Abstract
Public diplomacy has become part and parcel of China’s foreign policy strategy. China’ s leaders invest a huge amount of money and effort into projecting their images of China, and have rapidly developed public diplomacy skills and policies. This chapter provides an overview of China’ s public diplomacy system and discusses where China’ s rapidly expanding public diplomacy succeeds and where it fails.1 China’ s public diplomacy is gradually involving a more varied group of actors. An increasing number of Chinese individuals and civil society groups participate in global networks with public and private actors, bringing new dynamics and more legitimacy to China’ s public diplomacy. But the state still initiates most of China’ s public diplomacy, and the lack of legitimacy and credibility in public diplomacy messages remains a big obstacle.
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See, for example, the polls of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, The Pew Research Center, Financial Times/Harris Monthly Polls, and Transatlantic Trends, German Marshall Fund. For Europe see Ingrid d’ Hooghe, “The limits of China’s soft power in Europe: Beijing’s public diplomacy puzzle,” Clingendael Diplomacy Paper 25 (2010).
Paul Sharp, “Revolutionary States, Outlaw Regimes and the Techniques of Public Diplomacy,” in The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, ed. Jan Melissen (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 106.
Zhao Kejin, Gongong waijiao de lilun yu shijian (Shanghai: Cishu Chubanshi, 2007)
Yiwei Wang, “Public Diplomacy and the Rise of China’s Soft Power,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 616, no. 1 (2008): 257–273
Li Minjiang, “China Debates Soft Power,” Chinese Journal of International Politics 2, no. 2 (2008): 287–308
For a detailed description of the monitoring of publicity by various ministries and offices, see David Shambaugh, “China’s Propaganda System: Institutions, Processes and Efficacy,” The China Journal, no. 57 (January 2007).
This office is closely linked to the Central Publicity Department and the International Department of the Party. For more information on the Central Publicity Department, see Anne-Marie Brady, “Guiding Hand: The Role of the CCP Central Propaganda Department in the Current Era,” in Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 3, no. 1 (2006): 58–77.
An epistemic community is a network of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain or issue area. They can function as channels through which new ideas circulate from societies to governments as well as from countries to countries. See Peter Haas, “Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination,” International Organization 46 (1992): 3, 27.
Seungho Lee, “Environmental Movements and Social Organizations in Shanghai,” China Information 21, no. 2 (2007): 269–297
Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2004), 11–14.
Clive Cookson, “China Leads World in Growth of Scientific Research,” Financial Times, January 25, 2010.
A wealth of examples can be found in Joshua Kurlantzick, Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2007).
Joshua Cooper Ramo, The Beijing Consensus (London: Foreign Policy Centre, May 2004): 3–4.
Bates Gill and Yanzhong Huang, “Sources and Limits of China’s Soft Power,” Survival, 48, no. 2 (2006): 17–36
Drew Thompson, “China’s Soft Power in Africa: From the ‘Beijing Consensus’ to Health Diplomacy,” China Brief 5, no. 21 (2005).
David H. Shinn, “The China Factor in African Ethics and Human Rights” (Paper presented at the Oxford-Uehiro-Carnegie Council Conference, December 2006).
See, for example, Jason Qian and Anne Wu, “China’s Delicate Role on Darfur,” Boston Globe, July 23, 2007.
See, for example, Jennifer Brea, “Beijing Police Round Up and Beat African Expats,” Guardian, September 26, 2007; and McCrummen, “Struggling Chadians.”
Vivian Wu and Adam Chen, “Beijing in 45b Yuan Global Media Drive,” South China Morning Post, January 13, 2009.
Wang Hongying, “National Image Building and Chinese Foreign Policy,” China: An International Journal 1, no. 1 (2003): 67
William A. Callahan, “Tianxia, Empire and the World: Soft Power and China’s Foreign Policy Discourse in the 21st Century,” BICC Working Paper Series l (2007)
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© 2011 Jian Wang
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d’Hooghe, I. (2011). The Expansion of China’ s Public Diplomacy System. In: Wang, J. (eds) Soft Power in China. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116375_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116375_2
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