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In May 2017, Denmark and China signed a film co-production agreement, marking Denmark as the first and only Nordic country to establish such a treaty with China. Taking two recent China-Denmark film co-productions as examples, Bille August's The Chinese Widow (2017) and Lin Jianjie's Brief History of a Family (2024), this paper investigates why China chose to sign a film agreement with Denmark and vice versa. It also examines the cultural and film policies that catalysed the emergence and development of this new co-production partnership. This paper aims to address two emergent trends in transnational screen studies: conceptual engagement with soft power and transnational talent development. It discusses how cinema serves as an instrument for states, institutions, and corporations to mediate diplomatic and political goals, generate soft power, and engage in nation branding. This paper argues that the transformation in geopolitical relationships between these two countries and their respective film and cultural policies over the past decade has led to this new collaborative partnership. Furthermore, it suggests that the latest European cultural policies supporting Sino-European co-production and transnational talent development have facilitated Sino-Danish film co-production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Chinese Communist Party and its supporters are increasingly using social media platforms to shape China's public image. This online image is a means of strengthening domestic nationalism and of projecting "soft power" abroad. This paper examines various forms of anti-Westernism that are central to this image-making. It analyzes several recent topics—the Belt and Road Initiative, climate change, the COVID-19 vaccine, the Beijing Olympics, and the conflict in Ukraine—on the r/Sino subreddit page of Reddit and compares them with two online news outlets, the South China Morning Post and China Daily. The paper focuses on how these media frame the contest between a rising China and a failing West, so creating a discourse that competes with the negative portrayals of China outside the country. The paper contrasts the aggressive strengthening of China's image against the West on social media with more sober accounts of the same topics in China's official media and in commercial news outlets. The contribution of the paper is to document an emerging online anti-Westernism that is playing an increasing role in the changing geopolitical landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the purpose, system of subjects, principal tools and consequences of neo-authoritarian intervention. The peculiarities of the neo-authoritarian regime, neo-authoritarian intervention, and export of neo-authoritarianism are clarified. China and Russia are selected as the main cases for analysis. The purpose of neo-authoritarian intervention is defined as the intention to strengthen the internal stability of non-democratic regimes and to broaden their influence on international processes, the effort being to change the world order and destroy liberaldemocratic values. It is argued that the key subjects of neoauthoritarian intervention are the governments of neoauthoritarian states and a great number of actors (puppet parties; government-organized non-governmental organizations; marginal, ultra-radical social and political movements; statecontrolled media; unscrupulous analytical centres; and international multilingual networks of TV, radio broadcasts, news agencies, which are financed by neo-authoritarian governments). The system of tools of neo-authoritarian influence includes tools of: power; influence within the soft power; subversion; value modification; election tampeering; and pressure on international organizations. The tools of neo-authoritarian intervention are based on the classic tools of authoritarianism, but are modernized due to digitalization, information and communication progress, and the other technologies. Neo-authoritarian intervention is proven to increase the risks to global security. The main consequences of the strengthening of neo-authoritarian intervention on a global scale are the growth of threats to democracy, the risks of changing the world agenda. The consequence of neo-authoritarian interference in the internal affairs of non-democratic states is the growth of dependence on neo-authoritarian exporter states, further socio-political instability, increased use of force in solving socio-political problems. The research states that in the case of neo-authoritarian intervention in the affairs of democratic states, the consequences may include both effective counteraction to neo-authoritarian interventions and thus strengthening of the quality of democracy, and destructive tendencies including the growth of populism, radicalism, corruption, and hate speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the strategic use of education as a tool of soft power, focusing on China's investment in the education of Qatari human capital. It explores how education, a non-coercive form of influence, contributes to China's global reputation and socio-economic progress. The research employs a mixed-method approach, including quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, to assess the impact of Chinese educational investments on Qatari students. The findings indicate that China's educational support, through scholarships and cultural exchange, positively influences Qatari students' perceptions and fosters a favourable image of China. The study highlights the significance of educational investment in building soft power, with China utilizing scholarships and cultural programs to attract international students, particularly from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The effectiveness of China's soft power strategy is demonstrated through increased educational cooperation under the "Belt and Road" initiative, contributing to China's global influence and international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic has been a real challenge and severe test of International Relations. It has been also a chance to gain or lose points in inter-power rivalry in Africa, which is full of contradictions. On the one hand, rich in human and natural resources, including energy ones. On the other hand, full of poverty, poor infrastructure (including health infrastructure), internal conflicts and political and economic instability what have a bad influence on the world economy and security. China, which nowadays is perceived as one of the most