Beijing and its soft power deficit

Andrew Hammond, Arab News

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Excerpt:

China’s growing prominence is not without its challenges. The country’s grand strategy has long been premised on a gradual, peaceful transition to power, during which it will grow stronger while keeping a low profile.

The significantly brighter spotlight on the country, especially since 2008, has exposed a “soft power deficit,” which is complicating its rise to power. Soft power, which rests upon the international attractiveness of a country’s foreign policy, political values and culture, is recognized by Beijing as a key political commodity, but one it has had limited success in cultivating to date.

As international perceptions of the country’s power have changed, its global favorability has shown weakness in some key countries and continents, as underlined in Pew’s data in 2017. For instance, across the populaces surveyed in the EU (10 nations) and Asia-Pacific (seven countries), there was overall net negative opinions about China — 44 percent unfavorable to 43 percent favorable in the EU, versus 41 percent unfavorable and 34 percent favorable in Asia-Pacific.

Moreover, in the United States, China also had a net unfavorability rating in 2017, according to Pew. Trump is well aware of this sentiment, and also the fact that US Republican voters tend to have lower overall favorability than Democrat counterparts toward the country.

Especially if critical scrutiny intensifies, Beijing must find better ways to tackle this soft power deficit, including enhanced international public diplomacy [JB emphasis] to win more foreign “hearts and minds.” At a symbolic level, example measures might include utilizing the country’s growing capabilities in space travel for high-profile international cooperation projects. Surveys underline that many around the world admire China’s strength in science and technology.

Beijing should also restart a process of addressing foreign concern about its intentions as a rising power. It could intensify efforts to be seen as a responsible and peaceful global stakeholder; and match this rhetoric with actions.

This agenda may pose significant challenges for Beijing. However, unless it is tackled, China’s soft power deficit could only grow bigger in 2018 and beyond.

Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.