In the name of the nation: The development of China’s international propaganda from the Late Qing to the end of the second world war

At 5:30am on Monday, 1 August 2011, a giant LCD screen lit up at 2 Times Square in New York. The screen that used to advertise HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) was replaced by the logo of the Xinhua News Agency, China’s official news agency (Elliott, 2011; Rong, 2011). This highprofile presence was just another step in the agency’s continuous effort to make itself known to the international world. A few months earlier, it had introduced a new 24-hour, English-language broadcast service and moved its North American bureau headquarters from Woodside in Queens to the top floor of the 44-storey skyscraper at 1540 Broadway, New York, overlooking Times Square. At a time when most news organisations were in retreat worldwide, reducing staff numbers and closing branch offices, Xinhua’s move to the prestigious location at the socalled crossroads of the world suggested that the Chinese government was determined to improve its global image.