"Definitely you should have South African media present as you are holding this event in South Africa," said Huang, Founder of Kenya-based China House, a consulting company helping Chinese enterprises better integrate into local societies. "You are helping protect the local environment. Why don't you invite local media to report on that?" Huang asked.

Huang was invited to Johannesburg to help the company organize the event late last year. But when he got there, he found that the media outlets on the invitation list were all Chinese. He eventually persuaded the organizers to invite local media.

"The result turned out to be quite good and the environmental protection event was widely covered by local newspapers, TV, radio and online media. Now, everybody in the city knows what the Chinese company is doing to help protect the local environment," Huang told ChinAfrica.

He said this shows that some Chinese enterprises in South Africa do not know how to communicate effectively with local media. They just put much of their energy into their business and production, while neglecting the role of local media in reporting on their initiatives.

According to Huang, this attitude is also related to Chinese culture as Chinese people are more reserved by nature and have a different way of doing business, which often does not include self-promotion.

"Many Chinese enterprises believe in the old saying of 'Good wine needs no bush.' For them, so long as their products are of good quality, the consumers can easily find them," said Huang. "But in the international market, they do need bushes to promote their wine. Every company needs to expose themselves frequently to the public as there are so many competitors in the market."

Different expectations 

Philip de Wet, a journalist with South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, finds it difficult to get timely responses from Chinese companies in South Africa.

"They are often afraid to talk to us [the media] about things they perceive as negative," de Wet told ChinAfrica. "It is rare, though [it] happened recently, for Chinese companies to give us immediate response when you request an interview. Usually, it will take three to four days."

He noted that he understands Chinese companies need to check everything carefully to avoid making mistakes, "but it takes [such a] long time, especially in the Internet era."

However, Chinese enterprises also have their own expectations of media reports.

"We must provide accurate information about anything related to our business and sometimes have to confirm with the headquarters in China before giving the information to the media to avoid any mistake," Paul Li, Key Account Director of LiuGong Machinery South Africa (Pty) Ltd., told ChinAfrica.

Wang Guojun, General Manager of CRRC SA (Pty) Ltd., thinks some South African media organizations look at Chinese enterprises in an unbalanced manner. "They like to carp about the small errors we make and then exaggerate them," Wang told ChinAfrica. "Sometimes, we expect local media to tell a good story, but they come up with fault-finding criticism," he added.

"When the media ask you some questions while you fail to make immediate response, you are losing your say," said Huang. "In the Internet era, information spread very fast. Usually, people believe in what they hear first and it is hard to change their minds later."

Changing mindsets 

Fortunately, many Chinese companies in South Africa have realized they should not remain anonymous and started to actively engage with local media.

"We learned from experience the importance of media in exposing us among local communities," said Wang.

When Wang's company came to South Africa to bid for a locomotive tender in 2012, local media had been going on about the poor quality of Chinese locomotives, citing the case of a design defect of four Chinese locomotives exported to Namibia 10 years before.

"They widely reported on the incident because they did not know the problem had been solved. These reports caused our business in South Africa a lot of trouble," said Wang. "At once, we told media the complete story, and it received wide local coverage offsetting the previous trouble," said Wang.

The compensation measures this time and local media coverage went a long way to ensuring that CRRC SA was successful in the bidding process.

"Since then, whenever we held some important events, such as setting up a factory in South Africa and handing over locomotives, we would invite local media and respond quickly to their requests," he told ChinAfrica.

Like CRRC SA, many other Chinese companies are changing their mindsets in regard to relations with local media. But according to Wang, this change won't happen overnight.

To help Chinese companies better integrate into local society, the Chinese Enterprises Association (CEA) in South Africa was established in 2012. Wang heads up the CEA's communication department. "One of my duties is to help Chinese enterprises here keep open information channels with local media," said Wang.

Quality talks 

Johannesburg-based Huawei Eastern and Southern Africa is a Chinese company that knows how to expose itself to local people.

"I was appointed to contact media because I know quite well what information they need," said Phoebe Huang, Public Affairs Manager of Huawei Eastern and Southern Africa. Huawei is China's leading ICT solution provider headquartered in Shenzhen.

"We hold activities with a media presence regularly to make our communication better. These events are good opportunities for us to improve our mutual trust with local media."

David Xiao, Managing Director of Sany Central Southern Africa, a Chinese company involved in heavy machinery manufacturing, shares the same sentiments as Phoebe Huang.

"I think one of the reasons is that we fully realize the importance of media in our development in South Africa," said Xiao, adding that another reason is his confidence in the good quality of his company's products and services, and given this, he has no pressure when answering questions from local media.

Despite this, Xiao admitted that they still have to deal with the stereotyped reporting by some local media.

In 2013, Sany won a bid in Zimbabwe to export 100 road graders. At that time, a local newspaper asserted that China was "dumping rubbish" in Zimbabwe. "This was because in their minds, made-in-China goods were equivalent to low quality. This is their stereotype view of Chinese products," said Xiao. "It is unfair for us as in the past years, the quality of made-in-China products have been greatly improved." Xiao gave a lot of interviews with local media on the quality of his company's products.

The deal turned out to be one of the best exports of equipment ever supplied to Zimbabwe, receiving numerous subsequent positive media reports on the high quality of the road graders.

He said that these kinds of reports in local media can help change some people's perception of Chinese products.

"Chinese companies abroad should learn to communicate with local media. When the microphone is in front of you and you refuse to speak, remember that one day when you want to speak, there will be no microphone for you," said Huang.

(Reporting from South Africa)