijing's point man on Africa, Liu Guijin, met for the first time with representatives of the "Save Darfur Coalition," an activist group that has harshly criticized China's policy toward Sudan in the past. After the meeting, the coalition issued a statement applauding China's recent efforts to create a peacekeeping force in Darfur and urging Beijing to do more.

Dan Lynch, who teaches international relations at the University of Southern California, says it is "hard to know" if initiatives such as Mr. Liu's represent "fundamental changes or tactical concessions in the year before the Olympics."

Either way, he argues, "the Chinese Communist Party is going to have increasing problems managing its own image as the global civil society becomes more important in setting the global agenda. It finds the very concept of civil society hard to deal with."

Nevertheless, Shi says he believes that senior Chinese officials are beginning to understand how to address foreign public opinion. "The problem is that Western publics have less patience than Western governments," he says. "That makes things very difficult for China."

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