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China's Soft Power Offensive in the United States

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China's Soft Power Offensive in the United States View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Keck Graduate Institute Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2013 China's Soft oP wer Offensive in the United States: Cultural Diplomacy, Media Campaigning, and Congressional Lobbying Kalika A. Tullock Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Tullock, Kalika A., "China's Soft oP wer Offensive in the United States: Cultural Diplomacy, Media Campaigning, and Congressional Lobbying" (2013). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 644. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/644 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CLAREMONT McKENNA COLLEGE CHINA’S SOFT POWER OFFENSIVE IN THE UNITED STATES: CULTURAL DIPLOMACY, MEDIA CAMPAIGNING, AND CONGRESSIONAL LOBBYING SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR MINXIN PEI BY KALIKA TULLOCK FOR SENIOR THESIS SPRING 2013 APRIL 29, 2013 China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 2 China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 3 Acknowledgements First I would like to thank God for helping me survive a physically, emotionally, and financially difficult semester. The road was rough but I had plenty of help along the way. I would also like to thank my parents who have done nothing but support and encourage me in everything that I do. I would not be the person I am today without their love and backing. Finally, I would like to thank all my family members who have encouraged me and helped me out when times were tough and I couldn’t do it myself. I am blessed. China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 4 Acknowledgements As China’s economic and military power develops and expands, it has been focusing recent efforts on upgrading its soft power in order to quell concerns and apprehensions about its rise. As the two most powerful nations in the world, China and the United States have both attached great importance to Sino-U.S. relations, recognizing that the structure of the future global community will be largely dependent upon these two countries effectively collaborating in shaping the global structure and improving global issues. Facing an American public that views China as a threat and competitor, as well as Western media that consistently paints China in a negative light, the Chinese Communist Party has realized the need to reach out to the American populace and facilitate people-to-people ties, increasing its soft power in the country and thus facilitating a stronger bilateral relationship. This thesis reviews three areas of China’s soft power push in the United States: cultural diplomacy, which includes creating more educational opportunities, building Confucius Institutes, organizing cultural events, and increasing diplomatic outreach; media campaigning and propaganda through news, television, radio, and the internet; and congressional lobbying. China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: US-CHINA RELATIONS .................................................................. 5 Rocky Past Relationship.................................................................................................. 8 Differences in Politics and Stance ................................................................................... 9 The Public Opinion ....................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 1: CULTURAL DIPLOMACY ..................................................................... 16 Education ....................................................................................................................... 18 Confucius Institutes ....................................................................................................... 21 Cultural Activities ......................................................................................................... 23 Embassy Diplomatic Outreach ...................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 2: MEDIA CAMPAIGNING ......................................................................... 26 The News....................................................................................................................... 28 Television and Movies .................................................................................................. 30 Radio ............................................................................................................................. 34 The Internet ................................................................................................................... 34 Setbacks ......................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 3: CONGRESSIONAL LOBBYING ............................................................ 37 Background ................................................................................................................... 39 China Lobbying ............................................................................................................. 41 CONCLUSION: A WORK IN PROGRESS .................................................................... 46 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 53 China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 6 INTRODUCTION: US-CHINA RELATIONS Every age has seen the rising and falling of great powers, the constant struggle between nations of comparable strength and force, and the strained efforts between countries for cooperation in a global world where every nation state is fighting to secure one’s own interests and national security. In the past, nations used their military might and strength to conquer other countries and add to their empire. Traditionally, a country’s power has been measured by its military capability, its competency fighting in a war and its probability of victory. A given definition of power is “the ability to effect the outcomes you want and, if necessary, to change the behavior of others to make this happen.” 1 According to this view, a country’s ability to force another country to behave in a certain way or give up its sovereignty is representative of that nation’s power. Most people associate a country’s power with its military might and capability, which is known as hard power. However, in the past few centuries as countries have settled into their definite locations and territorial warfare became less frequent, the largest priority has been to protect one’s own territory from foreign economic and political imperialism. In addition to one’s defense capability and military power, another useful way to secure one’s national security is through alliances with other countries. Since the end of World War II and throughout the 1 (Gray, 2011) China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 7 succeeding Cold War, the world began dividing itself into two different teams, on one side were the U.S.-led Western democracies and on the other were the Soviet Union-led communist regimes.2 Although there have still been multiple wars around the world, in the past few centuries there has been a gradual shift in international relations from the use of brute force and manpower, or in other words hard power, to what has been the combination of both soft and hard power, the former being preferable and the latter used as a last resort. In today’s day and age, the term hard power not only refers to a nation’s military stockpile and defense system, but also refers to economic tools such as sanctioning. However, the other type of power, and one that is growing increasingly more common and useful in today’s international sphere, is called soft power. Soft power was first termed by Harvard’s Joseph S. Nye, Jr., and refers to a state’s ability to use cultural and political values in order to attract allies.3 Joseph Nye deliberates that soft power is the ability to obtain what you want through cooption and attraction rather than the hard power of coercion and payment.4 Soft power is much cheaper than military power, using values, ideas, and practices to influence and persuade other countries.5 Soft power tools ranges from spreading democratic principles and assisting countries using humanitarian aid to spreading influence through music, movies, and art. Basically, soft power tools can be considered anything that leads to promotion and increased attractiveness of a nation, thereby shaping the preferences of others.6 In the current era, there are many complex bilateral and multilateral relationships composing the world of international relations. Arguably one of the most intricate, interdependent, contentious, and important bilateral relationships in the whole world is that of 2 (Spiegel, Taw, Matthews, & Williams, 2012) 3 (Spiegel, Taw, Matthews, & Williams, 2012) 4 (Li & Worm, 2010) 5 (Gray, 2011) 6 (Szczudlik-Tatar, 2010) China’s Soft Power Offensive in the United States 8 the United States of America and the People’s Democratic Republic of China. Ever since President Richard Nixon’s rapprochement to China from 1969 to 1972 and the official establishment of ambassadorial diplomatic relations in 1979,7 the two countries have seen forty years of ups and downs in a delicate relationship that has been at times forcefully held together
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