Customer Reviews

Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World (A New Republic Book)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first book that has dared to suggest that China understands and has been effectively exercising soft power around the world. If this is a notion novel to you, then you will want to read this book. The author has performed a service by carefully and comprehensively documenting where and how China has been operating in the 3rd world. It should be a real eye opener to most readers who have not been following China.

While the author was indefatigable in chasing down every Chinese acitivity in remote areas of the world and describing them with careful fidelity, he was less successful in remaining objective as he drew his conclusions. The tone frequently hint at something negative on the underside of the Chinese even if not verified by his data. He seemed unable to give China full credit for whatever they are doing right. The book seemed full of tentative "yes, but" conclusions that I found frustrating. If there was a dark side to China's international relations, I wish the author would simply say so and back it up with his otherwise careful research.

On the other hand when he attempted to contrast what China was doing right with what the Bush Administration had been doing wrong, he was surprisingly mealy mouthed, never quite calling the neoconpoop unilateralism for the damage it did to American prestige and the respect the rest of the world once held for the U.S.

In sum, I recommend this book on a subject that has not been covered to this depth, a subject that will become increasingly important to foreign policy wonks, especially in Washington. I would simply discount some of his limp conclusions and pay attention to his field research.

In the academic field, many scholars of Chinese studies and international relations are studying the various impacts of the rise of China. Will China upset the existing international norms and world order? Will the boom of Chinese economy threaten the economic growth and environmental condition of other countries? Will China challenge the American hegemony?

Indeed, Joshua Kurlantzick attempts to answer the above questions in his latest work - Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World.

At the very beginning of his book, Kurlantzick defines soft power from the Chinese perspective as "soft power means anything outside of the military and security realm, including not only popular culture and public diplomacy but also more coercive economic and diplomatic levers like aid and investment and participation in multilateral organizations", which is different from Joseph Nye's values, ideals and norms.

Chinese government has paid more attention in building up its soft power, mainly because of the theory of "China Threat", the concerns of economic and technological interdependencies between China and other countries, and the Chinese regional hegemonic interests. According to Kurlantzick, China would like to use "peaceful development" in order to replace or fade out the "China threat"; China would like to check the unilateral American moves by using its soft power rather than hard power (direct political and military confrontation) since China treasures its economic and technological interdependencies with the United States, Europe and Japan; China would also like to establish its influence in Southeast Asia through soft power, which can minimize the suspicions among Southeast Asian countries.

Kurlantzick carried out interviews and case studies about the rising Chinese influence in various developing countries. China sets up Confucians institutes from Kenya, South Korea, Uzbekistan to Australia; promotes Chinese language in Southeast Asian countries by offering wide range of scholarships and academic exchanges, provides diplomatic professional training to officials in many developing countries, builds up close relations with Chinese diaspora; gives economic aid and loans to poor countries for building economic infrastructures and social facilities; last but not least, encourages Chinese investment in developing countries for boosting their local economic development.

However, not all the Chinese influences can be regarded as good to others. Kurlantzick points out that China also exports labour, environmental and governance problems to others. Chinese firms often neglect the safety of workers and pay little salary to the local workers. In order to avoid labour strike, Chinese firms sometimes employ Chinese to replace the local workers. Besides, some Chinese firms launch illegal logging in Burma and Indonesia. Chinese government built dams on the upper course of Mekong River which have threatened the Cambodian fish stocks and fertilize arable lands in the lower course of the river. In addition, China tolerates authoritarian rule in Cambodia, Laos and Angola for its unconditional aids and loans while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund always demand the recipient countries to comply good governance. China is also criticized for its non-intervention policy in Darfur which finally caused humanitarian disaster.

Kurlantzick's efforts should be given credit in figuring out the latest pattern and development of Chinese foreign policy. The qualitative works such as case studies and interviews with diplomats, business people and Chinese diaspora are also valuable to the study of Chinese foreign policy. However, as a student of international relations, I would expect a finer definition of the Chinese soft power rather than putting the Chinese political influence and economic capability under the category of soft power. Besides, since China has engaged with many regional institutions by advocating multilateralism, the power and influence of China can be explained in terms of structural realism or institutionalism, but not necessarily soft power. Moreover, Kurlantzick concludes that there are mutual interests between China and the United States, thus he holds an optimistic view that "if America seems popular and strong, allowing China to assume more responsibility for the globe will become easier for America to accept". It seems that the conclusion simplifies the interactions and mechanisms between China and the United States in shaping the world order. The political significances and implications of the Chinese charm offensive towards the existing international norms and values as well as world order should be further examined. What is the role of Chinese norm of non-intervention and multilateralism in upsetting the status-quo or making the new world order? Does the Chinese soft power cause any political cost to the United States?

