Adjusting Chinese Soft Power:Using Country Specific Strategies

Joseph S.Nye Jr.is perhaps most well known for his research in the field of soft power.With his work on soft power,Nye posited that international relations scholars often took a dogmatic approach to power,highlighting the importance of both military and economic hard power,while at the same time largely ignoring the effect of intangible forms of power which he refers to as soft power.Nye stressed that soft power is produced through a country's culture,political values,and foreign policy,and works by making a country appear attractive and therefore subtly influence other countries,making their goals be viewed by other countries as legitimate.The changes since the end of the second world war,such as the coming of the information age,the democratization of international relations,and globalization,all result in soft power becoming an increasingly important tool in a country's foreign policy arsenal.Since the mid-1990s Chinese policymakers and academics have seen the potential benefits of soft power and have highlighted its importance.Along with China's rise and the subsequent aftershocks felt by the international community,several theories,including "China Threat" and "Thucydides Trap" have also emerged which suggest that the rise of China will lead to an increasingly unstable and dangerous international system.In light of this,soft power has been used as a way to counter the above mentioned theories,refocusing the world's attention on China's "Peaceful Development".China's soft power policy and writings appears to too often fall under the category of Public Diplomacy and External Propaganda,thus suffocating Chinese soft power resources and leading to a worsening global image problem for China as evidenced by poor global public opinion polls.However,there is a clear divide in public opinion with decreasing levels of public approval for China in developed western countries and on the other hand stable and relatively high levels of public approval among developing countries which will be analyzed in further detail.In order to seek to explain and improve the global image of China,in both the developed west and developing countries,this paper will refocus China's soft power policy towards Nye's original soft power concept,and thus focus on China's plentiful cultural,political values,and foreign policy soft power sources.Regarding China's cultural values,its long history has left it with abundant historical,linguistic,educational,and artistic soft power resources,and modern cultural products as evidenced by its growing global brands and tech sector mean it can compete with almost any country.China's unique political and economic model forms the basis of Chinese political values,and can both create soft power for the developing world as a model for increased development and prosperity,while at the same time could also potentially attract the developed west as they face seemingly unsolvable global issues like climate change and democratic disillusionment.Finally,Chinese foreign policy presents the biggest challenge to China's image and soft power projection.There is still an ongoing debate about whether China supports or seeks to overturn the western based international order and related institutions which bring about opposite reactions among countries in the developed west and developing countries.In the end,Chinese soft power policy can successfully improve China's global image among all countries,but must walk a fine line balancing the competing interests of the developed and the developing world.At the same time,excessive government direction and control of soft power can help focus and enhance the resources,but civil society must also be given a larger role to play in line with Nye's original soft power guidelines.