Over the weekend, China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, wagged a stern finger at the United States, warning it not to “recklessly practice militarism” or resort to “war mongering” in its new defense strategy of expanding the American presence in Asia and the Pacific.
Lecturing countries, to the point of menacing them, isn’t normally the province of news agencies, not as we understand their role in this country. It’s hard to imagine the Associated Press telling Iran that it had better watch its step in the Strait of Hormuz, or else.
But then, Xinhua is not exactly the Associated Press. It is the official propaganda branch of the Communist Party in China. When it starts the wagging, you can bet that finger really belongs to the Beijing government.
So you might wonder if an agency like this, essentially a microphone for a regime that for all its economic prowess remains a bastion of repression, ought to command major space to advertise itself in the heart of New York City.
For the past five months, the facade of 2 Times Square, at the northern end of the square, has carried an LED sign announcing the glories of Xinhua, which is pronounced Shin-wa and means New China News Agency. The sign is enormous, 64 feet high by 40 feet wide. The graphics are certainly impressive, especially if you like plenty of images of Shandong Province, where Confucius was born.
“A new perspective” is how a Xinhua catchphrase goes.
The agency’s perspective is the core of the matter. People more familiar with its coverage than we are say that it does a reasonably credible job of reporting the world beyond China’s borders. But don’t bother subscribing to it, they say, for anything approaching reality on topics like Tibet or the mass imprisonment of domestic dissidents or the thousands of executions a year.
“In Xinhua’s world,” Newsweek and The Daily Beast wrote in September 2010, “the Tiananmen Square massacre never happened, Falun Gong is an evil cult and the Dalai Lama is the Guy Fawkes of Tibet.”
Given this, it seemed reasonable to ask the owner of 2 Times Square, Sherwood Equities, if agreeing to a multiyear lease with Xinhua had given it pause. The advertising at that building is overseen by a subsidiary, Sherwood Outdoor.
“We were aware of what we were doing,” said Jeffrey Katz, the chief executive and principal owner of Sherwood Equities. “We had conversations about it. They said to us when they did this, ‘We’re coming here to have a credible news agency.’ We said to them that in this country we’ll know soon enough whether it’s credible or not.”
“I’ve heard the criticism, and it’s not unfounded,” Mr. Katz said. “But nothing’s without risk, and I think the world is kind of slowly changing, so hopefully something good will come of it.”
For now, he said, he was content with how things were going and that “it will turn out as we all hope.”
Business with China is, quite simply, about business. That’s why in October 2009 the Empire State Building bathed itself in red and yellow, the colors of the Chinese flag, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Honoring the 60th anniversary of often-murderous Communist rule is another way to look at it. True to themselves, human rights groups with offices in the Empire State protested this tribute in lights.
Xinhua’s desire to do business “in a very big way” was important, said Brian Turner, president of Sherwood Outdoor. “If we declined it for whatever reason, because of who they are and what they may be or who maybe they’re not, wouldn’t we be doing the same thing that they do in their country?” Mr. Turner said.
Perhaps. But does upholding American values of free expression require leasing space to anyone? What if the would-be renter were Iran’s Fars News Agency or the Korean Central News Agency of North Korea?
At least Xinhua confines its slogan to “a new perspective.” It doesn’t pretend to a phrase like “fair and balanced.” Then again, that one is already taken, isn’t it?
