I remember quite well during my sutdent time in Germany the Spartakists and their newspaper they regularly distributed at the campus. From the contents you could determine that these were financed by China. The content was written the same way, as claimed from the advertisment (haven't read this yet, though). China may present their opinion of course, like everyone else. But what China wants to achieve with such messages was never clear to me. So you can probably still win friends in North Korea, in the West people tend to resent such content, questioning if any democratic progress has been achieved through economic freedom yet, at best.

I guess it's no surprise that Postimees, like other dying newspapers, are desperate enough for money they'll even take it for such obvious propaganda purposes. Perhaps the day will come when they'll publish 'advertorials' submitted by the Russian Federation celebrating the 'liberation' of Estonia also?

It's good to have balanced views about regions that people have never been to instead of just listening to a separatist like the Lama whose group which had been well-documented had received funding, arms, and training from the CIA much like other religious groups we are all familiar with today. Not only that, Tibet has progressed much further than despite some choosing to live their traditional nomad-like life and free from the slavery which Lama for a fact practiced during his rule.

@Facts - you call the Chinese government's view 'balanced'? And there is no need to visit a region to qualify for making comments - as you yourself demonstrate. The Chinese government's policy of control and it's poor human rights record is documented by many other sources other than the Dala Lama.

I haven't seen it, but I'm not sure this is such a big issue. If it's clearly marked as a paid advertisement, then the reader will understand that. It's not like people these days don't have access to other sources of information if they want to find out other viewpoints on the issue other than that paid advertisement. Newspapers in the US routinely have full-page ads purchased by various lobbying groups in favor of some issue. In fact, sometimes you'll see two ads in the same paper from lobbying groups on various sides of the issue. They're clearly marked as paid advertisements, and I actually enjoy reading some of them to see what these groups think about a topic.

Look, the Chinese are even paying people like "Facts" to place comments here. Do they really think anyone will believe their lies?

auslane: What I meant by balanced views is looking at both sides of a story. Since you did not refute me with specifics and merely shifted topic to generalized old rhetoric, I take it you will not accept the other side of the coin. I do not doubt that some human right policies particularly for criminals, extremists and separatist instigators are stiffer in China than in most Western countries. But in some of those other countries the Tibetan monk practice of keeping human skin or leaving corpses out in the open for animal consumption is banned and would cause public uproar but it is permitted by the Chinese government. Just saying if all you choose to hear is one sided propaganda without direct knowledge and ignore the rest then your views may not be correct.

I have no problem with Postimees publishing it as a paid advertisement, it makes the Chinese government look stupid, as they are creating extra negative publicity with this kind of agitprop. They really don't understand how public relations work in the West.

@Facts - I don't bother debating anonymous people about these issues; your presumption about my lack of understanding / experience is one reason why. As VM pointed out, the Chinese government makes itself look stupid using these clumsy tactics.

Auslane, it is more the style that makes such advertisements look "stupid." Linguistics a la "Our Great Leader Is Our Greatest Happiness" and so on is not percepted very well in the West and remembers to the 'good old days' of Soviet occuption in Estonia, for instance. In so far, a bad call.

Counter messages no matter how positive by any government will be re-countered.

When I was reading my local Sunday paper here in the US last weekend, there was a multi-page advertising section paid for the by the government of Canada (or might have been Alberta province, I forgot) about how great the oil sands are in terms of helping to meet the US's energy needs, and also creating US jobs (through equipment purchases from US companies). I know there's another side to this story (the environmental impact), but I see nothing wrong with having this section in the newspaper as it was clearly marked as a paid advertisement.