In The 21st Century, The Junior High School A Comparative Study Of American Public Diplomacy To Asean Countries

Since the beginning of the21st century, public diplomacy (PD) has drawnconsiderable attention worldwide. As China emerges as an important internationalpolitical player, both the government and the academic world have been paying greatattention to PD. Late as the start was, China’s PD has demonstrated a rapid growth,which was called “Charm Offensive” by the international community. The UnitedStates, first introduced the concept of “public diplomacy” after World War II, is by farthe country which launched the largest-scale PD campaigns with the most developedsystem. Southeast Asia has always been regarded as a significant geo-strategic area byboth of the two countries. China is committed to creating a stable and favorableperipheral environment for its domestic development, while the U.S. is “back” in thisarea to sustain its global leadership. In recent years, Southeast Asia has become theintersection point of the various forces of China and the U.S., thus ASEAN countrieshave undoubtedly become the target of launching PD campaigns for both of them.This paper establishes a framework for comparative analysis on practice ofChina and U.S. PD efforts in ASEAN countries at the beginning of the21stcentury.China and the U.S. have different PD strategies which meet the need of their overallforeign policy goals and convey different messages which are deeply rooted in theirhistorical and cultural tradition and development achievements. There’s a wide gapbetween China and the U.S. in the establishment of PD organizational mechanisms aswell as specific methods and tactics. As for the effects, the public opinion pollsconducted in ASEAN countries indicated the fruitful outcomes China’s PD efforts hadachieved; however, the change of the attitudes demonstrated that the U.S. PD wasmore effective. Furthermore, the U.S. has been working on PD evaluation in anindependent and comprehensive manner, while China has not yet started anyquantitative assessment. Recognizing China’s deficiency, the paper concludes withsome suggestions on the future development of China’s PD.