China-Taiwan PD Milestone Goes Unnoticed in U.S. Media

TAIPEI --- While the latest aircraft carrier movements and military maneuvers here are chronicled closely in U.S. media, significant public diplomacy initiatives go largely unreported. This past week provided a prime example:

Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong’s week-long visit to Taipei has been front-page news in this region, in newspapers from Korea to Singapore. For his first-ever visit, the mayor led a 500-person delegation – yes, five hundred people – including party officials, business leaders and Chinese celebrities.

Guo ended his visit on Wednesday by announcing a major cultural exchange between China and Taiwan, signaling a major advance in cross-Straits relations, building on the increases in trade and tourism between China and Taiwan.

If you haven’t heard about the visit, it is because it went unnoticed in U.S. media.

Search nytimes.com for the name of Bejing’s mayor, Guo Jinlong, and here is what you find: “Your search - guo jinlong - did not match any documents under Past 30 Days.”

Just to make certain, reverse the first and last names to place the family name last, as is Western custom, in case that is how the Times writes his name. Here is the result:

“Your search - jinlong guo - did not match any documents under Past 30 Days.”

Try “Beijing mayor.” Nope.

How about the Los Angeles Times? “No Results Found.”

Try those searches in Google News, and you are directed only to news organizations in Asia.

And yet, search the South China Morning Post and there is an immediate hit: Under the headline “'Cultural journey' boosts Taiwan ties” you will find the lead sentence, “Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong wrapped up a six-day visit to Taiwan yesterday that analysts said marked a new phase in cross-strait relations.” The online article is behind a pay wall, but the ink-on-paper SCMP articles here were under three- and four-column top-of-the-page headlines and ran to twelve paragraphs.

Sounds pretty important, right?

Go to Seoul’s English-language Korea Herald and a search produces several links, going back to Xinhua’s scene-setter before the delegation’s departure from Beijing.

Seems to have attracted a great deal of attention, no?

And so it is not a surprise that Taipei news media offered extensive daily news stories as well as follow-up analysis. Today’s Taipei Times features a story detailing “new policy guidelines” and describing behind-the-scenes meetings that took place during the delegation’s visit.

That story was the second most emailed item on the Times web site, surpassed only by the latest on Taiwan’s new national hero, Jeremy Lin.

Just in case anyone still doubts how seriously Guo’s visit is taken here, consider the Taipei Times editorial after the delegation left. The editorial described the visit and the new cultural diplomacy initiatives in its headline as “more nails in the annexation coffin.”