aggressive competitors in Africa, seems to conduct highly consistent policy towards this continent without any break, even in time of COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is an attempt to analyse Chinese activities in Africa at that time in context of global competition in this area and to evaluate how much they can influence China’s position there. Thus, after a brief historical background, it presents the most significant formal events and declarations between both partners, along with Chinese “mask and vaccine diplomacy” towards Africa from early 2020 until the beginning of 2023. The elements like soft power actions were especially under consideration in this analysis as these ones that are the most effective in the contemporary global policy, or at least equally fruitful as hard power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I study why and how China uses green overseas finance in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to build soft power. I apply Miskimmon et al.'s framework, which postulates that soft power is built on 'signals' and 'action': I study eleven relevant Chinese BRI government and sector‐led signals in green BRI development and analyze Chinese green versus non‐green energy investments as actions. I find that Chinese regulators and financial institutions have provided multiple signals for greening finance in the BRI, while green finance action is insufficient with continued sponsoring of non‐green investments. The paper concludes that green finance is a tool for China to build soft power in the BRI, but it is applied insufficiently due to a lack of green finance action. The paper also finds that insufficient strength of soft power signals can lead to a dichotomy between soft power signals and action with possible negative consequences for soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sino-Indian rivalry in Sri Lanka's economic turmoil has significant implications for regional security and India's defense cooperation. Following President Xi's announcement of China's grand strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative, in 2013, China has utilized its infrastructure investment as a typical example of its implementation of soft power diplomacy on a global dimension. This has raised concerns about China's geopolitical ambitions in the Indian Ocean and the potential security threat it poses to India. Using qualitative research methods, this paper analyzes the geo-strategic importance of Sri Lanka in China's ambitions and the political strategies behind economic crises in South Asian countries. The paper evaluates the impact of China's debt-trap diplomacy on India's national security and defense cooperation with Sri Lanka. The findings suggest that Sri Lanka's economic instability has provided China with an opportunity to encircle and contain India in the region, and that India needs to take proactive steps to mitigate this threat. Overall, the paper highlights the importance of understanding the Sino-Indian rivalry in Sri Lanka's economic turmoil for regional security and India's defense cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft power strategy is an important aspect of China's foreign diplomacy. It must adapt to China's global peaceful rise. It must create understanding, respect and ultimately support China's political models and policies. Then, it will help China win friends' hearts and minds around the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that building and predicting a soft power strategy is firmly on China's international agenda. This paper starts with the background of soft power and then describes the rises and the limitations of China's current soft power strategy by using documents from previous researches and social media. Finally, the paper illustrates suggestions and solutions to improve this charming strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is an increasingly major player in the latest global economic configuration. As a formerly developing nation, China has the potential to view the world through a lens distinctive from current Western hegemonies in its news media and soft power strategies. China has already invested heavily in the African continent and South Africa specifically, including in its news media. Some research has suggested that non-Western, non-democratic countries might have a different approach to international news coverage, including more positive and constructive coverage that diverges from Western news coverage (which is often seen as unnuanced and unequal). A content analysis of Chinese print news media thus examined if Chinese news media's construction of South African reality differs from previous Western social constructions. The research analysed China Daily, a newspaper closely affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, as well as South China Morning Post (SCMP), an independent, privately-owned publication from Hong Kong. It investigated whether these papers use constructive journalism to cover South Africa, and how their coverage diverged and overlapped. The research found that there are observable differences on an ontological scale, and that both papers have different foci of interest and affective slant which diverge from Western news sources. However, similar to Western sources, both papers are largely not constructive on topics relating to South Africa, and are overall disinterested in local events in South Africa, reproducing the same inequalities in news reportage that exist with the current global hegemonic order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power and influence are important concepts in world politics. In this process, every country tries to maximize its interests and influence over other countries. The present world order, soft power, plays an important role in influencing others' policy-making processes in one's favor to establish a world order. This paper aims to give an overview of Chinese soft power and find out whether Chinese soft power is creating a debt trap or becoming a shared interest for both Bangladesh and China. Based on secondary sources, the paper has found that although Chinese soft power, especially its growing investment in Bangladesh, is a part of establishing its influence, it is a shared interest rather than a debt trap. Different infrastructure development projects are opportunities for Bangladesh, as that will open the door to economic development if Bangladesh can effectively utilize them, although China's investment can put Bangladesh's economy under pressure. However, economic and political