| Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China(PRC)in 1949,China has made efforts to expand its soft power by building friendly relations with many countries around the globe.Chinese soft power is primarily concerned with influencing the hearts and minds of foreign public and maintaining its good image to the world.At the same time,China's foreign policy has grown to be more ambitious,shifting from being reactive to proactive.Over the past few years,China's scale of economic growth and investment around the world has been unprecedented.Today,China plays a new role in the international system,winning increasing attention of many countries around the world.Among its strategies to develop and improve its image,China has focused on maintaining good relations with African nations including Malawi and it has committed itself to a number of projects in various fields including health,education,and infrastructure towards these developing countries.The objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which soft power is exercised in Chinese Universities and analyze its impact on Malawian students and professionals.The study ultimately analyzes the perception of Malawian scholarship recipients towards China's image through the various cultural diplomacy activities that are carried out during the educational programs and cultural events.The theoretical approaches to this study are based on the tradition of different International Relations theories drawing more from Joseph Nye's theory of soft power in order to understand China's efforts in building its image to the rest of the world.The paper also employs a Neoliberal approach in view of the fact that it focuses on the importance of promoting and achieving peace and cooperation between and among states in shaping their foreign policies.In its increasing engagement with Africa,the Chinese government has placed special emphasis on its soft power strategies in promoting its image and in the process,seeks to portray itself as a nonthreatening and responsible global power to the rest of the world.Since China is involved with multiple audiences,it has adopted a series of strategies in order to go forward and successfully achieve its goal.In this limelight,the Chinese government is committed to maintaining its image in Malawi by enhancing the bilateral ties through its various diplomatic,political,social and economic activities.The relations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Malawi can therefore bring real benefit to the development of both countries.Under joint efforts from both peoples,the two countries can create a brighter future for their bilateral relations.In efforts to fulfilling its objective of hosting International Students,China is recruiting a number of students from all parts of the world,particularly focusing on the developing countries.In the course of their studies,these future generations of elites will certainly be sensitized to Chinese viewpoints and interests,with knowledge of the Chinese language,society,culture,history,and politics.Increasing numbers of foreign students are so far showing interest to undertake their undergraduate or postgraduate studies in China.To fully capture the effectiveness of China's soft power in the area of educational exchange programs,a survey was conducted involving 83 Malawian scholarship beneficiaries who were either studying or had studied in China in different academic fields.The aim was to assess the impact of the soft power strategy on improving the image of China through their experiences and how it consequently advances the diplomatic and bilateral relations between Malawi and China.The study argues that the Malawian scholarship beneficiaries have played a significant role in improving China's image as their perception towards China improves during their course of study.In addition,upon completion of studies,the beneficiaries would help to sensitize their families and friends about China,thus increasing interest in Malawians to pursue their studies in China and eventually improving the bilateral ties between the two countries.This leads to a presumption that the higher education exchange program is a successful soft power tool for building up the Chinese image.The argument of the research is answered in five chapters.Chapter one introduces the paper,elaborates the background of the study,highlights the aims and objectives of the paper,and explains the significance of the study,Literature review as well as the methodology adopted.Chapter two is the Theoretical framework,which includes the conceptual approaches and an overview of different literature concerning soft power.This information will then be used to generate the primary data.It will thus look into the concept of soft power and how it is applied by the Chinese Government.Chapter three examines China's soft power strategy in Africa,with particular focus on Malawi.It aims at explaining how China develops its image in Africa since 2000 as well as China's advantages over other countries in applying their soft power.The Chapter will further give an evaluation of China's strategy through its exchange program in Africa and Malawi in particular.Chapter four is a case study analysis which was conducted based on the perception of Malawian scholarship students currently studying in China and those who returned home.The analysis was based on the key findings,the hypothesis was tested and research questions were answered.The analysis also took into consideration aspects of gender,location of university,length of study and age,among other factors.Chapter five provides a conclusion of the thesis based on the overall findings.Recommendations for improvement are also provided in this chapter,together with suggestions for future research. |
PDF Full Text Request