Nevertheless, Kurlantzick points out the determining pivot between the Chinese and American soft power, "More important, the United States still offers a political and social model, a set of values, which can appeal to average people around the world. China's values - noninterference, respect for other nations' internal affairs, economic gradualism directed by the state - can enjoy appeal. But China's values appeal only to specific groups: elites in authoritarian nations..." Since the Deng's era, the Chinese foreign policies are regarded as pragmatic in the quest of national interests, may be it is the time for the Chinese government to review its previous diplomacy by concerning more about international public interests.

I first studied China, the "Middle Kingdom," in 1975 when I found Mao relevant to my primary interest, understanding and addressing revolution in all its forms. The image above is the heart of my graduate-level quick look at how the PRC exercised foreign influence back then. In addition, my father was a Chinese "guest" in 1967-1968 after pirate militia sank his trimaran enroute from Saigon to Hong Kong, a story told in Yachtsman in Red China.

The author has done a superb job of observing, interpreting, and documenting. I take away one star for a certain amount of naiveté and incompleteness--the book ends somewhat weakly--but I totally disagree with those who consider this book disorganized or less than four stars in merit. I found the book absorbing, consistent with my own recent observations tracking Chinese irregular warfare including both electronic warfare and waging peace in Africa and South America, and over-all, I cannot think of a finer book for American diplomats, politicians, and students of serious mien.

The author opens with a very personal and relevant account of how he watched the fall of US influence and the rise of Chinese influence in Thailand, marking the late 1990's as the time of change. To his surprise, when he asked US diplomats about this, he found them unaware. Today, they are aware, but powerless in the face of a White House that under Dick Cheney has totally destroyed the policy process (for an account of how this was done, see The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill.

He follows the 1990's in Thailand with a very compelling comparison of how George Bush was heckled by Australian senators and booed by the Australian public in 2003, while a few days later the Chinese leader Hu Jin Tao was welcomed as a hero. He points out that Australians now see US unilateral militarism as a threat to Australian peace and prosperity fully co-equal to the threat of radical Islam. For one balanced take on foreign public perceptions on America, see The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World

He properly credits Joe Nye with the term "soft power" but I am in agreement with the anthropologists and others who now choose not to use that term because global presence has to be managed as a Whole of Government/Whole Earth enterprise, something Stewart Brand and others understood decades before the rest of us. Of all Stewart's books, my favorite remains Clock Of The Long Now: Time And Responsibility: The Ideas Behind The World's Slowest Computer, a book I fear the Chinese appreciate vastly more than the two idiot parties now looting the US commonwealth on behalf of their Wall Street masters.

The author says that the Chinese think of their primary power as everything outside the military and security realm. See my image above for a nuanced understanding that is still valid--the names have changed, but the Chinese are simply playing a modern version of Middle Kingdom ubber alles.

The author reviews the mis-steps under Mao (Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, export of revolution), and then gives proper credit to Deng Xiao Ping as the transitional and transformational leader who adopted pragmatic reforms. The deal China made, in substituting enhanced nationalism for absolute communism, was "make money, not trouble" and all would be allowed.

The new leaders are college graduates and in many cases have graduate degrees. The end of the Cold War freed China from fear of Russia, and now China is focusing on the Second World. For good reasons why, see
The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

The new era leaders clearly understand that global problems impact on them, and they must pursue global solutions.

Here are the 20 elements of China's global strategy as I understood them from the author's excellent account.

