Hongyi Lai - Chinas Soft Power and International Relations

Chinas soft power has attracted considerable attention in the recent decade. In this volume, scholars from the UK, Europe, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and mainland China, including a number of well-established and well-known analysts on China, examine the main areas where China has made noticeable advances in its appeal and influence. These include Chinas foreign policy discourse, international communication, cultural diplomacy and foreign assistance. In addition, the Chinese concept of soft power, foreign policy strategy and the relationship between its international standing and that of the United States are closely analysed. This volume covers some of the most recent development and critically assesses Chinas soft power. It offers an assessment of Chinas efforts to cultivate its international image, as well as a critique of Nyes theory of soft power. It draws on case studies of Chinese diplomatic practice and utilises world opinion polls. This volume offers a theoretical and empirical perspective on the discussion on soft power, with a particular focus on Chinas soft power.

Hongyi Lai is Associate Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham and a Senior Fellow of the China Policy Institute, the University of Nottingham.

Yiyi Lu is a Senior Research Fellow at the China Society of Economic Reform and an Associate with the New Diplomacy Platform.

China policy series

Series Editor

Zheng Yongnian

China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham, UK

1 China and the New International Order

Edited by Wang Gungwu and Zheng Yongnian

2 Chinas Opening Society

The non-state sector and governance
Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Joseph Fewsmith

3 Zhao Ziyang and Chinas Political Future

Edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne

4 Hainan - State, Society, and Business in a Chinese Province

Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard

5 Non-Governmental Organizations in China

The rise of dependent autonomy
Yiyi Lu

6 Power and Sustainability of the Chinese State

Edited by Keun Lee, Joon-Han Kim and Wing Thye Woo

7 Chinas Information and Communications Technology Revolution

Social changes and state responses
Edited by Xiaoling Zhang and Yongnian Zheng

8 Socialist China, Capitalist China

Social tension and political adaptation under economic globalisation
Edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne

9 Environmental Activism in China

Lei Xei

10 Chinas Rise in the World ICT Industry

Industrial strategies and the catch-up development model
Lutao Ning

11 Chinas Local Administration

Traditions and changes in the sub-national hierarchy
Edited by Jae Ho Chung and Tao-chiu Lam

12 The Chinese Communist Party as Organizational Emperor

Culture, reproduction and transformation
Zheng Yongnian

13 Chinas Trade Unions - How Autonomous Are They?

Masaharu Hishida, Kazuko Kojima, Tomoaki Ishii and Jian Qiao

14 Legitimating the Chinese Communist Party since Tiananmen

A critical analysis of the stability discourse
Peter Sandby- Thomas

15 China and International Relations

The Chinese view and the contribution of Wang Gungwu
Zheng Yongnian

16 The Challenge of Labour in China

Strikes and the changing labour regime in global factories
Chris King-chi Chan

17 The Impact of Chinas 1989 Tiananmen Massacre

Edited by Jean-Philippe Bja

18 The Institutional Dynamics of Chinas Great Transformation

Edited by Xiaoming Huang

19 Higher Education in Contemporary China

Beyond expansion
Edited by W. John Morgan and Bin Wu

20 Chinas Crisis Management

Edited by Jae Ho Chung

21 China Engages Global Governance

A new world order in the making?
Gerald Chan, Pak K. Lee and Lai-Ha Chan

22 Political Culture and Participation in Rural China

Yang Zhong

23 Chinas Soft Power and International Relations

Edited by Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu

Chinas Soft Power and
International Relations

Edited by Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu

This first edition published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

2012 Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu for selection and editorial material; individual chapters, the contributors.

The right of Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chinas soft power and international relations/[edited by] Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu. - 1st ed.

p. cm. - (China policy series; 23)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. China-Foreign relations-21st century. 2. China-Foreign relations- Philosophy. I. Lai, Hongyi, 1965- II. Lu, Yiyi, 1970

JZ1734.C57 2012

327.51-dc23

2011041861

ISBN: 978-0-415-60401-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-12209-9 (ebk)

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Hongyi Lai is associate professor and PhD programme director of School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. He received his PhD in political science from UCLA. He was a senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. His research covers Chinas domestic and international political economy. His scholarly publications in English include seven books, 18 refereed journal articles, and 17 book chapters. His books include The Domestic Sources of Chinas Foreign Policy (Routledge), Asian Energy Security: The Maritime Dimension (Palgrave Macmillan), Reform and the Non-State Economy in China (Palgrave Macmillan), and China into the Hu-Wen Era (World Scientific). His articles have appeared in major journals in studies of China and the third world, such as China Quarterly, The China Journal, Modern China, The Journal of Contemporary China, and Third World Quarterly.

Yiyi Lu is Senior Research Fellow at the China Society of Economic Reform and an Associate with the New Diplomacy Platform. She is the author of Non-governmental Organisations in China: The Rise of Dependent Autonomy