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.

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