No Asian country has yet been able to define a so-called “broader global agenda.” However, China’s influence is growing, though it is mainly through its economic clout, according to an analysis of American soft power in Asia published, last January by the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit public policy organization.
China’s growth in soft power lags far behind its relative economic strength, said Li Yonghui, dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy, at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).
The Made-in-China and national image commercials have been devised to communicate with, and influence a foreign public. The projects mark a strategic transition from communication with specific opinion leaders and key decision makers to a wider mass audience.
“No matter how uninformed/misinformed the general public may seem to be about China, they are voters any politician has to appeal to, listen to, and work for,” said Wu. “Their impact on issues of foreign policy is hidden, but remains powerful. In some respects, it’s near impossible to circumvent this large constituency and go directly to the decision-makers. Simply put, without strong grassroots support, any political decision towards China will be short-lived,” he said.
“Moreover, 30-years ago, an elite-orientated approach might have been viable, as there was little interaction between China and the West on the public level, however, things are very different today,” Wu went on to explain.
Ambiguous Image
While Chinese analysts mostly acknowledge the necessity of communication with a foreign public, many seem to share concerns over the formation of a potentially ambiguous image.
“It is hard to define what China is, let alone to paint a picture of what China will be. The difficulty mainly lies in the complexity, multiplicity and unprecedented nature of China’s transformation,” said Wu.
The country’s cultural legacy could be conveniently marketed as part of the Chinese national identity. The increasing presence of the Confucius Institutes across the globe has helped to spread the Chinese language and its traditional cultural elements, and many Westerners are now familiar with the concept of Confucianism, commented Zheng Yannong. However, any national PR campaign would be more effective if commonly accepted elements were first identified, he said.
Many advocate the Confucian philosophy of harmony as a key message. They argue that internal personal harmony, as well as unity between humanity and the universe is very much in line with universal values embraced by the Western world.
“Right now, due to the lack of an attractive and well-established rhetoric to replace the government’s increasingly outdated and inadequate version, we instinctively fall back on our historical philosophies. By default, Confucius has become our new icon,” said Wu Xu. However, he argued that Confucius cannot and should not represent the present-day China, since Confucianism is only part of China’s mixed cultural legacy.
“In my view, the best strategy to promote modern China to the outside world is not through an historical figure, but through an appealing new package of ideas – a Chinese Dream,” said Wu. “I think a desirable, as well as marketable, Chinese Dream would consist of all the best ideals developed in China’s long history, and those ideologies that China had borrowed, learned from, and exercised, such as Marxism, capitalism and Buddhism.”
Li Yonghui, professor with the BFSU, pointed to the fact that although academia and researchers started to discuss the concept of a Chinese Dream several years ago, the idea remains far from defined.
By lacking any semblances of a clearly defined message or value system, China’s external PR campaigns appear somewhat impeded, this notion is further compounded by the obvious fact that established perceptions are remarkably resilient to change.
“China has yet to overcome two clear gaps in public perception. On one hand, there is a gap between the perceived China in the minds of Westerners and the real China, on the other hand there is also a gap between Westerners’ perception of China and Chinese people’s self-perception and self-identification. As to the ‘desired effects’ (or lack thereof), we may blame foreigners for a lack of understanding about the ‘updated’ China. However, we also need to keep our expectations in check: whether we set the bar too high, and whether ‘desired effects’ are merely wishful thinking?” said Wu Xu.
December 2010
