Chinese Soft Power and Media Discussion and Updates

xypher

Senior Member
Registered Member
How the world outside of your border perceives you is a part of soft power. In democratic countries public sentiment will inevitably affect policy making, hence if used precisely, propaganda can lead to positive sentiment > positive policy returns.

A good example of this is NATO inaction during 2014. Russia had flooded the internet at that time and led to widespread indifference.
When these trolls are everywhere just spamming Indian flags and doing nationalistic chest beating, then that perception will only go down as you correctly observed.

NATO inaction in 2014 was not due to Russia flooding the internet with trolls, lol, and there was little the West could do apart from starting a war over Crimea - it was not an actual war zone like Donbass, it just switched flags overnight basically. Most of the "mainstream" support for Russia you see in the West is from far-right movements and it is due to the simple fact that it is a majority white country. China is not going to receive that white privilege pass from these rightists no matter how much they invest in soft power because powerful China is the total opposite of what they want. Nor China should strive to appeal to these people tbh, it is far more useful to build up soft power in the Global South.
 

gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
NATO inaction in 2014 was not due to Russia flooding the internet with trolls, lol. Most of the "mainstream" support for Russia you see in the West is from far-right movements and that has little to do with Russian soft power but the simple fact that it is a majority white country. China is not going to receive that white privilege pass from these rightists no matter how much they invest in soft power because powerful China is the total opposite of what they want.
Maybe China needs to restart the Communist International for real and this time as its leader since it is the major communist nation left.
To make the US's stupid laws to prevent people from being part of the Communist Party actually mean something. You can't enter their stupid country without filling a form saying if you are affiliated or not.
 
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xypher

Senior Member
Registered Member
Maybe China needs to restart the Communist International for real and this time as its leader since it is the major communist nation left.
To make the US's stupid laws to prevent people from being part of the Communist Party actually mean something. You can't enter their stupid country without filling a form saying if you are affiliated or not.
Maybe. But you also have to be kinda cautious when pushing a hard ideological line - it is not the beginning of 20th century where communist movements were pretty large and gained following organically, the fall of the Soviet Union and decades of the US-led hegemony drastically reduced them.

Currently China is essentially offering an ideology-free camp based on trade and mutual development for countries that are sick of the neoliberal world order led by the US and its dictate over their internal matters, it is a big question whether China could retain them if they changed to export of communism. On other hand, China definitely needs to be more proactive and offer more support to movements that are beneficial to it, so maybe not outright "Communist International" but establish its own version of NED that will nurture & provide resource to leftist movements worldwide. I think this approach could create a solid foothold for China in South America where leftists are still pretty strong even with the US propaganda war against them.
 
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gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
A good example of this is NATO inaction during 2014. Russia had flooded the internet at that time and led to widespread indifference.
No. It's just that a lot of people were caught off guard. It's not like it wasn't the first time there was a Western sponsored coup in Ukraine. You had the Orange Revolution in 2004 for example. So I think a lot of people didn't expect Russia to have that sort of reaction. i.e. annex Crimea.
It is just that this time it was a violent overthrow of the government. The West didn't even bother waiting for early elections. And they just outright banned the opposition. The people in the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine basically had enough.
 
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Randomuser

Senior Member
Registered Member
The popularity and reviews of Three Body Problem shows that China is just as capable as Korea or Japan in creating popular media. I would argue even more since Three Body Problem came from an award winning scifi book instead of rely on a crappy light novel which relies on some anime girl on the cover to attract viewers. Japan and Korea have to rely heavily on visuals to even get viewer attention while China right now uses novels/web novels and still keeps overseas viewers interest. Like many things with China, people are laggards when it comes to realizing its developments partially because of prejudice and not wanting to be proven wrong.

Btw Netflix is a poor man's adaption. Stop giving those guys money and go to the original source.
 

mossen

Junior Member
Registered Member
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Here's the breakdown by over time:

1.png

Country-specific data:

2.png

Not surprised by the haters nor the lovers.

What surprised me was Cambodia and Myanmar, both stereotypically portrayed as pro-China. Thought Cambodia would be closer to Malay/Indo levels of Sinophilia given how close political links are to China. Myanmar is also surprising, given that the US funds various rebel groups but the establishment has often been portrayed as pro-China.

The institute polled policy elites, not normal people, because the assumption is that elites craft policy so they matter more.
 
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