Public Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics

Helle Dale / July 20, 2010

A former United States Ambassador to Thailand tells of being asked to contribute to a local university in Bangkok that wanted to set up an “America corner” in its library—nothing more than a computer station and a few shelves of informational material. When he arrived for the unveiling, however, he found that the modest corner endowed by the United States was dwarfed by the Chinese donation of a new building, fully staffed, to house one of its Confucius Institutes.

While U.S. public diplomacy since September 11, 2001, has focused on countering terrorism and the radicalization of the Muslim world, China has been moving ahead, taking a page out of the U.S. playbook. Aiming to promote their model of governance, the Chinese have invested heavily in public diplomacy. Extravaganzas such as the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo are only the most visible manifestations of this strategy. World Affairs Journal’s July/August issue explores the Chinese advances.

During a hearing earlier this year, Senator Richard Lugar (R–IN) ranking Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pointedly asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the 60 cultural centers at universities across the United States that China has been able to open. Clinton told him that the United States does not have the money to do what the Chinese are doing. Not so. With an economy three times the size of the Chinese, the United States certainly has the money. (more…)