By Arthur Guschin
China’s efforts at public diplomacy have produced mixed results on the world stage.
Every two years China’s quest to boost the popularity of its brand is marked by a well- publicized media event: the Beijing Olympics 2008, EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, the Miss World contest 2012 in Ordos. Looking ahead, China plans to host the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and a global tourist summit in 2014. Moreover every year, the People’s Republic plays hosts to somewhat lesser events, such as the Formula-1 Grand Prix, Beijing Auto Salon or WTA-China Open. No country in Asia has devoted more resources than China has over the last five years to promoting and improving its national image. But has the strategy been effective?
The fundamental message of Chinese public diplomacy in recent years is to tell the world (especially the Western component) about Chinese values, such as non-interference in domestic affairs, and to try to win acceptance for those values. To do that, Beijing founded the Confucius Institute in 2004, with 327 departments in 93 countries to promote Chinese language learning and the culture of China. China Central Television (CCTV) annually spends billions of dollars to support international broadcasting in English (CCTV-9), Spanish (CCTV-E), French (CCTV-F), Arabic (CCTV-العربية), and Russian (CCTV-Русский), highlighting a positive agenda. In 2010, the news agency Xinhua launched the 24-hour English channel China Network Corp (CNC), while print media China Daily (circulation 1 million), People’s Daily (3 million), Global Times (1 million) and Shanghai Daily try to compete with the Western press.
However, a large number of channels does not guarantee an audience that will listen, especially given that most of the reporting in these outlets offer only a uniformly positive view of Chinese policy. In the modern information age, the policy of the PRC mass media looks outdated and short-sighted, with any gap between declared principles and actual policy likely to buffet China’s image.
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