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Eventine

Junior Member
Registered Member
The USA, the British, the Japanese... Perhaps the better question is how can china better cultivate its soft power. The answer I seem to be hearing is nothing.

Precisely because it's over using its hard power
We've gone through this before.

Entertainment power isn't the same as soft power. Entertainment power - anime, K pop, Hollywood, etc. - is a form of commercial power, which bends to the will of the market, and can't really be leveraged to achieve political ends. Japan is not going to be able to use anime's popularity in China to get the Chinese government to give it better trade deals, agree with Japan in world affairs, stop contesting the Diaoyu Islands, etc. Same with the US and Hollywood; and Korea and K pop.

Where entertainment power is able to be successful, is in enabling more cultural exports and influencing people's market behavior - for instance, getting Chinese women to use Korean beauty products, encouraging Chinese students to immigrate to the US because they grew up with Hollywood movies and shows, making Korean guys popular among girls because they love K pop songs and romances, etc. That is by no means insignificant, but it is the extent of entertainment power.

Actual soft power is more ideological and political in nature, and it is always backed by hard power and media control. The concept of democracy falls into this category. Contrary to entertainment power, actual soft power is pushed by governments and their associated institutions, think tanks, and media instruments. Think Radio Free Asia or the National Endowment for Democracy. Or the thousands of human rights organizations supported by the West. In this form, they do have a direct effect on politics via pressuring weaker governments into ideological conformity, subverting the political clout of rivals, fostering domestic rebellion via "democracy movements," and so on.

China is weak in both entertainment and soft power, but not for the same reasons. China's entertainment power is weak mostly because it is still a developing country and its entertainment export industry isn't yet mature. K pop did not become popular until South Korea became wealthy and modern and dedicated tremendous resources to capturing global markets. Anime mostly flourished in a vacuum because it was the only animation industry outside of the US's. When conditions prove to be right, Chinese entertainment power will rise. Censorship is a factor here as creators don't want to have to self censor at every stage - this is actually becoming a problem in Hollywood due to social justice extremism - but honestly, most of the times it's just bad writing that's to blame for Chinese entertainment's current set backs and NOT censorship.

Actual soft power is a different matter, and I agree with most people here that China's soft power is being actively suppressed by the West and the Chinese government doesn't have sufficient hard power to break out of the Western containment at the moment. This is because democracy, the flag ship ideology of the West, has yet to become ideologically bankrupt - it remains the most popular form of government across the world. So when the US goes and says "we are the leaders of the free world and we will back anybody who supports democracy, human rights, etc." it carries weight and gets countries excited. While China going out and saying it backs dictatorships or autocracies, does not. People believe in democracy, its promises, and the fact that the West will back its ideological flag ship with $$$ and hard power. Until China can do the same, it will not succeed in the soft power contest.

But hey, people believed in Communism, too. Just because an ideology sounds great on paper, doesn't mean it works in practice - what matters in the end is its success in creating hard power. The Western led world order is slowly but surely collapsing. There will come a day when people no longer believe in democracy because they no longer believe in the West. That is when the West's soft power hegemony will come to an end and opportunities will rise for new leaders in soft power.
 
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FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
We've gone through this before.

Entertainment power isn't the same as soft power. Entertainment power - anime, K pop, Hollywood, etc. - is a form of commercial power, which bends to the will of the market, and can't really be leveraged to achieve political ends. Japan is not going to be able to use anime's popularity in China to get the Chinese government to give it better trade deals, agree with Japan in world affairs, stop contesting the Diaoyu Islands, etc. Same with the US and Hollywood; and Korea and K pop.

Where entertainment power is able to be successful, is in enabling more cultural exports and influencing people's market behavior - for instance, getting Chinese women to use Korean beauty products, encouraging Chinese students to immigrate to the US because they grew up with Hollywood movies and shows, making Korean guys popular among girls because they love K pop songs and romances, etc. That is by no means insignificant, but it is the extent of entertainment power.

Actual soft power is more ideological and political in nature, and it is always backed by hard power and media control. The concept of democracy falls into this category. Contrary to entertainment power, actual soft power is pushed by governments and their associated institutions, think tanks, and media instruments. Think Radio Free Asia or the National Endowment for Democracy. Or the thousands of human rights organizations supported by the West. In this form, they do have a direct effect on politics via pressuring weaker governments into ideological conformity, subverting the political clout of rivals, fostering domestic rebellion via "democracy movements," and so on.

