Military Public Diplomacy With The Chinese International Image Creation

The military public diplomacy could be defined as the diplomatic activities which are carried out by the military actors such as the army of one country or military bloc consisting of several countries, aiming at affecting foreign public opinions in order to bolster the global image of the military actor and optimize the international public opinion environment for the military development.With the rise of China, the country’s military modernization has been rapidly pushed forward and China’s military force is getting stronger than ever. But, on the other hand, Chinese military(PLA)has also been bothered by the world’s public opinion, the negative expressions such as’China military threat’theory seriously damage the global image of China’s military. According to a series of international surveys, the public’s views in quite a lot of countries have been more negative about China’s military development these years, showing that the international public opinion environment of Chinese military is in a serious situation. The thesis argues that Chinese military is able to improve its image in the world and the international public opinion environment for China’s military modernization by promoting military public diplomacy actively.Recently, China’s military public diplomacy has already taken place on many different fronts, such as establishing the Ministry of National Defense’s Press Information Office, Ministry of National Defense website and publishing’China’s National Defense’white papers every two years. Furthermore, Chinese military becomes more open to foreign media and expands cultural communications with foreign public, Chinese soldiers also develop friendship with many local people and other foreign staff when they are performing foreign military missions. Generally speaking, China’s military public diplomacy has achieved some success, as some foreign public and media have modified their negative views about China’s military, but there are still quite a few problems or hidden worries. Therefore, in the last chapter, some advice and approaches are given for pushing on China’s military public diplomacy in the future.