Identity and security in China: The negative soft power of the China dream

Author

William A. CALLAHAN, Singapore Management UniversityFollow

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

11-2015

Abstract

Joseph Nye concentrates on the positive attractive aspects of soft power as a foreign policy tool. This article will argue that the Chinese discussion of soft power is interesting because it does the opposite: soft power is negative rather than positive, and is employed as a tool in domestic policy more than in foreign affairs. It will use Chinese President Xi Jinping's new ‘China Dream’ discourse to explore China's ‘negative soft power’ strategy. Rather than take for granted that we understand what the ‘Chinese values’ are that inform the PRC's soft power, it argues that soft power discourse is a useful heuristic device for understanding how Chinese policy makers and public intellectuals are actively constructing a ‘China’ and a ‘world’ to promote regime legitimacy. The Chinese case thus suggests that we need a more complex view of power that considers the contingent dynamics of its hard/soft, positive/negative, foreign/domestic aspects.

Keywords

identity, soft power, China, civilisation, barbarism

Discipline

Asian Studies | Political Science | Politics and Social Change

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Politics

Volume

35

Issue

3-4

First Page

216

Last Page

229

ISSN

0263-3957

Identifier

10.1111/1467-9256.12088

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Citation

CALLAHAN, William A..(2015). Identity and security in China: The negative soft power of the China dream. Politics, 35(3-4), 216-229.

Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4168

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9256.12088