instability, fragile institutions, growing corruption, leadership crisis, etc. are more harmful to its economy and can lead to an economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a spatially sensitive approach to evaluating China's quest of soft power, this paper conducted a media discourse analysis of European countries' perceptions of China's growing international influence in general, and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in particular. Preliminary analysis reveals regional diversity in media coverage of the BRI that was partially caused by a country's position as a 'discourse leader', 'discourse responder' or 'discourse follower'. In terms of the contents, this paper noticed a huge discrepancy among the European countries towards the potential impacts of the BRI and China's rise in international affairs, and recorded a shift from a rather positive to a cautious attitude among the European Union's leaders. It is suggested that China's spatially blind approach to using soft power to promote BRI in Europe may be partly to blame for its limited success so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originated in southern China, nanyin (南音) is regarded as 'the sound of motherland' (乡音) performed and loved by the Hokkien dialect speakers in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and diasporic populations living in Southeast Asia. Having thrived in transnational spaces, nanyin is now celebrated as a shared heritage in China and Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore. This paper explores the process of heritage‐making, that is, the ways in which the art form and cultural practice of nanyin have been re‐shaped and re‐appropriated by the diasporic communities and the native place to articulate different understandings of the Chinese identity in their distinct nation‐state frameworks. In this ambivalent entanglement, China has re‐appropriated the diasporic history of nanyin to gain international recognition and build soft power through United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In Singapore, the Siong Leng Music Association has actively engaged in the heritage‐making of nanyin, leading to the creation of a unique Singapore brand that speaks to hybridity and cosmopolitanism, in the same way as the re‐construction of their Chinese identity. Examining the two processes of heritagisation of nanyin along the China‐Singapore 'heritage corridors', the paper argues that the two ends are connected in important ways but always seek to maintain distance to articulate their own cultural representations at international stages. Thus, nanyin through a comparative perspective enables a critical examination of issues of centre versus periphery, authenticity, and hybridity in the Sinophone world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper on China's soft power relations with Fiji since 1975 provides an on-the-ground view of the scope of China's Aid, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and Trade with Fiji to provide an alternative narrative for China's increased presence in the Pacific, including Fiji. Its focus on China's three non-coercive tools of soft power diplomacy (aid, FDI and trade) with Fiji aims to highlight Fiji's anticipatory geographies as initially conceptualized by Sparke (2007) and applied to Fiji by Szadziewski (2020). Existing literature on China's increased presence in the Pacific is dominated by geopolitical and geostrategic narratives which portray Pacific island states as a 'collective pawn' in the aid completion between the Pacific islands' traditional aid donors (U.S., Australia and New Zealand) and China. This paper highlights the need for alternative narratives to show the agency of Pacific island states, including Fiji, and how they are capable of setting its own aid agendas and of choosing their principal aid donors. It also seeks to challenge mainstream alarmist and fear mongering narratives of China's increased presence in the Pacific and Fiji. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Between 2017 and 2018, US President Donald Trump introduced a Section 301 investigation into China’s trade practices following allegations of unfair trade practices against China (Bown & Kolb, 2018). The battlelines first emerged when China surpassed the US in 2009 to become Africa’s largest trading partner, having signed bilateral trade agreements with over 40 countries in the African continent. By the second decade of the 2000s, the rise of the digital economy, estimated to grow at between 15% and 25% annually in emerging countries (WEF, 2017), drew Africa into the crosshairs of the US-China trade war. Between 2018 and 2023, over 36 Chinese high-tech companies were blacklisted by the US, citing concerns over national security (Sevastopulo et al., 2022). Against this background, the article places the US-China standoff over digital supremacy in Africa in a media context, bringing novel dimensions into consideration that illuminate a media war focused on competing hegemonic agendas. The article springboards off Bastiansen et al. (2019, pp. 5-8) to argue that the trade war between the two countries presents an ideal setting to study partisan and elite perspectives reflected in news reporting on the international conflict. By expanding the scope of analysis to the media as a mode of information, the article’s main departure point is that the trade war between the two countries that began in 2009, when China surpassed the US to become Africa’s largest trading partner, is being interlocuted through the agency of soft power, with media outlets playing a pivotal role in shaping public biases. A central theme emerging from the research is that media publications have clear biases. Generally, the US news media outlets analysed are heavily critical of the Chinese government and its cutting-edge technologies in Africa. In contrast, the popular Chinese media outlets analysed adopt a defensive stance in their responses to the US. Revealing this through thematic analysis can contribute valuable insights into the dynamics of the tech war between China and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gauges COVID-19’s effect on global public perception of China and the likely implications for China’s development model and international influence. How does COVID-19 affect China’s exercise of soft power and the international community’s appraisal of it? Using global perception data from the Pew Research Centre, the paper argues that COVID-19 is likely to have dire consequences on China’s soft power and international influence