This week I’ll be thinking about China
I’ll be an occasional contributor to this week’s book club at TPM Cafe. The book du semaine is Josh Kurlantzick’s Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World. The flavor of Josh’s book can be captured in his tablesetting post — particularly his first two paragraphs: While the US has been focused on ...
I'll be an occasional contributor to this week's book club at TPM Cafe. The book du semaine is Josh Kurlantzick's Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World. The flavor of Josh's book can be captured in his tablesetting post -- particularly his first two paragraphs: While the US has been focused on Iraq, it has ignored a subtle ? but enormous ? change in the world. Since only the early 2000s, and under the US radar, China has changed from a country that barely interacted with the world into a growing foreign power. In fact, China savvily has amassed significant ?soft power? around the world through aid, formal diplomacy, public diplomacy, investment, and other tools. Here in Washington, where China?s image is not great, it?s hard for us to understand how popular China has become in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Even China?s model of development, of state-ordered economic liberalization and minimal political liberalization, has significant appeal. In particular, it has appeal to elites in nations in the region ? and in other places like Africa ? alienated by the Washington Consensus and American intervention around the world. No one amassed chits with other nations for no reason. Now, China can begin to use its soft power. It will be able to utilize its popularity in regions where the US and China have potentially competing interests in resources. China is already trying to draw upon its charm to push back against American power in Asia. In the future, China could prod countries like the Philippines or Thailand, which are already using China as a hedge, to downgrade their close relations with the United States. Beijing continues to support authoritarian regimes, stemming from its vow of noninterference. This, too, weakens US diplomacy. Though their interests sometimes overlap, fundamentally the United States and China still do not agree on how diplomacy and international affairs should be conducted. And though Beijing can be persuaded to support better governance in places, like Burma, with limited resources and such horrendous regimes that they breed instability in China, it is much harder to persuade China to act against terrible governments with oil, like Sudan, or whose policies have no direct impact on China itself, like Zimbabwe. In the future, China?s ability to support its friends will only grow stronger as China builds its global soft power.I'll be commenting on this a bit later, but for now I'll be curious to hear from readers. Is Chinese soft power a real source of concern? Before you answer, be sure to check out Danna Harman's story in the Christian Science Monitor about how the Sudanese perceive China after a few years of foreign direct investment. Let's just say I think one needs to parse out Chinese economic power from Chinese soft power.
I’ll be an occasional contributor to this week’s book club at TPM Cafe. The book du semaine is Josh Kurlantzick’s Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World. The flavor of Josh’s book can be captured in his tablesetting post — particularly his first two paragraphs:
While the US has been focused on Iraq, it has ignored a subtle ? but enormous ? change in the world. Since only the early 2000s, and under the US radar, China has changed from a country that barely interacted with the world into a growing foreign power. In fact, China savvily has amassed significant ?soft power? around the world through aid, formal diplomacy, public diplomacy, investment, and other tools. Here in Washington, where China?s image is not great, it?s hard for us to understand how popular China has become in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Even China?s model of development, of state-ordered economic liberalization and minimal political liberalization, has significant appeal. In particular, it has appeal to elites in nations in the region ? and in other places like Africa ? alienated by the Washington Consensus and American intervention around the world. No one amassed chits with other nations for no reason. Now, China can begin to use its soft power. It will be able to utilize its popularity in regions where the US and China have potentially competing interests in resources. China is already trying to draw upon its charm to push back against American power in Asia. In the future, China could prod countries like the Philippines or Thailand, which are already using China as a hedge, to downgrade their close relations with the United States. Beijing continues to support authoritarian regimes, stemming from its vow of noninterference. This, too, weakens US diplomacy. Though their interests sometimes overlap, fundamentally the United States and China still do not agree on how diplomacy and international affairs should be conducted. And though Beijing can be persuaded to support better governance in places, like Burma, with limited resources and such horrendous regimes that they breed instability in China, it is much harder to persuade China to act against terrible governments with oil, like Sudan, or whose policies have no direct impact on China itself, like Zimbabwe. In the future, China?s ability to support its friends will only grow stronger as China builds its global soft power.
I’ll be commenting on this a bit later, but for now I’ll be curious to hear from readers. Is Chinese soft power a real source of concern? Before you answer, be sure to check out Danna Harman’s story in the Christian Science Monitor about how the Sudanese perceive China after a few years of foreign direct investment. Let’s just say I think one needs to parse out Chinese economic power from Chinese soft power.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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