What good is brand when you can only use it when you already have R&D and supply chains? Soft power is the brand and it matters a lot.
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manqiangrexue
Brigadier
And the value of the brand is determined by the foundation of hard power under which it operates as well as the hard power of its own technological prowess. Your brand is of no value if the government uses its hard power to ban it, or to constantly brainwash people into thinking it is evil, garbage or both. Huawei phones are regarded are trash in the US because American hard power rules the land. The same brand, same phones are regarded as the best in China because Chinese hard power rules that land. In other battlegrounds like Europe and the Global South, the hard power of the brand, in the way of how much performance they can put into their products in comparison to their rivals, determines the value of the brand. Political hard power and engineering hard power are all that matters; soft power is nowhere.
You are right. Soft power needs hard power to function, I never denied that. Just as your brand value require a supply chain to deliver the product and R&D to keep up with competition. Nevertheless you see strong effort to maintain the brand in parallel with supply chain and R&D. This is not a diss on hard power, it should always come first.
How u get to that interpretation? I'm saying you need both soft and hard power, and implying you can use soft power to your advantage even when you are a weak or middle power country. Morty seems to be saying you only need hard power.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Me too. I as well. I'm always up for debate against those harping up "soft power," which is just a free bonus you get once you have solidified your dominant hard power or once you have knelt to the dominant hard power. You only need hard power dominance and once you have it, soft power follows effortlessly by itself. Couldn't beat it away with a stick by then.
Me disagree. China is an already a dominant power by most hard power metrics. But its soft power hasn't followed its rise in hard power. What happened?
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
No, America's hard power is still dominant and it's using that dominance to actively suppress China's cultural influence. And even after China actually becomes dominant over the US, that dominance has to be demonstrated before it takes effect. That might be in the form of a series of conflicts or a major conflict in which the US is backed down of defeated by China. This will herald to the world that when pressed to choose Chinese vs US influence, it's healthier for them to choose Chinese. Right now, America has been demonstrating its dominance for the last several decades so when America tells them to choose American or face the consequences (all brought by American hard power), most countries oblige, thus actively suppressing China's cultural influence to far far less than what its natural state should be given its proportions to hard power. So it's not the more hard power you have the more "soft power" follows, at least not in a linear fashion, but that all the "soft power" gushes in when you become dominant and can defeat active suppression from the former dominant competitor.
Agreed. Soft power is the shadow cast by hard power. Depending on the position of the sun in the sky (I.e., who was the last to prove they dominate hard power), that shadow is going to look smaller or larger than the actual size and mass of the object casting the shadow. In this particular case, the position of the sun means America's shadow is much larger than makes sense given its current size and mass. That will not change until some event that triggers a broad global reassessment, such as the aftermath of a world war.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
That's the fast way to do it. The slow way is also possible (maybe even more probable) but it will be very gradual and slow. It would entail decades of major American failures to Chinese successes (Russification of Ukraine, disintegration of Israel, total Chinese control of the SCS, reunification of Taiwan) amid the backdrop of countries getting economically destroyed when they tote America's line against China but also weak countries being lifted to success and prominance by Chinese support against American sabotage. The countries China lifted will of course fall under Chinese influence sooner but those poor countries that repeatedly threw themselves under the bus at America's behest only to see all efforts and sacrifices fail to damage China but cause them to fall behind previously weaker rivals who bloomed under Chinese support will eventually have revolutions from the dire times to drive out American influence for Chinese support. That would be the slow, gradual, less bloody way for Chinese "soft power" to eventually eclipse and being to suppress America's.
In the end, it all depends on the balance of hard power. When the US wants to crush a country but China wants to lift it up, what happens to it? When China wants to crush a country but America wants to lift it up, what happens to it? When the answer is that China wins, then American hard power and "soft" power dominance will be over.