based on the soft power theory. Specifically, China lost a chance to present the attractiveness of its development model – Beijing Consensus – and establish credibility for global leadership due to the universal perception of the relationship between the pandemic and China despite the country’s international efforts. The paper concludes that this will validate people’s opinions about China and accelerate an already existing trend – unfavourable image. The paper serves as a new scientific contribution to the literature on soft power and foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soft power literature has indicated that American soft power use has been declining while Russian and Chinese soft power use has been increasing. Until now, the only way scholars could test such claims was to compare these countries' soft power rankings. This paper uses a new soft power dataset that can evaluate countries' soft power use. Using this dataset, this paper tests three hypothesis regarding China's, Russia's and the US' soft power use for the time-period of 1995–2015. The findings indicate that surprisingly the US is still using more soft power than Russia and China. The data analysis also reveals that the US is leading in economic soft power actions over China and in military soft power actions over Russia as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the endemic world, the emergence of China as a potential superpower is surfacing. It has been a long evolutionary process from the coarse period to the age of prosperity that pushes China to an upward trajectory with its reform model for domestic and worldwide growth. Its economic and strategic directions are reaping fruits in the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing's goodwill has been endorsed by different countries of the world who wish to learn from the ascendancy of China on the world stage. However, with the rise of China, it is feared that it would have implications for the predominant world order. This paper, therefore, highlights the country's political, economic, military, and social reforms by its distinctive Soft Power approach. China is becoming an influential power that cannot be ignored on the global horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Public Art is the property of Shanghai Fine Arts Publisher Ltd. co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ever since China has formally joined the WHO-backed global COVID-19 vaccine initiative known as COVAX, there is a presumed notion that China's vaccine diplomacy will make a significant contribution to the international public good and thus uplift Beijing's role as the rule-maker of international order. To scrutinize this, the paper asks if China succeeded in proliferating its weaponized vaccine policy to obtain maximum diplomatic gains and soft power projection to intensify its international image, geopolitical power, and domestic politico legitimacy. The authors argue that despite its vaccine diplomacy demonstrated the robust governance capacity and responsibility to be a great power. Yet, Beijing's geopolitical influence and international image are significantly overrated and not enough to play a more prominent role in the global power fulcrum/equilibrium. On the contrary, China enjoys a leading position on the domestic political front. Its successful portrayal of China's vaccine provision in the global market and remarkable configuration to leverage a deep-rooted nationalism has fundamentally provided China with a powerful rationale to divert its public's attention from Beijing's earlier inadequate handling of the outbreak. The evaluation of the paper reveals that China's vaccine diplomacy's influence in promoting international image and geopolitics is limited but has successfully stabilized its domestic political environment and enhanced its domestic legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese traditional sports are diverse and have rich national cultural connotations. However, with the development of China's Health Strategy, modern sports such as badminton and basketball occupy most of the people's time. On the contrary, there is much less exercise for traditional Chinese sports. Therefore, this paper aims to study Chinese traditional sports under China's Health Strategy and explore its cultural soft power. In this study, participants of all ages in different regions were selected for survey research. Combined with the survey results, the soft power index model of Chinese traditional sports culture is designed. The experimental results showed that for Chinese traditional cultural projects, the cultural soft power index of chui wan was the lowest at 0.568, and the highest was 0.982 in the dragon boat culture soft power index. For each evaluation index, the cultural cognition and cultural attractiveness of Chinese traditional sports were high, but the cultural behavioral power was low. This shows that the soft power model of Chinese traditional sports culture based on the healthy China strategic environment can effectively evaluate the development of traditional Chinese sports, which also can provide suggestions for the development and inheritance of traditional Chinese sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paramount interest of China in Afghanistan seems to ensure peace and stability in the region. Beijing's soft power approach towards Afghanistan through its neutral stance and minimum involvement in domestic politics within Afghanistan proved to be an advantage in cementing China's role in Afghanistan as a credible mediator. China extends its influence in the region through the Belt and Road Initiative, where the importance of CPEC is interlinked with the development of China's western sector. China aims to harness the Afghan territory for its transit routes because Afghanistan bridges the connectivity gap between Central Asia and West Asia. This paper highlights that the current interests of China in Afghanistan are multiple. China is utilizing all the soft power elements to promote and expand the areas of activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to South Asia because stability in Afghanistan cannot be achieved solely. Understanding Regional Security Complex Theory and Soft Power can encapsulate China's engagement in Afghanistan. It has made a considerable effort by highlighting regional complexities on various multilateral fronts like China-Pakistan-Afghanistan, China-Russia-Afghanistan, and China-Russia-Pakistan-Iran. This study develops an analytical framework of South Asian security from the regional point