The Flexible Shaping And Strategic External Communication Study Of China's New National Image

Image of a country refers to what a country is like in the eyes of other nations, and their comprehensive evaluation and impression. It reflects the national power and symbolizes the national spirit, and it is not only a concentrated expression of the country's comprehensive national strength, but also the reputation of a country's most valuable assets. Good image will contribute to the development of a country's implementation of the strategy so that it can take the initiative in international exchanges.At present, China has grown into the world's second economy globally, following the United States, and military and other hard power topping the same race. However, China's national image building lags behind, due to the rigid way of external communication and the Western mainstream media's deliberate distortion. Over-promoted hard power is constantly criticized, and has been interpreted as "militaristic" by some international media. On the other hand, scanning through the international opinions, "China threat theory" and "China collapse theory" and other arguments spread. Many people hold the "strong but uncertain" towards the Chinese, which has been causing panic among the foreign population and resulting in distorted images of China which has long been misunderstood together with a great negative impact.During this important transitional period for China, the need to further accelerate the pace of international exchange, to better integration into the world and to achieve the international community's understanding and support remains one of the most important issues. How to express our wish of the "peaceful rise" and to reverse the Western audiences'misreading of our national image has become the "natural moat," "bottleneck." during enhancing the national image. The new age has given a new meaning to the image of a country. Under the Chinese Government's active guidance, the significance of creating a new image of China has risen to the national strategic level. China urgently needs to look for external communication in a more appropriate way to remove misunderstanding and concerns, to internationally restore and announce China's real image--"peace and development", and to ultimately achieve our national rejuvenation. Based on the recent studies about the international and domestic public opinions and the status of communication resources, this paper centers on how China's image has been distorted and misunderstood. Meanwhile from the perspective of cultural transmission, further demonstrate the possibility of a "flexible mold" of national image-building, suggesting that China should adopt a flexible mode while the transmission with the foreign countries and actively improve the image of China which has suffered an embarrassing situation, and gradually shape China's national image into the intended "peace and development".