Soft Power or Hard Sell?

Over the past few weeks, stories coming out of China have dominated the global headlines. First came the Bo Xilai political scandal, followed by the story of Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident, and more recently, the expulsion of Al Jazeera's sole China correspondent Melissa Chan. Chinese authorities have yet to specify the reasons why Chen was not allowed to stay, and it has left room for speculation, mostly negative, in the Western media. Meanwhile, Beijing is addressing what it sees as an unfair deal in the Western media through its own soft power push. China has reportedly spent $6mn on news channels broadcasting in English, Russian and Arabic. In this week's News Divide, we look at one of China's growing exports - the image of itself.