of view and analyses external powers' role in the transition of regional security complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the transformation of the Sichuan hot pot from a regional Chinese food to a global cuisine. It first analyzes how Sichuan food businesses had been "gentrified" by rigorous state regulation and control. With a series state-led food standardization and industrialization programs, hot pot restaurants quickly developed a franchising business model. In the late 2010s, several famous hot pot brands have established in different locations in the bustling cities in the United States. Challenging the taste buds of world food consumers, the hot and numbing sensation of the Sichuan hot pot is part of the national trajectory that aims to enhance China's soft power. The paper argues that unlike the previous waves of Chinese food globalization brought by the earlier migrants from China, the globalizing hot pot is a different kind of Chinese food globalization developed within a political and economic context that witnesses China's rise to global power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of University Chemistry is the property of Peking University, College of Chemistry & Molecular Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the last two decades, China has become increasingly influential in Africa, and the US policy pivoting to confront domestic challenges and withdrawing from its role in international fora has raised many concerns. Based on this global context, this paper examines the US-China soft power competition through foreign aid. It takes a relational lens to analyze their aid to the African countries. It first looks at how foreign aid could be transformed into soft power assets, and then innovatively puts the two countries side by side and examines the relational powers of their foreign aid and the impacts on the other's national image. The paper uses ordered (Ordinary Least Squares) OLS, ordered logit, and IV regression to analyze aid data and opinion poll data. The results show that foreign aid can promote the African perceptions of both countries. It also finds that Chinese aid has a negative impact on the image of the US in Africa, while American aid has no significant effect on African perception of China. This conclusion aligns with the competitive nature of the US–China relationship. China's model of aid may be preferred by Africans, while the US may need to revisit its approaches in Africa in order to turn this situation around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following material proposes an analysis of the dynamics of the People's Republic of China worldwide in recent years. Chinese civilization is marked by its inventions that contributed to the development of mankind: compass, gunpowder, paper, printing, silk, seismograph, compass, wheelbarrow. Lao Tzu introduced the idea of living in harmony, and Confucius emphasized ethical values for a harmonious society. China is a very large country with a fairly large population. These elements could portray China as a great power, but on the other hand they may also pose challenges that the Chinese authorities must manage. Among the solutions to solve domestic challenges would be attracting certain resources from abroad, as well as Beijing's credibility worldwide. How is it possible to materialize such solutions? Through the Belt and Road Initiative megaprojects. At first glance things seem to center on the economic and cultural side. In reality, the issues are much deeper. China, through its East Asian civilization, has to go through negotiations with nations with different cultures and, implicitly, strategic narratives that prevent the conclusion of contracts in building joint projects. Most likely, Beijing will eventually succeed in achieving its global goals and reaping the benefits, especially due to the soft power strategies it wields. Was ancient isolation a factor why China did not engage in tactics at the opposite pole as other international actors have historically displayed themselves? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is the most culturally loaded industry. In the new era, China's tourism industry is developing rapidly and the public's need for diversified culture is growing. The integration of culture and tourism, the development of new forms of cultural tourism industry, is also an important means to enhance the country's cultural soft power, promote the development of China's tourism culture, and solve the contradiction between cultural supply and demand. The industrial competitiveness evaluation of regional cultural tourism is looked as the multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem. This paper proposed extended MARCOS method in probabilistic hesitant fuzzy sets (PHFSs) circumstance. Meanwhile, the CRITIC method is used to evaluate the criterion weights. Then we give a case study for industrial competitiveness evaluation of regional cultural tourism to measure the novel model's validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of COVID-19 has provided a new vigor to addressed global health issues. In this regard, global health diplomacy initiatives have seen a considerable surge. Countries around the world are using the opportunity to harness the potential of global health diplomacy in cultivating relations with several countries and also building a soft power projection. A case in point is how China has been spearheading global health efforts to improve relations while projecting a soft power about how China aims to act as global savior. Chinese efforts were able to gain significant traction owing to the fact that the United States under the administration of President Trump suspended its global leadership role, the first such instance in the post-World War-II era. This paper explains the concept of global health diplomacy by conducting a comparative analysis of the global health efforts and policies undertaken by both the United States and China by following qualitative research technique and secondary sources to explain the phenomenon. The study found that China led the response to COVID-19 not only domestically but globally as well. The U.S. lagged but gradually started to compete China in health diplomacy. There is an evident struggle for dominance in health sector between China and the U.S., however, it is not expected to lead into hard power struggle. The paper has concluded that it is important for both countries to work together in future in case of pandemic to spearhead an international effort against such crises. Moreover, it