Nancy Bui, Week 6

In the past, Soft power has been defined on government political credibility, public relations, investment of culture, past behaviors and etc.  It definitely has it's positives traits in which it unites the country as a whole and continues to perpetuate postitive "imaging" about the country as as whole. If the entire country is united, it gives more validity and credibility when establishing international relations. But due to strategies as soft power, they do have many images such  as the "made in china" in which all products are made unsafely. And the idea the "Chinese people eat dogs." in which their culture is expressed in accurately. Whilst these are two of many of the stereotypes and "images" of China, they heavily affect and or bias their relationships with other countries and therefore can affect their economy, polcicy, government, and people.


Question:  Is Soft Power applicable to all nations? Or will it work on particular smaller, less dense populated areas? How does the impact of culture, population, government, economy affect the effectiveness of soft power?

Week 6 - Ushrayinee Sarker

Question: Soft power seems beneficial on the surface, but can you find instances, especially in the case of China, when it can be harmful for targeted countries of interest?

Culture, politics, and foreign policies. These three things are what define soft power. Soft power may seem like a good thing but to targeted countries of interest, it may be harmful. China is well known for scandals of homeopathic medicine, such as dried seahorse and black-market rhino horn. People claim that these goods have special powers, but this trade is frowned upon by many, giving China a negative image. Especially so with the rhino horn industry, given the way the horn is acquired.

Culture is important, without it there is no draw for tourism. Politics must be within an acceptable range, otherwise other countries will shun the given country.  Lastly, foreign policies have to be legitimate. With the illegal and unmoral industries in China, the foreign policies are very illegitimate, as mentioned above. In the end, the soft power is harmful, even for China.

Question: Can soft power be used properly, or is it by definition, faulty?

http://connect2conserve.org/the-resistance-demand-for-rhino-horns/

      Ding, Sheng. “Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise.” Journal of Asian and African Studies,  Apr. 2011

Week 6- Kristina Ou

In the article written by Ding, it is stated that soft power depends on three facts which are culture, politics, and foreign policy. It is said that because there is so much information being taking in, many people think that there is a lot of information control problems especially with the media outlets internationally and domestically. Also China has used foreign media to control its news coverage to publicize information only regulated by the Chinese government. By doing this, it can also lead to a fabricated view of China which demoralizes is credibility. In terms of politics, it's National image towards militarization has declined drastically. Many people would like to see a decrease in defense in China because of the overall image of politics that it portrays. This decreases the credibility towards China politically and foreign countries. Many people see the image of Chinese government as corrupt. For example a stated in the article, the made in China statement has turned from a more positive and cheap image to poisonous and unsafe because of all of these situations occurring and slipping through media output. For foreign policy we can relate back to the second article written by Kevin Latham, which talks about how the Olympics in China was focused on producing this powerful image. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the morality of these news broadcasts and propaganda. China spent a lot of money trying to portray this fake country that was so abundant and successful. This is where the questionable phrase of "real China" comes from. It is stated in the article that if someone visited China, they would see the real China that is actually there, rather than this fabricated image. This produces questionable opinions over whether this country is legitimate and if their authority has values to them.

Question: Can all countries gain soft power?

sources: https://s-i.huffpost.com/gen/1485913/images/o-MADE-IN-CHINA-facebook.jpg

      Ding, Sheng. “Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise.” Journal of Asian and African Studies,  Apr. 2011

      Latham, Kevin. “Media, the Olympics and the Search for the ‘Real China.’” The China Quarterly, 2009

Week 6 - Naomi Almanzor

Question: Soft power seems beneficial on the surface, but can you find instances, especially in the case of China, when it can be harmful for targeted countries of interest?

Even from the period of Chinese dynasties, China has exerted its soft power through cultivating friendships and encouraging exchanges of economic and cultural value between places they have discovered through their expeditions (Ding, 2011). Since then, China has remade itself by focusing more on image building and delivering that image to international audiences than before. China had established a press conference system, allowed foreign journalists in to the country, and used the Internet extensively to voice their perspectives on world issues and further open China up to the global audience. They have also held events and even input new sets of curriculum in other countries, increasing exposure by sparking interest in Chinese culture to reach out to both the diaspora and people of other nations (Ding, 2011). The results of this can be seen through the increase in tourism to China.

Soft power may be less than beneficial if the resulting changes from following the country exerting that power are not sustainable, and, in the long run, drive the target country downward because either its people, its industries, or its government were not used to progress the country in a way that worked best for it, leading to less-than-ideal results. With China, the measures taken to regulate the input and output of media sources may have thrown its credibility in expressing the ‘real’ China to the world into question, as seen through the discourse between foreign and domestic media during the period of the Beijing Olympics (Latham, 2009).

