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