US-Media/ Chinese news agency Xinhua gets Times Square foothold

Aug 1, 2011, 21:48 GMT

New York - Xinhua, the official news agency of the Chinese government, has taken a prominent spot in the temple of US capitalism.

On Monday it began advertising on a giant billboard in New York's Times Square, a move that came weeks after the media outfit moved its US headquarters to the top floor of a 44-storey skyscraper in the heart of Manhattan's media land.

The 20 metre-by-13 metre LED sign is on one of the most prominent buildings on the square, which is world-famous for its gaudy advertising displays. It replaces a 10-year-old display of HSBC bank and is in close proximity to the displays of such iconic brands as Coca-Cola and Prudential, as well as other international brands such as Samsung and Hyundai.

Media experts said the initiative signaled a desire on the part of the Chinese news agency for greater global influence, as evidenced by its office move and launch last year of a 24-hour English-language television network called CNC World, or China Network Corporation.

'Xinhua's move into Times Square basically signals a new era in which they want to become a global player,' Russell Leong, a professor of Asian-American Studies at the University of California-Los Angeles, told The Wall Street Journal. 'China is realizing in the global arena that soft power is as important as hard power.'

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