China is weak in both entertainment and soft power, but not for the same reasons. China's entertainment power is weak mostly because it is still a developing country and its entertainment export industry isn't yet mature. K pop did not become popular until South Korea became wealthy and modern and dedicated tremendous resources to capturing global markets. Anime mostly flourished in a vacuum because it was the only animation industry outside of the US's. When conditions prove to be right, Chinese entertainment power will rise. Censorship is a factor here as creators don't want to have to self censor at every stage - this is actually becoming a problem in Hollywood due to social justice extremism - but honestly, most of the times it's just bad writing that's to blame for Chinese entertainment's current set backs and NOT censorship.

Actual soft power is a different matter, and I agree with most people here that China's soft power is being actively suppressed by the West and the Chinese government doesn't have sufficient hard power to break out of the Western containment at the moment. This is because democracy, the flag ship ideology of the West, has yet to become ideologically bankrupt - it remains the most popular form of government across the world. So when the US goes and says "we are the leaders of the free world and we will back anybody who supports democracy, human rights, etc." it carries weight and gets countries excited. While China going out and saying it backs dictatorships or autocracies, does not. People believe in democracy, its promises, and the fact that the West will back its ideological flag ship with $$$ and hard power. Until China can do the same, it will not succeed in the soft power contest.

But hey, people believed in Communism, too. Just because an ideology sounds great on paper, doesn't mean it works in practice - what matters in the end is its success in creating hard power. The Western led world order is slowly but surely collapsing. There will come a day when people no longer believe in democracy because they no longer believe in the West. That is when the West's soft power hegemony will come to an end and opportunities will rise for new leaders in soft power.
I must say that Korean entertainment power outside Kpop (I don't know much about the music market other than it is very low margin) is basically collapsing, since US entertainment power is cannibalizing Korean entertainment power inside South Korea itself since 2019 by Netflix and other US companies.


100+ K-dramas since 2021 have been filmed but not released.

In 2019, 227 million audience-screenings for movies occurred in South Korea.
In 2023, 125 million audience-screenings for movies occurred in South Korea.

South Korean movies don't even control their own market.

Box office 2023 is 3/10 Korean (12.12, the Round Up part 2, Concrete Utopia):
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Box office 2022 is 1/10 Korean (the Roundup):
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Box office 2021 is 2/10 Korean (Escape from Mogadishu, Sinkhole):
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manqiangrexue

Brigadier
yeah sure they will say it publicly there real enemies.. Royal Families are way complicated.
Makes no sense. You are the public. You're imagining that royal Arabic families are actually Israel supporters and thus using some soft power to help Israel against Arabs? In actuality, whatever kindness or blind eye they turn to Israeli attrocities against Muslims is because they are forced by the greater hard power of the US.
they will support where the ideology of the younger generation and stronger demographics. strong demographics has certain character the longer this war continue the greater there strength in military , intelligence and industries. The new regions are included in Southern Military district. Isnt this first senior official to visit Avdeevka.
There is no link. How does Arab soft lead to stronger demographics? In Russia or where? How does a Russia city built to look Arabic lead to stronger demographics?

Also, demographics is a long term force, not so much on a short (or supposedly short) Ukraine conflict.
its not imaginary. they implemented things in sophisticated way.
It's so "sophisicated" that your explanation makes no sense LOL. This is the second time you've used "complicated" or "sophisticated" to describe something that you cannont explain because it's actually nonsense. It's imaginary.
certain things are visible.
The cities? They are, but their effect is not.
even there is no oil. people will follow there soft power.
Puahahaha LOLOL No oil = no money. Why would anyone follow them? Because they're so cool; people love to hang out in the desert in 120 degree weather looking at their robes flutter? LOL Arabs wouldn't even have food to eat if it weren't for their oil. No poor country has "soft power"; you have confused the Arabs buying influence with their hard power money made from their hard power oil with "soft power."
do you really think Trump need money?
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He seems to be intent on making it. Other than that, this is irrelevent.
I don't think American and Chinese governments are comparable. Whichever party wins is irrelevant as their governance is manipulated at the policy level by lobbying groups.
That just shows American legal systemic corruption. If you judged China's soft power as poor due to its 80-90% approval rating, what would you consider good? North Korea's 100%?
 

