Why there is so much copium in this thread? I always speak highly of China (you can check my post history, lol) but let's not pretend that the government is flawless. Their soft power policies are an obvious example of that - this tennis player issue blew up largely because of shoddy PR work, that's it: CGTN's response was hilariously bad and only made everything worse. Similarly, the idol crackdowns dealt a heavy blow to the Chinese entertainment which actually started taking ground in other countries - from Chinese dramas to Chinese shows (e.g. survival show Youth with You 2 was very popular with international viewers, including other Asian countries, and attracted a lot of attention towards the Chinese entertainment & soft power), because of heavy-handed actions. There are plenty of other options to address the underlying issues like overspending and crimes among celebrities without shooting yourself in the leg. Another example is how China right now is damaging its own gaming scene - from cybersport (China is currently the strongest e-Sports nation but the heavy restrictions will drain the future talent pool) to game studios which, again, were getting huge internationally especially in mobile gaming. Instead of cracking down on a specific money-drain genre of gacha (that shit needs to be banned worldwide IMO), they just smashed the whole market. The inability to address the flaws will make us like those Jai Hindus omnipresent on YT and Quora.
Smaller countries will obviously lag behind in hard power compared to giants like the US and China, their soft power has nothing to do with that. In fact, without soft power, it is likely that both South Korea & Japan would have even weaker political and economic standing because soft power boosts both whether you like it or not, especially for so-called democracies. And yes, the success of K-Entertainment is helping Asians all over the world - from finally being more vocal on anti-Asian racism to boosting perceptions of Asians (Hollywood does the same for Caucasians, which is why you have those West-worshipping Asians even in countries that got bombed to the ground by their beloved West). Another example is "Paris syndrome" - a rather mundane & dirty city that got a romantic wrapping and was sold to millions of Asians, who then spend tons of money on tourism there.
Sorry for the rant but I really don't see why so many people are vehemently opposed to China having soft power and getting better at PR. Why act as if soft & hard power somehow cancel each other out? It is a strawman argument. You can have both, the US is an example of that, China can have that as well. No one is saying that China should prioritize soft power over hard power, people are asking not to neglect it like it's happening now. The argument that "China doesn't care" also does not hold, because otherwise, the government would not create those global media outlets\branches like CGTN, Global Times, etc., and would not expand Confucius Institutes & other things (like hosting Chinese cultural events, etc.).
Smaller countries will obviously lag behind in hard power compared to giants like the US and China, their soft power has nothing to do with that. In fact, without soft power, it is likely that both South Korea & Japan would have even weaker political and economic standing because soft power boosts both whether you like it or not, especially for so-called democracies. And yes, the success of K-Entertainment is helping Asians all over the world - from finally being more vocal on anti-Asian racism to boosting perceptions of Asians (Hollywood does the same for Caucasians, which is why you have those West-worshipping Asians even in countries that got bombed to the ground by their beloved West). Another example is "Paris syndrome" - a rather mundane & dirty city that got a romantic wrapping and was sold to millions of Asians, who then spend tons of money on tourism there.
Sorry for the rant but I really don't see why so many people are vehemently opposed to China having soft power and getting better at PR. Why act as if soft & hard power somehow cancel each other out? It is a strawman argument. You can have both, the US is an example of that, China can have that as well. No one is saying that China should prioritize soft power over hard power, people are asking not to neglect it like it's happening now. The argument that "China doesn't care" also does not hold, because otherwise, the government would not create those global media outlets\branches like CGTN, Global Times, etc., and would not expand Confucius Institutes & other things (like hosting Chinese cultural events, etc.).
