The Challenges Of U.S. Cyber Diplomacy For China: From The Perspective Of Soft Power

The revolution of Internet and communications technology in1970s has dramaticallychanged the method of diplomacy to spawn cyber diplomacy. Diplomatic activities, nolonger confined within official channels, are carried out by multiple players and havebecome more transparent and efficient in information delivery.Beginning with the definition, characteristics and implementation measures of cyberdiplomacy, this thesis discusses its inevitable influence on the accumulation of soft poweras an important resource of soft power. It is found that this influence has a dual character:a country can employ cyber diplomacy not only to amplify its own soft power, but also toundermine other countries’ attraction. Then a model for the influence process is set upand the specific approaches a country can employ are analyzed. On the basis of the abovediscussion, this thesis intends to study the influence of U.S. cyber diplomacy on China’ssoft power. It first talks about the development, specific approaches and underlyingmotivations of U.S. cyber diplomatic policies on China. Then through cautious case study,efforts are made to explore the challenges posed to China’s political soft power withworld public opinions as an indicator.Based on the above analysis, this thesis attempts to reveal the fact that, taking socialgovernance and international Internet affairs as the breakthrough point, the U.S. hasintended to sway global public opinions on China and undermine China’s political softpower by the means of false reports of China’s social governance, assailment on China’sInternet freedom and exaggeration of Chinese hackers as a threat.