Chen Guangbiao, a Chinese private entrepreneur known for his philanthropy, recently published an advertisement in the New York Times. It declares China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands, protests against Japanese right-wing forces who incited and intensified the dispute and appeals for US government and people from all walks of life to condemn the Japanese provocative act. Though few people took any notice in the US, extensive attention has been aroused at home.

There is no doubt that we must try to build up the broadest united front by winning as many sympathizers and supporters as possible, and to the greatest extent isolate extremist forces during any international conflict.

We need to utilize all possible means to inform the international public of our stance and the facts and obtain from them as much sympathy and support as possible.

This is especially important in an era when the international opinion is dominated by the Western mainstream media. The US, the sole superpower in the world, also has an strong influence and interference on international affairs.

Chinese government, institutions, enterprises and people now have more financial resources and the reserve of talent is abundant.

From this viewpoint, the collective participation of Chinese private entrepreneurs in defending the national interest has positive significance.

Though we acknowledge the Western mainstream media dominate the international opinion, it doesn't mean we consider it reasonable, let alone succumb to their judgments on China's foreign and domestic affairs.

We must bear in mind that China, a big power, will raise the impact of Western media if it makes use of a Western mainstream media platform. This might convince a large number of people that China's territorial disputes could be settled by the New York Times and other mainstream Western media as well as the US or other Western countries. They could shout, "Look, even China's territorial disputes are being addressed by our US media!"

We do not object to the use of external resources on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, no matter it is on economic construction or foreign policy. Nevertheless, we must never forget that the only base of our strength is depending on ourselves. We are willing to work with the US to carry out exchanges for equal and mutual benefit, but the US is not our supervisor or judge and we do not need to lodge complaints to it.

It is not wise to endow the US and its mainstream media with the authoritative power to judge our disputes with other countries, even if on the condition that they adhere to a neutral and objective stance on China-related issues.

The space we can utilize in the US mainstream media has been further compressed due to certain diplomatic policies and guidelines of the US government. We must remember that in the current balance of power between China, the US, Russia and Japan, hostility between any two countries is likely to be taken advantage of by the other two.

Previous political advertisements published on the New York Times by extremist forces in South Korea stated that the ancient kingdom of Koguryo (37BC - 668AD) on China's border exclusively belonged to the history of Korea, and exaggerated Koguryo's historical territory by claiming it extended into North China.

Certainly, there is a positive significance to publishing political advertisements in the mainstream Western media in the short term. But this may acquiesce to the foreign media's right to judge others in the long run.

Political advertising aims to declare a political stance.

In the final analysis, we should depend on strengthening our local Chinese media. Let's imagine how we would feel, if one day, a US entrepreneur published a political advertisement in a newspaper in China.

The author is a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn