China is spending billions on soft power
economist.com
China is spending billions on soft power
1–10 of 135 posts
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#2This is going to sound flippant, but I mean it very seriously. This is a much better way to spend money than spending billions to make the world hate you.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#3Smart move, the path is wide open for China.
The most remembered phrase of the orange demagogue inaugural address was "America first, always". As a non-American I'd argue that "me first" are words that a leader should never say, even when it is what he always believed.
I might start learning Mandarin, someday.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#4This is going to sound flippant, but I mean it very seriously. This is a much better way to spend money than spending billions to make the world hate you.
IMO you are absolutely right. There is nothing flippant about that when it just reflects the truth
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#5I wonder how much Japan spends on that front, or if it's even official state policy to make the world love it.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#6Paywalled article, so hope this is relevant.
Here in Kenya, infrastructure investment by the Kenyan government is very poor. Whatever money gets theoretically assigned to things like building and maintenance of roads and the power and water grids usually goes missing at various stages until the final project, if implemented at all, is shoddy.
Enter China, who have been directly funding infrastructure here. They are managing the supply chain and personnel themselves, and it's having a huge effect. Beautiful roads have sprung up around Nairobi in the last year especially, built using modern techniques and quality materials.
One can't help but wonder what concessions the Chinese government will eventually come looking for in return, because it's pretty certain that the debt will never be repaid in money.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#7It's a digression (because honestly the fact that China markets itself is not hugely notable, nor "bad" or "good" no matter how effective or ineffective it might be), but:
Toward the bottom of this article is a favorability chart of China in different nations. And there is a huge crater (like 37% to 5%) in Chinese support among the Japanese between 2011-2013. Other nationalities see a little blip, but nothing like this.
What happened between China and Japan in 2011? I'm genuinely ignorant.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#8It's not nearly enough, it needs to be trillions for it to catch up to America.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#9It's a digression (because honestly the fact that China markets itself is not hugely notable, nor "bad" or "good" no matter how effective or ineffective it might be), but: Toward the bottom of this article is a favorability chart of China in different nations. And there is a huge crater (like 37% to 5%) in Chinese support among the Japanese between 2011-2013. Other nationalities see a little blip, but nothing like th…
This is just one data point, and i am far from an expert in the area, but the Senkaku islands are controlled by China, and Japan thinks its theirs.
Re: China is spending billions on soft power
#10Paywalled article, so hope this is relevant. Here in Kenya, infrastructure investment by the Kenyan government is very poor. Whatever money gets theoretically assigned to things like building and maintenance of roads and the power and water grids usually goes missing at various stages until the final project, if implemented at all, is shoddy. Enter China, who have been directly funding infrastructure here. They are m…
A friend of mine spent a few years working in a few different places in Africa. He said that the impression of the locals was that the Chinese are the new colonizers, full stop. The labor conditions and treatment of African workers on Chinese run projects was really bad, and the out-and-out racism by the Chinese was crazy.