01 Stability in the 14 countries on its borders
02 Cease military confrontation (e.g. Spratleys), use non-military assets
03 Go after resources all over the world
04 Create ring of allies as buffer against US and other interventionists
05 Non-interference in affairs of others
06 "Born-again Multinationalism" (Susan Shirk)
07 Cooperative agreements (7 with Mexico, 14 with Venezuela, etc)
08 Help those the US shirks or slights (Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Uzbeckistan...)
09 Offer socio-economic model in which state, not market, is steering
10 Focus on small nations ignored by US and others
11 Cultural and public diplomacy ****needs its own book****
12 Direct recruitment of overseas Chinese in 1980's, used their wealth, $30B or 7% of external investment, as seed crystal for 1990's boom
13 Aid, trade, easy loans, investment (a fraction of what US does, but they get more mileage out of theirs by how and when and why they do)
14 Easy fit with corruption and deals outside the rule of law
15 Lots of construction including free buildings for headquarters (the author does not say this, I do: "no extra charge for the electronic bugs")
16 Junkets to China, junkets with issue training for the staffs
17 Exporting men (this could have used more attention--Argentina will be majority Chinese by 2020 or so)
18 Exporting visual media (#2 in the world right now)
19 Rolling Taiwan back, everyone withdrawing recognition
20 Direct influence both good and bad (good: anti-drugs, some effort on human trafficking, on disease; bad: illegal lumber harvests in Myanmar, Indonesia)

The last three chapters are not as arresting, but still good:
IX: America's soft power goes soft, both Clinton and Bush killed us overseas
X: Shanghai Cooperation Organization, giving US "wedgies" all over the world
XI: Rest of World waiting for two things from USA: live up to our values and stop our bad policies

The author is a big naïve (or less informed) when he lambasts the Chinese for supporting dictators and fails to realize that our two corrupt political parties love 42 of the 44 dictators as their best pals (see Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025).

Serious book by a serious person for serious people. Well done.

My last four allowed links:
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

I thought this was a good study of something that needs to be discussed more, particularly in the U.S. Overall there are some really useful anecdotes and this should be an eye-opener to Americans.

However, some of the sections seemed like the author stitched together shorter articles he had written previously. I think providing headers for subsections, lists for certain things (like China's tools for public diplomacy), and organizing the book or chapters by regions of the world rather than mixing everything would have made it a bit better organized.

I was also disappointed with the author's treatment of the China-Burma relationship. As a longtime Burma watcher, I have followed this relationship and have never seen any reason for viewing China's role in Burma as anything other than obstructionist. Even before the recent protests in Burma, it was clear that China was the main obstacle to getting any sort of UN Security Council resolution on the country. I was surprised that the author did not explore this more, since it seems to suggest that China is LESS willing to support changes near home, particularly when such changes could lead to instability, than abroad, like in Sudan where it has sent peacekeepers and has not played such an obstructive role in the UN Security COuncil.

Bottom line: the book is worth reading and tells of fascinating events, but I hope there are more on this subject in the future.

The author tried pretty hard to impress readers how he insightfully viewed the soft power of China, and I tried very hard to be impressed. Unfortunately, his view is so superficial that I could barely finish reading the first half of his book.

Why? Because his insightful view of China's soft power is indeed no different from soft powers all other countries employed. For example, his "tool of culture" and "tool of business" try to explain that how differently China uses her culture and business influence over other countries. Sadly, from his book, you cannot see much difference if you replace "China" with any other powerful countries, such as US, Japan, German, British, and etc. His "insightful" analysis of soft power appeared in many other books. For example, US uses Hollywood movies to push her value standards, Japan uses Sony, Toyota, and etc to influence other countries. The only point the author attracted readers is that he used the name of "China"

On the other hand, this book is filled with incorrect understanding of the concept of soft power. In his mind, China's soft power plays a very negative role in the international society. For example, he says " ... China might even shift influence away from the United States, ...", "In this sphere, countries would subordinate their interests to China's and think twice about supporting the United States should there be any conflicts in the region...". and etc. Soft power is a power that one can use to attract people or persuade people to follow his lead or direction. It is not a power that one forces upon people to follow his lead. In another word, people can make choice between follow or not follow. Otherwise, it is either economic power or military power. As far as I know, China did not place any economic sanction against other countries by her own. Neither did China place any military menace against other countries. Now many more people choose to follow China's lead, it only means that such choices are in their interests. The author totally misunderstood this concept between soft power and hard power.

For those who are interested in world politics, especially in current US-China relationships, this is but a very informative book. However, one must bear in mind that this is written in the eyes of a concerned American. When able to read another equivalent written from a concerned Chinese from China, perhaps that would be a more balanced assessment of the actual relationship of the two Giants.

It's very very hard to put down I enjoyed it very much and found it intersting.


Doug Allgeier
R/C CA

This is a very informative book that should be on the shelf of any bona fide China watcher. Lots of good info and analysis. You might also find my own book interesting. The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won