Chinese Soft Power and Media Discussion and Updates

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
One thing China can do to increase soft power at low cost and effort:
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It is grammatical Japanese written with only Chinese characters. Chinese people can read it easily. It got started as a joke in Japanese social media but became an actual phenomena.

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伪中国語:貴方午後何処行?
标准汉语:你下午去哪?
伪中国語:貴方偽中國語使用者??!!仲間?!!?
标准汉语:您也是伪中国语的使用者?小伙伴啊!

This increases Chinese media audience by 100 million Japanese + whatever number of weebs. This doesn't require much effort on China's part except to amplify the meme.

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.

On 12 November 1945, the
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newspaper published an editorial concerning the abolition of kanji, and on 31 March 1946, the first American Education Delegation arrived in Japan at the invitation of the
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and issued its first report. The report pointed out the difficulties concerning kanji use, and advocated the use of
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, which they considered more convenient. As a result, the gradual abolition of kanji became official policy for the SCAP, and the tōyō kanji list and modern kana usage proposals were drawn up in accordance with this policy.

I think re-Sinicizing Japanese culture (aided of course by the background of improved hard power) would be most realistically achievable, yet a major victory of Chinese soft power.
 

SunlitZelkova

New Member
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One thing China can do to increase soft power at low cost and effort:
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It is grammatical Japanese written with only Chinese characters. Chinese people can read it easily. It got started as a joke in Japanese social media but became an actual phenomena.

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This increases Chinese media audience by 100 million Japanese + whatever number of weebs. This doesn't require much effort on China's part except to amplify the meme.

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.



I think re-Sinicizing Japanese culture (aided of course by the background of improved hard power) would be most realistically achievable, yet a major victory of Chinese soft power.

Ironically Taiwan apparently has the same idea. According to Japanese wikipedia, Taiwan's CNA has endorsed it as a "a new platform for Sino-Japan communications". There may be hope though because the source cited is actually a Jiangsu website lol.

I think "de-Westernization" would be a better word to use if such a campaign was to be pursued with Japan or other countries. "Re-Sinicization", even if X country's culture does have much origin in China, could be construed as imperialist or colonialist. And while "re-Sinicization" does not really inspire cooperation (to me as a Japanese it feels like something that would be done to us) "de-Westernization" is something the target country's population would be able to get with better, as it isn't even something political, merely a return to tradition.

If such a soft power campaign was to be conducted, wording is very important, as the slightest pretense of "expansionism" or anything offensive (offensive like an attack, opposite of defensive, not the "I got offended" offensive) and the target country's media and their Western backers will jump at it as being an "expansionist plot".
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
China is building the world's most far-reaching radar system for planetary defense
interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-is-building-radar-system-for-planetary-defense

China wants to defend the Earth from asteroids using the moon
The new project entails putting three guardian satellites carrying loads of fuel and kinetic weapons into the moon’s orbit around the Earth

jpost.com/science/article-712844
 

name

New Member
Registered Member
This is my observation on the thread at
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sinodefenceforum.com/t/fourth-taiwan-strait-crisis.8980/

Notice the wording lots of posts use: "China invades Taiwan", "Chinese invasion of Taiwan", "America defends Taiwan", “Taiwanese independence”, etc. Lots of posters will also describe America’s interference as “intervention”.

I see the same problem in Chinese media often.

These are common examples of messaging failures. These posts already cast China as aggressor, Taiwan as victim, and America as brave hero. This is an inversion of reality.

China’s actions should be couched in reasonable defensive terms like “restore Chinese sovereignty”, “reunify with Taiwan” or “reunite Taiwan with the mainland”.

Taiwan should be portrayed as secessionists, separatists, radicals, extremists, a regime, etc.

Taiwan leaders should be cast as demagogues, fanatics, extremists, etc.

America’s actions should be accurately described with words like interference, meddling, intrusion, obstruction, sabotage, subversion, militarism, etc.

With these changes, China is cast as the reasonable one, Taiwan as the crazy one, and America as saboteur.

This is just an example of how proper messaging can gain sympathy for yourselves and scorn for your enemies. No, I’m not saying it will change everyone’s minds, but it will change a lot of people’s minds.
 
Last edited:

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
This is my observation on the thread at
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
sinodefenceforum.com/t/fourth-taiwan-strait-crisis.8980/

Notice the wording lots of posts use: "China invades Taiwan", "Chinese invasion of Taiwan", "America defends Taiwan", “Taiwanese independence”, etc. Lots of posters will also describe America’s interference as “intervention”.