recommends Chinese authorities to include health corridor as a component with Belt and Road Initiative. On the other hand, the United States under the administration of President Joe Biden should invest in multilateral efforts so to empower global health institutions to better prepare for future health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) (Taiwan) have taken divergent paths in the area of human rights. Since the two leaders Xi Jinping and Tsai Ing-wen came to power, the differences in the area of human rights have further increased. The paper analyses and compares their external human rights strategies based on realist assumptions and the soft and hard power resources of the PRC and the ROC. The PRC's objectives are to deflect international criticism of its human rights situation and to weaken the global human rights system and its underlying human rights norms. Taiwan's objective is to use its record as a human rights leader in Asia to expand its limited international space and to strengthen its ties with other consolidated democracies and the global civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Announced in 2013 and since then dubbed a game-changer, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a multifaceted project that holds the potential to influence Pakistan's state and society. This paper examines, in particular, the CPEC's potential to expand Chinese soft power to win Pakistanis' hearts and minds. It focuses on what I term the 'soft end' of China's soft power to offer a case study of the country's use of higher education as a soft power instrument. To demonstrate Beijing's practices in this regard and shed light on how they are received by the Pakistani government and the public, I draw on selected academic literature triangulated with primary sources such as public opinion polls, media and semi-structured interviews with Pakistani academics and graduates. This case study exposes the non-material aspects of China's international connectivity and thereby contributes to understanding China's growing role in South Asia and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft power is commonly presented as an alternative or a complement to harder forms of power, such as military and economic might. However, while it is safer to say that soft power does not depend on military capabilities, it is not as straightforward to separate soft power from its economic counterpart. Juxtaposing various soft power rankings with a country's economic assets may reveal how soft power relies on economic resources. Moreover, when closely scrutinised, it is possible to appreciate how dynamics of attraction are also closely intertwined with economic gains. In an increasingly connected world, soft power could prove to be instrumental in achieving economic success. Economic effects are expected to be more consistent, observable, and attainable when compared to political ones, such as spreading democracy. Far from arguing that soft power is unable to assist in achieving political goals in the long term, this paper aims instead to highlight how a narrow culture-centred analysis of soft power greatly limits the understanding of this power in the real world, and results in the underestimation of its value and impact. China's quest to connect the world through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a topical case through which to further explore the soft–economic power nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China’s rapid growth, it is worth considering whether or not the country has challenged the United States, which for decades was the hegemonic power in much of Latin America. Posed in international studies, these questions are viewed from a Western perspective, arguably ethnocentric and universalist, which understands the international context as one of allies and enemies, center and periphery. Thus, it is difficult to understand a global rearrangement involving a non-Western actor. There seems to be no other way of understanding peaceful coexistence without involving the dominant and dominated relationship. Therefore, this paper seeks to explain whether a strategic relationship, fostered based on equal relationships for mutual benefit, is possible, without thinking about the soft or strong power notion that characterized the international order of the 20th Century. For the approach, a qualitative analytical-descriptive methodology is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century has brought in its wake a flurry of competing foreign investment players on the African investment sphere. This situation may be called the globalization of foreign investment (Bodomo 2017). Foreign investment features as a salient issue for intellectual discussions of topics such as agency, soft power, and symmetry. In this paper, we outline the important role that China and the European Union (EU), the biggest investment polities in Africa, have played in the globalization of investment in Africa and argue that China has, indeed, created a paradigm shift with respect to its investment engagement with the African continent. This paradigm shift may be calibrated in terms of the volume of engagement; in terms of the speed and efficiency with which investment projects are completed, and, in terms of the very discourse of trade and investment. The argument is advanced further by discussing some of the main features of Chinese investment that distinguish it from that of other global players on the African continent, such as Europe. We further extend arguments from our previous work (Bodomo 2017; Bodomo and Che 2020) to say that if Africa does not sharpen its agency, the end result may be that China and the EU may gain at the expense of Africa but that should Africa play a more proactive and controlling role such as enforcing its investment laws, the mid-twenty-first century may yet see a trilateral win–win-win outcome for Africa, China, and the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, China has rapidly increased its influence throughout the South Asian region, using both its hard and soft power tactics. China has succeeded in eclipsing India's influence and emerged as an important player in the region. China is making inroads in South Asia by making huge investments and constructing roads, highways, railways, sea ports, bridges, power grids, dams, and public buildings. China is pursuing a foreign policy that aims to advance its strategic and economic interests while trying to imbalance India's predominant position and contain India within the boundaries of South Asia. This is to prevent