The whole process of how ‘doing push-ups’ gained new connotations was both shocking and intriguing to me, as it showed how quickly and easily the media in certain contexts can influence and add new meanings to things.

My question: Are there certain traits of a nation that would lead it to have a large issue with the ‘real’ side of itself, similar to China’s situation?

Sources:

Image: http://www.beyond.ca/beijing-2008-olympics-one-world-one-dream/265.html

Ding, S. (2011). Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing's National Image Management in the Age of China's Rise. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 293-306.

Latham, K. (2009). Media, the Olympics and the Search for the “Real China”. The China Quarterly / Volume 197, 25-43.

Week 6- Nina Huang

According to Joseph Nye, “a state’s soft power primarily rests on three resources: its culture, political values, and its foreign policies” (Ding 295). The first resource, culture, has to be attractive to other people or there would be no tourism in the country. The second resource, political values, have to live up to their home country and to other countries to show that they can follow through their promises. Lastly, the foreign policies have to be “seen as legitimate and [have] moral authority” (295). These three resources become the “valuable power sources [that] can help a state better wield its national power and achieve its policy goals in international relations” (295).

In the case of China, soft power seems to be beneficial on the surface because it can help the country try to rebrand itself into a positive image. However, there are instances where soft power can be harmful for the targeted countries of interests. In China, they are struggling with political values and foreign policies because their credibility and issues are their biggest flaws. This is negatively affecting their international image. They are seen as a country that sell things that are unsafe, contaminated, and fake such as toys, food, and medicine. There is also the scandal that is connected to the exportation of goods to other countries. Majority of the people living in Western countries do not believe China is becoming a more democratic country for the Chinese citizens. Also, they feel negatively towards China becoming more powerful in the future because of these negative images that continues to surround China today. Therefore, many people overseas continue to see China in a negative way.

Question: Can other countries, like Switzerland and Singapore, get soft power?

Works Cited

Ding, Sheng. “Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise.” Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 46, no. 3, Apr. 2011, pp. 293–306.

http://www.cbbc.org/NetC.CBBC/cbbc/f8/f837475d-0e08-49ba-8ddc-15048e2ca38c_800_356.jpg

Week 6 - Junying Ye

In particular, China stresses the soft power of its contacts with foreign countries and shapes an image of an international power without threat and responsibility in the region and around the world. The rapid expansion of China, especially in developing countries, has attracted extensive attention in the world. In the developing regions, many countries have high hopes for China's benefits in trade, investment and alternative development partnerships. Other countries feel uneasy, and they don't know what China's seemingly impossible demand for energy and resource export markets means for emerging economies, weak governments and people deprived of power. Ultimately, the challenge for developing countries is whether their governments and people can use their external contacts with China and other major countries to ultimately benefit their country. In the west, the combination of China's economic contact and soft power has caused some people's panic. They think the influence of western countries in developing regions will weaken, on governance, transparency and accountability of the investment will be destroyed, especially in the government's lack of legitimacy or National Foresight but natural resource rich countries. In particular, many Americans worry about losing strategic influence on china.

Source：http://www.66test.com/Content/3216753.html

Week 6: Kenrick Chiang

China’s soft power is mostly based around three factors. The first of these three factors being its culture and how it attracts other people. The second one being its political values and how these values can reach to the citizens across the country because of how they can follow through. Lastly, being its foreign policies in which they seem legitimate and have moral authority. In the Sheng Ding’s article, “Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise,” they speak about how soft power can lead to illegitimacy. Because soft power revolves around the idea of following through with ideas and acts, legitimacy is a key component of the soft power in China. The article speaks about how Beijing has a specific way of handling things in which they should get business done and do not speak to one another. Due to this strategy, this has led to a lot of chaos and unrealistic goals. Because of this mindset, it will not be a good look towards the nation branding of China. This idea of soft power can harm countries of interest because it can set an uneasy level of expectations that some countries (especially those that are still developing) cannot follow through. This can lead to a lot of distrust within the country and give a negative output on a nation's branding.

Question: Does a form of soft power exist in countries everywhere or does it only apply to bigger, more developed countries like the USA and China?

Source: https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAfeAAAAJGYyMjk0OThjLThkMDgtNDQ3Yy05YzlhLWQ4YTVmM2I3YjY5ZA.jpg

Week 6 - Jaselle Abuda

Jaselle Abuda

Professor Valverde

ASA 189 F

29 October 2017

                    In attempting to rebrand and rename the country of China for a positive image, China faced some difficulties along the way. Several factors of the soft power ideology consist of culture, political value, and foreign policies (Ding 295). In terms of the country’s attractive culture, it is a great source of national branding by making the country as appealing as possible internationally. In terms of the country’s political values, this is a great course of sharing China’s political and economic stances as they try to appeal its values internationally. Lastly, foreign policies are to spread China’s influence through networking and overseas Chinese in working on building connections through digital accesses in hopes of building a strong national image.  Struggles with policies, governmental power, and the continuity and cooperation of all states face China’s goal of rebranding the nation. However, a great source of the management of its nation’s national image was China’s growing cultural attractiveness, which then became a strong mechanism to change. As China’s international image grew globally, its branding and luring of tourists has given way to its positive and attractive image.

