Comments on: Evan Osnos: “China Is Gradually Losing Interest In Soft Power”

By: 笨及

笨及 — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:25:25 +0000

Hear hear.

By: 笨及

笨及 — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:21:21 +0000

Hear hear.

By: Da Wan Ke

Da Wan Ke — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 08:16:35 +0000

China’s ethnic nationalities just dance, sing and f**k. That’s all there is to know.
~大万克, Vice Propaganda Minister

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 07:22:06 +0000

“China is gradually losing interest in soft power.” (Evan Osnos, above)

I beg to disagree. Quite the opposite. What Osnos doesn’t seem to get is that China has realized that reporters for NYT and Bloomberg cannot easily be exploited as conduits for expanding that power, that’s all.

For my blog, I regularly follow policies relating to China’s ethnic minorities. The PRC central authorities are beginning to spend big money to publish books and produce films about their 55 officially designated ethnicities, and recently a fund has been established specifically to encourage translators — including foreigners — to promote the translation and publication abroad of works by non-Han authors. The goal: to create the impression that China’s minorities are doing quite well, thank you, despite what you may have read about crackdowns in Xinjiang and Tibet.

China has not grown disinterested in soft power. It has simply realized that to expand it, it may be wiser to: 1) Use or create its own channels (new TV, radio and Internet-based platforms) rather than try to manipulate foreign reporters who work in China; and 2) To punish Western media for their bias by gradually forcing knowledgeable reporters to leave China.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 05:20:48 +0000

Obviously China has been trying to kick out 老外 for quite some time now. Get used to it.
Oh wait, this isn’t the ‘How much money do 老外 make in China?’ post? My bad…

By: Brido

Brido — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 20:11:41 +0000

There’s also the possibility that they’ve just given up trying to use western media outlets for that approach, given how partial they’ve proved themselves. The Xinjiang riots in particular were a low point for UK and UK reporting – you could have been forgiven for believing that it was security forces slaughtering Uighurs instead of Uighurs setting on their neighbours.

Why would the PRC government reinforce failure?

By: Jack Fensterstock

Jack Fensterstock — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 15:57:12 +0000

What is the concrete basis for the assertion that China is “losing interest in soft power”? There is no overt evidence. the reality is that the Chinese may be assessing the effectiveness of their soft power strategy to date so that it can be fine tuned.

By: laowai88

laowai88 — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 09:09:12 +0000

Corrupt officials will put their own needs ahead of those of the country as a whole seven days a week and twice on Sunday. Just look at all the American corporations and politicians who put their own economic profits/political survival ahead of what’s best for the USA. Does anybody really think Chinese leaders are any different?

Or to do a reverse Spock, “…the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many”.

By: Chinese Netizen

Chinese Netizen — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 08:20:22 +0000

Naturally.
Care to guess how many connected, senior level commies and their families have profited obscenely since the early 80s (not even to mention 1949)? Of course they’re scared shitless should they be outed!
And the west is just as complicit in assisting the thievery by harboring their filthy money in property, “investment visas” and little darlings attending elite schools…