Between September and October this year, news media of France, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Israel and seven other countries conducted in succession a poll on US presidential election and its international image. Recently, a US public diplomatic official website and various main media one after another published the result of the above-mentioned activity. Relevant data show that 68 percent of the people surveyed thought US invasion of Iraq is wrong; 57 percent held that the United States has gone from bad to worse in the past two to three years. This indicates that the global public diplomatic activities carried out by the US government with an aim to change its international image since the "September 11" incident has completely failed.

Public diplomacy is a public relationship activity aimed directly at the public of another country, which is carried out by the government of a country in order to improve its international image. During the Cold War, public diplomacy performed notable meritorious service for the United States to win the Cold War. But after the Cold War, the US government drastically slashed the scale of public diplomacy and the input of resources. After the "September 11" terrorist attack, the US government, encouraged by the US Public Diplomatic Consultation Committee and the academic circles, once again picked up this diplomatic sharp weapon in order to intensify foreign propaganda, rapidly enhance US international image and thereby alleviate foreign anti-US sentiment. Soon after the "September 11" attack, the US State Department set up the Public Relations Office. This was followed by the White House's establishment of a "joint information center". In the autumn of 2002, the US government set up a "global exchange office, and incorporated in it the original "joint information center", so as to more effectively better US international image and its counter-terror publicity.

In addition, US State Department also produced a documentary film about the life of US Muslims; it set up a special website in charge of publicizing the US government's anti-terror policy to various countries around the world; it published handbooks in 30 languages explaining the reason why Washington needs to attack terrorism; it also subsidized the publication of the magazine"Hi"intended to introduce US popular culture, which is distributed simultaneously in over 20 countries, etc. Data from the US State Department International Information Bureau show that after September 11, 2001, the State Department organized over 1,000 digitized video conferences for US officials and experts to conduct exchanges with foreign audiences. The State Department's ranking officials also accepted nearly 1,000 interviews given by foreign news media, and subsidized worldwide a total of over 30,000 academic and professional or other types of exchange programs.

But just as what the above poll result shows, the series of public diplomatic activities carried out by the US government have failed to achieve the anticipated results. Terrorism has rebounded seriously worldwide in recent years, the development of the situation in the Middle East region is also beyond the US government's expectation. The main reason for the emergence of this situation should be ascribed to the American ill-timed foreign policy. After the conclusion of the Cold War, the United States became the sole superpower in the world. The vanishing of the international pattern featuring polar confrontation has made the United States fear nothing in its expansion abroad. Over a period of 10-odd years after the end of the Cold War, the United States has conducted more than 20 external interference activities under various pretexts. In addition, the American profit-seeking tendency exhibited in the tidal waves of economic globalization and its arrogant attitude expressed in arms control, environment, human rights and international criminal court, as well as the dual standards it adopts in its foreign policies toward Arab countries and Israel, all these are the important reasons for the damage of US international image. US military action of invading Iraq in March last year and the series of scandals on US troops'abuse of inmates in Abu Ghraib Prison exposed since this April have also greatly hurt US international image. Recently, while having to admit that no "weapons of mass destruction" as what he called had ever been found in Iraq, US President George W. Bush insisted on claiming the Iraq war to be correct, this has further laid bare US arrogant features.

However, since the "September 11" event, while summarizing the reasons for the tarnish of its international image, the United States simply ascribed it to the US government's "ineffective foreign publicity" and "inadequate communication". Over the past three years, the United States has spared no effort to wrap its "international image" in almost all its diplomatic activities, but it has failed to clearly see the poor quality of its wrapped products. As a matter of fact, the cause of US poor international image does not lie in its ineffective public diplomacy, but rather it lies in the irrationality of US foreign policy. Public diplomacy is not omnipotent, it cannot change the awfully bad policy into a good one. If the United States wants to regain respect from the world people, it must make profound self-examination, abandon the long outdated diplomacy characterized by power politics and hegemony, the only way for a solution of the problem is for it to implement a more democratic foreign policy that conforms to the international tide. Otherwise, it would be as futile as catching fish in a tree--doing the impossible.

This article written by Liao Hongbin is published on page 3 of People's Daily, November 1, 2004, and translated by People's Daily Online.