                    I believe that this approach of rebranding can be applied in my group project’s targeted interest because of connecting much of our approach through the audience as much as we can possibly can. However, this approach of rebranding can only be applicable to my group’s targeted interest due to such a small scale of a brand and its narrowed focus group.

source: https://www.ned.org/the-big-question-understanding-chinas-soft-power/

Question: Can other countries be able to adapt to these approaches of ‘Soft Power’ holistically or can it only be applied solely to China, as it holds specific histories of past governmental engagement?

Loh, D. (2016). Defending China’s National Image and ‘Defensive Soft Power’: the Case of Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’. Journal of Chinese Political Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-016-9419-x

Week 6 -- Kristina Nguyen

A person named Joseph Nye had an idea that soft power relies on three resources, which are culture, political value, and foreign policies (Ding 295). Culture, being one of the resources, is because places that have soft power have a culture that is attractive to other countries; political value is seen as a resource due to international relations of how that country's value is upheld abroad; and foreign policies in which other countries can acknowledge that the country with soft power is seen as "legitimate and having moral authority" (295). China is considered a soft power, and while it is seen as beneficial to the country and it's people, there is also an instance where that soft power is harmful for other countries of interest. Beijing has an approach to international relations that does not seem very positive: "Let's do business and don't talk about politics." This approach does not make it seem like China is legitimate, which causes "inharmonious realities [that does] not contribute positively to China's international brand" (304).
China has faced numerous changed brands, but the biggest one was during the 2008 Olympics. During this time, there were some troubles with international relations regarding "the real China" and Western outlooks of China as a whole in which the "real China... is almost invariably conceptualized in relation to something that it is not" (Latham 33). I feel that this is somewhat true of China where they take inspiration from the U.S. with products known to sell quickly, and they try to imitate what it looks like/the function of the product at a lower price which many people like. A lot of the things we have now, with and without realizing, are made from China (whether it is in good quality or not so good quality). I'm pretty sure my lamp from Target that looks like it's made here in America is actually made from China, which I am not surprised with because I know that Americans are active consumers of Chinese goods.

Beijing China at Night.
source: http://world-visits.blogspot.com/2011/10/beijing-china-at-night-view.html

Question: Are there any other countries besides China that have a soft power standing?


Sources:

“Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise.” Journal of Asian and African Studies.

“The China Quarterly.” Cambridge Core, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly.

Week 6 - Riley Frederking

            Soft power depends on several factors, including “culture, appealing political values and persuasive foreign policies” (Ding 295). It is about a strong moral compass and authority both home and abroad. For China, soft power has proven difficult to achieve as they struggle to overcome long held preconceived notions and beliefs about their country and “declining political ideology” (Ding 302). Many of their attempts to attain soft power, have been shrouded with controversy eroding the positive image that China attempts to present as nation. Unfortunately for China, the narrative the nation has desperately attempted to project has not been able to drown out the “widespread corruption, social injustice, environmental degradation and resistance to pursue real political reform”, creating a vast disconnect between representation and reality. (Ding 302).

            This desire to gloss over politics and policy ultimately has striped the Chinese nation and government of its credibility, a “crucial resource in defining state governments’ capacities to attract global attention” (Ding 296). This past Tuesday, the Communist Party of China has unveiled new leadership and Xi Jinping, president of China, claims they will “keep on striving with endless energy toward the great goal of national rejuvenation” through development of “global trade” and will “continue to partner with, and invest in, countries and businesses around the world” (Baijie). At times, it seems as if China is trying to buy the world’s affection rather than garnering it naturally through actual reform and who knows how far the government is “willing to go to ensure that their portrayal of a perfect China” (Latham 32). Regardless, we must give China credit, they are absolutely determined and steadfast on attaining soft power and a positive international brand, much more so than any other country we have examined thus far.

Question: Can soft power be forcibly manufactured or is it best gained organically through natural progression?

Baijie, An. “New Leadership, New Goals.” New Leadership, New Goals - China - Chinadaily.com.cn, China Daily, 25 Oct. 2017. Web. 28 Oct. 2017.

“Beijing China Skyline.” Imagekind, Modern Art Prints.

Ding, Sheng. “Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise.” Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 46, no. 3, Apr. 2011, pp. 293–306.

Latham, Kevin. “Media, the Olympics and the Search for the ‘Real China.’” The China Quarterly, no. 197, 2009, pp. 25–43.