the rise of a peer competitor that can challenge or hinder the rise of China as a sole Asian power. This paper argues that the geostrategic situation of South Asian countries is such that they pose threats to India's security by aligning with the extra-regional powers. Hence, China's expanding strategic and security ties with South Asian countries have wider implications for India's security due to the complex and sensitive nature of its relationship with China. The theoretical approach of Power Transition Theory has been utilized to analyze the Sino-India power rivalry and China's growing threat to India's security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008, a negative image of China has prevailed in Europe, leading to the country's image crisis in the region. The state has implemented several policies to improve such a perception. This paper aims to examine the major tools of China's attempts at influence in Europe, targeting the media and public opinion. Applying the concept of soft power and public diplomacy, we analyse the tools China uses to modify and shape public opinion about itself in Europe. The research framework comprises secondary resources on China's foreign policy, soft power, public diplomacy and media strategy in Europe. We distinguish four primary influence tools: China buys European media outlets to prevent negative information about itself; it pays for inserts in leading European newspapers; it signs cooperation agreements with media organisations and holds media forums; and it limits access to its market to affect media, film and academic content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, China has been actively leading international cooperation in fighting the virus. However, The US and some other western countries have repeatedly passed the buck to China, which has posed greater challenges for the building of China's international discourse system against such backdrop. To this end, this paper focuses on the official discourse of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs themed on “fighting against the COVID-19 Pandemic”, and construes the strategies of building China's international discourse system against the context through the analytical tool—cognitive-pragmatic model of proximization theory, thus exposing the hidden ideology as well as the false propaganda of the western countries toward China and providing intellectual support for China to transform its development advantages in the field of hard power into those in soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the different terms used in public diplomacy and the symbiotic relations that connect the European Union and China through culture, mobility, cultural diplomacy and soft power. The first part of the article reviews the main treaties and agreements signed between the two continents in the cultural field and explain mobility as a driver to enhance relations among countries. The main objective and central axis of the article is to examine the roles played by the cultural and creative industries in the field of international relations and diplomacy between the European Union, Spain and China through a case study: an analysis of Chinese artists in the Spanish residencies. The methodologies used are qualitative and quantitative analysis through in depth interviews with Chinese artists, a survey to artistic residencies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping. The last part of the paper offers some reflections and conclusions about the correlation between, and relevance of the cultural and creative industries for cultural diplomacy or mobility between countries, soft power and the image of a country abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China features significantly in the Covid-19 narrative for good and bad reasons. The purpose of this paper is to test, empirically, the assumption that Covid-19 would negatively influence perceptions of China in Ghana, due to its perceived relationship with the pandemic. We characterise Chinese manufactured products as soft power resources and analyse the role they play in addressing the personal needs and interests of Ghanaians and how they affect positive and negative perceptions of China amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We used a mixed research method and collected data from a sample size of 1,020 for analysis. We found that Ghanaians are rational actors who maximise the perceived gains of their actions in pursuit of their objectives. Thus, the self-interest and personal satisfaction Ghanaians gain through China's manufactured products outweigh the negative representation of China in the Covid-19 narrative, shaping a positive attitude in Ghana towards China. We situate the argument within rational choice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the interrelationship between the implementation of language policies and the development of cultural soft power in contemporary China by examining the Party-State's utterances concerning these two policy areas. China's official discourse on soft power enhancement shows that the Chinese leadership is targeting the domestic audience with the promotion of a higher level of faith in Chinese culture. In recent years, China's language policy has featured among cultural policies promoted by the government with the aim of enhancing the role of culture as part of the country's soft power. Ties between language planning and the concept of cultural soft power in this discourse are drawn out by sketching the regulatory framework of the former, the characteristics of the latter, and their relationships with China's language practices. Aiming to contribute to the discussion regarding China's language policy from the perspective of cultural soft power, this paper reflects on the Party-State's vision of the dissemination of Putonghua and the harmonisation of China's language life as cultural capital resources and explores the motives for the adoption of this dominant narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents the concepts of regionalization and globalization in the context of higher education. The analysis was carried out in the light of the explication of the concept of “soft power” of Chinese Marxism. The methodological basis of the work is the statement that globalization does not create a conflict between homogeneous and heterogeneous, moreover, the latter contributes to the topological flow of the global to the localized. The ambiguity of the driving forces of educational reforms is emphasized, which leads to the presence of only speculative