China-free, March 10

Mr Rudd’s predecessors have been even worse. In1976 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser moved a condolence motion in the House of Representatives over the death of Mao Tse-tung, the man who sentenced to death more than 70 million people in China, including more than a million Tibetans.

According to the Australia China Business Council, the trade and commercial relationship is growing rapidly, with two-way trade growing at an average of around 20 per cent over the past five years. China experts predict relations between China and Australia are likely to grow after the CCP released two panda bears as a gift to Australia. Pandas are endangered animals, and so are Tibetans. With the rate of Han migration into Tibet, I wonder when the CCP will start giving away Tibetans as gifts to other countries, bearing a tag: “TIBETAN, MADE IN CHINA”.

Made in China, made with the world campaign

"Made in China, Made with the world" is the theme of an ad campaign masterminded by DDB Guoan, the Chinese branch of Manhattan-based agency DDB. They’ve been challenged with the task of advertising tainted milk and toothpaste, toxic toys and slave labour. Their audacious campaign: “Made in China, Made with the world,” actually translates as: “products are produced in sweatshops for 20 cents a piece with the hard labour of political prisoners and sold for 1,000 times that.”

Bad publicity for CCP products had them worried that it would derail their world status as number one exporter. "Overcoming Western prejudice will be a long process for us. And we have to be more patient and tolerant, and adopt more ways of communication," Renmin University communication professor Yu Guoming told China Daily.

To spruce up their image, China needs more than a wimpy ad campaign if it is going to change people’s perception of their goods - and their reputation on the global stage, for that matter. For this campaign to work, the CCP will have to extend their “patriotic re-education” campaign throughout the world. It’s already rumoured to have begun in certain Australian universities.

Consumer activism

So back to my mission impossible consumer activism; finding NMIC (not made in China) undies for March 10. There is always a creative solution to any problem. In the event that I don’t find any undies not made in a Chinese sweatshop, I will give Chinese undies a day off and I will go without underwear for Tibet on March 10.

I hope that you will come NMIC on March 10, because as a wise man Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Everything you do will seem insignificant, but it’s important that you do it”. Or a modern day Gandhi might say, “Everything you do will offend the Chinese government, but it is important that you do it”.