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Is China Redefining Its Attitude To Projecting Soft Power?

November 11, 2009

Is China Redefining Its Attitude To Projecting Soft Power Martin McCauley writes: Some time ago hundreds of Chinese ambassadors, diplomats and other officials responsible for formulating foreign policy gathered in Beijing to debate the future of China on the wold stage. Given the global financial crisis, should the Middle Kingdom seize the opportunity to play a more active role on the world stage? Is the United States a declining power? China’s priority is its domestic development, but it is becoming clear that domestic and foreign policy are merging. Should China give greater emphasis to expanding its influence through ‘soft’ power?

The conference was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Party Foreign Affairs Bureau. The main speaker was President Hu Jintao and other speakers included the Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. All nine members of the Standing Committee of the Party Politburo (the comrades who rule China) were present. Clearly this was not just an occasion to exchange ideas, it was a forum for framing foreign policy for the near future.

Hu reiterated China’s commitment to peaceful development and the five principles of peaceful coexistence. He underlined two important themes: one was the increasing link between domestic and foreign policy brought about by globalisation; the other was to give greater emphasis to the international context when drafting plans for the development of the domestic economy.

Hu introduced new thinking as well. A greater emphasis on ‘soft’ power should become reality; Chinese diplomacy should become more active in selective foreign policy areas; the world is moving towards multipolarity and this provides China with greater opportunities to promote its national interests. Hu talked about the four strengths of diplomacy: more political influence; more economic competitiveness; a more positive international image; and greater moral influence.

Three of the four strengths (political influence, image appeal and moral impact) are part and parcel of soft power. Hu’s analysis redefines what is meant by soft power to Beijing. There are two main schools of thought. The first regards soft power as being exclusively cultural and stresses the drawing power of the national culture. The goal is to get other countries to do willingly what China wants instead of trying to dictate to them. The other school sees soft power as essentially expanding political power. Whereas the first school regards soft power as passive, the second regards it as pro-active. Traditionally Chinese foreign policy has followed the precepts of the first school but it now appears to favour the approach of the second.

The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping laid down the approach to foreign policy in 1989 – just after the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The message was to keep a low profile; bide one’s time; do not become embroiled in attempting to resolve the world’s problems; but also register some successes. It is significant that when the conference was reported in the Chinese media, Deng’s advice about keeping a low profile was omitted.

There are various explanations for the omission. One is that the West has misconstrued Deng’s words to mean that China is secretly building up its power in order to attempt to dominate the world. This finds expression in the phrase: ‘the China threat’.

Hu called on China to become actively involved in finding solutions to the global financial crisis. Another area where China is keen to play an important role is climate change. Energy security is another subject of great importance to China.

According to Chinese leaders, the Middle Kingdom should not attempt to play a leadership role in international affairs. They made a sharp distinction between those issues which are multinational -energy, climate change, finance – and those which are political. Solving the planet’s political problems is best left to others. China’s present priority is exclusively to concentrate on its domestic development.

The Chinese political élite appears to believe that American power is waning but the financial élite is of the opinion that rumours of its economic demise are ‘greatly exaggerated’. However they all agree that multipolarity is becoming a reality. This affords China more opportunities to pursue its national interests.

Soft power is set to gain greater emphasis in Chinese foreign policy. The Middle Kingdom has found a vehicle – global issues such as energy security, climate change and regulating world finance – which permits it to pursue national interests without appearing to be attempting to take over the world.

– End –

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