constitution of globalization. Nevertheless, its consequences are a number of reforms and facts that have provided a good basis for revealing the phenomenon of glocalization of the educational landscape on the example of China. It was found that the specificity of the latest epistemological doctrine within the Western educational landscape is closely related to the postmodern method of knowledge production, the implementation of which leads to crisis and asynchronous changes in higher education. At the same time, Chinese Marxism reveals and intensifies a number of productive practices in Chinese higher education, which makes it part of China’s “soft power” in the global arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of Confucius Institute in Shaping China's National Image in Botswana in the case of CI Students. The Confucius Institute at the University of Botswana (CIUB) is employed as a case study which is identified as the most active Chinese soft power instrument in Botswana. The paper uses a qualitative research method to help better understand the benefits and limitations of CIUB in creating China's positive image in Botswana. Primary data is obtained from questionnaires whilst secondary data is derived from journal papers, thesis, and books. The study is framed by soft power theory to assist in learning how China utilises its soft power to improve its image in Botswana. The analysis revealed that CIUB has been fruitful in promoting Chinese language and culture in Botswana impacting positively on China's national image. The findings of the study show that CIUB has the potential to clear some negative perceptions about China in Botswana. However, the limitation as indicated by the study is that CIUB does not have wide coverage of the population of Botswana as it targets mostly students. It is suggested that CIUB as a single tool cannot fully address all the concerns affecting China's image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the results of an ongoing research project on the activities of the Chinese media company StarTimes in Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, this paper analyses the fluid and fragmentary dimension of the engagements between Chinese media and African publics, while equally emphasizing the power dynamics that underlie them. Focusing on a variety of ethnographic sources, it argues for an approach to the study of Chinese media expansion in Africa able to take into account, simultaneously, the macro-political and macro-economic factors which condition the nature of China–Africa media interactions, the political intentions behind them (as, for example, the Chinese soft power policies and their translation into specific media contents), and the micro dimension of the practices and uses of the media made by the actors (producers and consumers of media) in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study critically examines, on the one hand, how digital online shopping sites in China, mainly Taobao and Jingdong, have presented UK fashion to the Chinese market. Given the prevailing trend of online shopping for clothing in China, the transnational flow of UK fashion to China is largely monopolized and manipulated by these digital giants. Illustrated in this paper is China's increasing power to shape and articulate UK/British fashion discourse through various retailers as "cultural translators" in the domestic market, and however, the translation was largely made to sell "counterfeit UK fashion," resulting in a phenomenon of culture piracy. On the other hand, on the international market, to reflect China's "going out strategy," literally these digital online shopping sites also collaborate with UK fashion designers to promote UK fashion in and outside China. The paper discusses the implications for China's extension of soft power over the fashion industry within and outside China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Although the contemporary art system has experienced relevant changes in Mainland China over the past decades, only recently it gained an international reputation. Within this context, art fairs played a strategic role in developing relationships with players of the global art world. The aim of this paper is to analyze this internationalization process by focusing on two dimensional measures: the composition of galleries attending art fairs and their network embeddedness. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to explore contemporary art fairs in Mainland China over the period 2007–2019, we show the transition from local to international hub, suggesting the importance of art fairs as a potential soft power vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's increased use of soft power diplomacy and engagement with Pacific Island countries have led to favorable views of China among countries on the receiving end. Favorable views of China may lead to a closer relationship between China and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and impact FSM's current relationship with the United States (U.S.). While the literature on China's soft power diplomacy is voluminous, scholarship on the perspectives of FSM leaders of the future is limited. Based on focus group interviews with FSM university students at the University of Guam, this paper argues that - within the soft power conceptual framework - China's soft power in FSM is tangentially effective. From their perspectives, the university students indicated that China subsidies are consequential, but they fear the loss of land and culture under increased China influence. This research is relevant to understanding the attitudes of FSM's future leaders and providing valuable insights into the future US-FSM-China relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the place of non-economic drivers in China–Africa relations. While existing studies are hinged on economic relations between Beijing and the continent, this study focuses on non-economic aspects that underlie Africa's relations with China. Taking the soft power approach, the paper illuminates on the salience of attractiveness in international politics and interrogates sources of China's attractiveness in the continent and compares China's actions with those of traditional actors for broader empirical coverage and methodological rigour. The authors argue that while economic drivers are an important basis for understanding China–Africa relations, several fundamental features beyond the economic relations supplement the growing relations between Beijing and Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]