Randomuser

Senior Member
Registered Member
I must say that Korean entertainment power outside Kpop (I don't know much about the music market other than it is very low margin) is basically collapsing, since US entertainment power is cannibalizing Korean entertainment power inside South Korea itself since 2019 by Netflix and other US companies.


100+ K-dramas since 2021 have been filmed but not released.

In 2019, 227 million audience-screenings for movies occurred in South Korea.
In 2023, 125 million audience-screenings for movies occurred in South Korea.

South Korean movies don't even control their own market.

Box office 2023 is 3/10 Korean (12.12, the Round Up part 2, Concrete Utopia):
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Box office 2022 is 1/10 Korean (the Roundup):
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Box office 2021 is 2/10 Korean (Escape from Mogadishu, Sinkhole):
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I was once a weeaboo but never a koreaboo. I always felt Korean stuff was just a fad that had no real staying power once the novelty wore off. Just like those gimmicky products you buy.

Japan stuff has longer staying power because the guys who made it back then actually had passion and interest in what they did. I say back then because I feel people are starting to notice a decline in originality and quality in even its anime or games. This is in line with what guys like Miyazaki say which is the next generation of Japanese have experienced far less in life and are far more complacent. Therefore will producing way less quality stuff pushing the boundaries. Combine that with companies not wanting to take risk for new ideas and you end up with the same crap that gets old.
 
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azn_cyniq

Junior Member
Registered Member
Of course the company that is about to get access to TikTok's source code is run by a Jewish person (Larry Ellison)....

They do not own TikTok and Twitter but they are desperately trying to change that. If you point this out, you'll be called a conspiracy theorist :( There is no greater threat to free speech than those people.
 

GZDRefugee

Junior Member
Registered Member
That just shows American legal systemic corruption. If you judged China's soft power as poor due to its 80-90% approval rating, what would you consider good? North Korea's 100%?
The net approval rate decreased. We'll see if there's a consistent downwards trend when further surveys are conducted.
 

Chish

Junior Member
Registered Member
Chinese guy must be living in some blind Asian bubble in the bay area or plain Autistic. The individual access parts of google corporate network to copy unauthorized document/code, becomes CTO of a AI company in China ('wfh' in in the bay area while actually being in China) then think its a good idea to return to the US to give google a 2 week notice that he is quiting with a schedule flight leaving 2 days after his last day.

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What's his side of the story? American's/Google's version seems too weird.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
The net approval rate decreased. We'll see if there's a consistent downwards trend when further surveys are conducted.
Well it can't just keep going up forever, can it? If it remains fluctuating at a high range, (80-90% being a perfect example) it's evidence of population unity from the goverment's policies. The approval rating of the CCP is basically the highest believable; if you go much higher than that, we start talking about totalitarian countries with 99%+ "approval." It's fairly obvious what that decrease was caused by. It's China's strict COVID lockdowns which saved millions of lives but also at the end frustrated mostly younger people. Tough parents don't get the highest ratings when they make their kids do what's best.

You should see what America's approval rating was, especially during COVD, for a country with such supposed "soft power." But you wanna pretend that doesn't count so let's just assume America has greater "soft power" at home than China?? LOL
 

GZDRefugee

Junior Member
Registered Member
Well it can't just keep going up forever, can it? If it remains fluctuating at a high range, (80-90% being a perfect example) it's evidence of population unity from the goverment's policies. The approval rating of the CCP is basically the highest believable; if you go much higher than that, we start talking about totalitarian countries with 99%+ "approval." It's fairly obvious what that decrease was caused by. It's China's strict COVID lockdowns which saved millions of lives but also at the end frustrated mostly younger people. Tough parents don't get the highest ratings when they make their kids do what's best.

You should see what America's approval rating was, especially during COVD, for a country with such supposed "soft power." But you wanna pretend that doesn't count so let's just assume America has greater "soft power" at home than China?? LOL
Which is why I said more data points are required. Frankly, I couldn't give a single shit what Americans virtue signal. The fact that they haven't used their 2A to arm up and overthrow their government means they tacitly approve of what their government is doing.

EDIT: To add to this, the populace still believes that to be American is to be exceptional, that the American dream is still alive, that their participation in the regularly scheduled geriatric reality TV show they call elections make a difference. Need I go on about the plethora of irrational things that Americans believe but are actually totally detached from reality? If that isn't exceptional soft power, I don't know what is.
 
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