A Comparative Study Of Public Diplomacy And Folk Diplomacy In China

The obscurity and misuse of Public Diplomacy and People-to-people Diplomacy in Chinais quite common, which revealed that neither the extension nor the connotation of thesetwo concepts was clear.It could lead to some problematic issues not only in academicresearchbut also in diplomatic practice.In order to compare the twoconcepts comprehensively, we’llneed to divide them in to three parts, including the origin, the definition and the history&practice. Then compare each part under Chinese context. After that, there is a brief analyze of the importanceof this comparison.Based on the definitions, the comparison between Public Diplomacy and People-topeopleDiplomacy includes the difference of their subject, object, method and aim.But before comparingthem, I clarified both of their definitions by summarizing the consensus of scholars. The People-to-peoplediplomacy which has the traditional pattern of subordinating to governmental diplomacy as well asnew pattern of independent non-governmental actors.Thus it is necessary to compare Public Diplomacy with the People-to-people Diplomacy in both of its patterns.To compare the history and practices of the the two concepts, the first thing to do is to reviewtheir history separately, from which we can conclude the similarity and difference between them. The result are that Public Diplomacy has inherited from People-t-people Diplomacy, and that traditional pattern of People-to-people Diplomacy has been merging with Public Diplomacy while the new pattern of People-to-people Diplomacy has been developing independently.With the understanding of the boundaries of the two concepts, the communication between Chinese and Western politicalthinking can be reached,and the construction of China’s public diplomacy as a new subject can be prompted.Anotherimportance of the comparison is that it also helps to change the mindsets of Public Diplomacy practice and improvethe integral diplomacy of China.