More must be done to boost China's soft power_美文

More must be done to boost China's soft power

A key component of SRM is being culturally sensitive to those countries and their opinion leaders that China seeks to positively influence. I don't care how much experience foreign ambassadors have in other countries, unless they grew up and lived in that country they can never have a full appreciation for the nuanced perceptions of those who live there. If the CPDA is going to be successful, it must have expert foreign input not merely from public opinion survey research data, but from experts.

One of the biggest services that foreign experts can provide is to help combat ignorance. In my opinion, China's biggest enemy is a lack of understanding between cultures.

We tend to seek consistency in our beliefs and perceptions. So when one of our beliefs conflicts with another, we feel uncomfortable and our beliefs must change to resolve this mental conflict. Thus all the goodwill generated by terracotta warriors, Shaolin monks, Hollywood-Chinese co-productions, Confucius Institutes, etc. can easily be negated by stories of corruption, unfairness, cyber-espionage and so on that are so frequently reported today in China and abroad, thanks in part to the new media, especially social networking. How to resolve this dilemma is surely one of CPDA's greatest challenges in the months and years ahead. How they do so will in large part determine how others perceive this country.