The Contest Of Influence

In today’s world political stage, more and more nations are placing emphasis onthe development of soft power. According to Joseph Nye, soft power is the ability of astate to influence the actions of another through persuasion or attraction, rather thancoercion. China and India, as the two biggest emerging powers in the world, haveplayed more and more important roles in international relations. They are not onlycooperative in many aspects, but also competitive in a number of areas. In recentyears, both China and India have paid much attention to enhancing their relationshipwith Africa, and increasing their attractiveness among African people. This paperattempts to take Kenya as a case study to compare China and India’s soft powerbuilding in Kenya in terms of political values, economic factors, foreign policy andculture.Through comparison, we see India and China have their own respectiveadvantages in building soft power in Kenya. India have more similarities with Kenyain terms of political system, economic development model, international eduation andlanguage. China has more attractiveness to Kenya in terms of economic developmentachievement and foreign policy.China should take mearsures to enhance its economic relations and cluturalrelations with Kenya as well as the whole Afirca, to build the country’s image as aresponsible stake-holder on the world stage.