I see the same problem in Chinese media often.

These are common examples of messaging failures. These posts already cast China as aggressor, Taiwan as victim, and America as brave hero. This is an inversion of reality.

China’s actions should be couched in reasonable defensive terms like “restore Chinese sovereignty”, “reunify with Taiwan” or “reunite Taiwan with the mainland”.

Taiwan should be portrayed as secessionists, separatists, radicals, extremists, a regime, etc.

Taiwan leaders should be cast as demagogues, fanatics, extremists, etc.

America’s actions should be accurately described with words like interference, meddling, intrusion, obstruction, sabotage, subversion, militarism, etc.

With these changes, China is cast as the reasonable one, Taiwan as the crazy one, and America as saboteur.

This is just an example of how proper messaging can gain sympathy for yourselves and scorn for your enemies. No, I’m not saying it will change everyone’s minds, but it will change a lot of people’s minds.
All Chinese people know that China is the protagonist. All Russians and other allies know it. All Westerners will never know it no matter what China says. And everyone who is still on the fence doesn't care and are unimportant.

Tactically speaking, the Taiwanese are in a defensive militaristic position so it is easier to refer to that side as the defender when discussing military operations. Other than that, I like it this way. All of the sweetness of victory is gone when your enemy was half-hearted knowing he was in the wrong; I want China's victory over the US to end with Americans kicking and screaming in sadness and agony, beckoning God in vain how he could let such evil dominate over them. They deserve this feeling for all of the atrocities they had commited onto this world.
 

SunlitZelkova

New Member
Registered Member
These are common examples of messaging failures. These posts already cast China as aggressor, Taiwan as victim, and America as brave hero. This is an inversion of reality.

I disagree. This is merely a product of the preconceptions that come with those words in Western society, not the words themselves.

It is universally agreed upon that D-Day was "an invasion of Europe" and that Operation Downfall would have been an "invasion of Japan", yet neither of these were negative things.

Defense is just defense. There is nothing positive or negative to it. For comparison, it is universally agreed upon that Germany and Japan engaged in "defensive" actions during WWII, yet obviously these were negative things because they were prolonging the conflict and protecting criminals.

Independence is just independence. It is not an automatically positive thing. The Confederacy wanted to "declare independence" from the US, yet obviously it was not a good thing.

Intervention is just intervention. Russia is described as having "intervened" in Syria by Western publications and media, thus showing that people in the West are capable of seeing intervention as a negative thing.

Those preconceptions are never going to go away, because it isn't a mere political issue- people in the West were raised on certain ideas related to those words and have been conditioned throughout their entire lives to understand them in one way.
 

name

New Member
Registered Member
I disagree. This is merely a product of the preconceptions that come with those words in Western society, not the words themselves.

It is universally agreed upon that D-Day was "an invasion of Europe" and that Operation Downfall would have been an "invasion of Japan", yet neither of these were negative things.

Defense is just defense. There is nothing positive or negative to it. For comparison, it is universally agreed upon that Germany and Japan engaged in "defensive" actions during WWII, yet obviously these were negative things because they were prolonging the conflict and protecting criminals.

Independence is just independence. It is not an automatically positive thing. The Confederacy wanted to "declare independence" from the US, yet obviously it was not a good thing.

Intervention is just intervention. Russia is described as having "intervened" in Syria by Western publications and media, thus showing that people in the West are capable of seeing intervention as a negative thing.

Those preconceptions are never going to go away, because it isn't a mere political issue- people in the West were raised on certain ideas related to those words and have been conditioned throughout their entire lives to understand them in one way.

There are books (Words That Work by Frank Luntz 2008, Political Mind by George Lakoff 2008, and more) that discuss words and the frames that they activate in the mind. The gist of it is that many words have connotations. For example, the word independence activates the frames of fighting for independence, freedom, etc. These are positive connotations. The group that is on the other side is automatically framed in the mind as someone bad who is trying to deprive them of their independence - an oppressive totalitarian enemy.

Invasion similarly has negative connotations. Think of the related items: home invaders, alien invasion, invasive species, etc. All are negative. Notice how the word invasion is used by the imperial west. I routinely see successful Chinese exports being framed as invasions such as the "Chinese car invasion". Yet, I don't recall seeing Western products being described as invading foreign nations. Look at the news over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. I constantly see minor variations of "Russia's invasion of Ukraine". This is no accident.
 
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