November 2011: The View from CPD

China’s recent public diplomacy efforts have been anything but subtle. Its Confucius Institutes have popped up around the globe. Chinese students are flooding into Western universities. China’s international broadcasting is expanding its reach after the infusion of the equivalent of billions of U.S. dollars. In countries rich in natural resources, China is trying to win friends by building roads, football stadiums, and other projects the locals once thought they would never see. 

But have all these ventures paid off for China? The articles in this issue of PDiN Monitor examine this question, with particular attention to the issue of whether China’s culture has the appeal its proponents are banking on, and whether China may have been too heavy-handed in its attempts to win (or perhaps buy) friends and esteem.

These are not esoteric matters. In today’s global competition for strategic influence, public diplomacy is being accorded new respect. Missile arsenals are thought to matter less than cultural outreach; fearsome rhetoric is set aside and replaced by language lessons and dance troupes. 

China’s charm offensive illustrates both the potential and the limits of assertive public diplomacy. As in many other matters, the world will be watching China as a pacesetter in the complex task of reaching global publics.