When China interacts with the world, it often feels misunderstood. So when the government decided to launch an advertisement on the giant screens of New York’s Times Square to coincide with a state visit by Hu Jintao, China’s president, to the US, it wanted to show the world the “real China”.

The new advert – showing Chinese actors, entrepreneurs, athletes and astronauts looking down on shoppers and passersby from a stark red background – follows the launch of multi-language television programming and English-language newspapers by the main state media as an another major step in Beijing’s attempt to change its image around the world.

According to internal Chinese government surveys, the country’s image in the west is plagued by fears about its military rise, job losses, environmental pollution and human rights violations.