The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) closed mid-November, but it still keeps China-watchers awake. Foreign analysts were rather underwhelmed by the immediate outcomes: a bland, boilerplate communique issued on November 12.

The Beijing-backed Confucius Institutes, which promote Chinese culture internationally, have been no stranger to controversy since their launch in 2004. Critics have charged they are platforms for Chinese espionage and propaganda—a salacious if still unsubstantiated charge

Wang Jiarui, minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, stressed the importance of public diplomacy in China's overall diplomatic undertakings, adding that public diplomacy can help increase mutual trust and clarify misunderstandings between China and other countries.

China is steadily gaining the hard power that comes from factories and finance.... But lasting influence in the world has come more from soft than hard power: ideas for living, models of individual, commercial, and social life that people emulate because they are attracted rather than because they are compelled.

Granted, Mr Lin’s own path to stardom is in itself unprecedented, but in America, the unprecedented is possible. Chinese basketball fans have taken note of this. Mr Lin’s story may be a great and inspiring proof of athleticism to the Chinese people, but it is also unavoidably a story of American soft power.

During the session, leaders of the Party approved a decision on deepening reform of the cultural system and promoting the development of the cultural industry in a bid to build a country with soft power.

Soft power is a slippery term to define. How can we know for certain the motives of an actor?... Nonetheless, despite the challenge in defining the term it is clear for nearly all commentators that the concept refers to relations between nations and peoples – that is, soft power is a matter of national image building on the international stage.

...China is on the move in Africa, employing a wide range of soft power initiatives to secure influence, trade, and—most critically—the energy and mineral resources the Communist Party needs to continue
the astonishing economic growth that undergirds its legitimacy.