Thursday, August 3, 2017

Bypass Beijing’s Propaganda by Accessing Chinese Social Media


Irfan Ahmad, thequint.com

Image from, with caption: Chinese construction activity usually precedes a strong claim on the territory. Credit: Special Arrangement

Almost 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu famously wrote in The Art of War, “Winning without fight is the best strategy” – underscoring the importance of soft power. Some 200 years later, Chanakya propounded the theory of Saam (persuasion) for winning without offence, and prioritised it over Dand (punishment or display of hard power).

At the end of the Cold War, Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye explained soft power as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments.”

Recently, the Chinese embassy in India contested New Delhi’s position on Doklam [JB - see] border standoff by releasing a YouTube video through its political counsellor Li Ya. However, the Indian embassy in China avoided engaging in similar display of public diplomacy.

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