China's Public Diplomacy: What's Working and What's Not

No other Asian country has contributed more resources to improving its image than China. The rising power has recently been operating on a two-year cycle of hosting major events: the Beijing Olympics in 2008, EXPO 2010 in Shanghai along the Huangpu River, and the Miss World competition in 2012. Consequently, China is looking to be the site of the Youth Olympic Games, hoping to attract global attention and tourist traffic. Despite all its efforts, this method of public diplomacy in conjunction with the other strategies China has employed is not entirely successful.

In measuring the effectiveness of China’s public diplomacy endeavors, one must first identify the country’s target audience. It seems that China’s main goal is to spread its values and influence around the world and more specifically the West. In 2004, the Confucius Institute was founded in 93 countries to promote the worldwide study of Chinese language and culture. China is also trying to break into the international news market by broadcasting China Central Television in five languages. Several Chinese papers, such as, China Daily, People’s Daily, Global Times, and Shanghai Daily, have begun circulating in English with hopes of competing with Western news media. Unfortunately, little interest has been shown by the target audience.

The majority of the Westerners that China is trying to reach fall between the range of sixteen to thirty-five years of age. Yet the mediums of communication, such as television news stations and newspapers, China is utilizing do not appeal to this age group. Today most young people get their news the internet and social media, not television or newspapers. However, China’s stringent monitoring of the internet blocks many of the most popular social media outlets and websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. This directly contradicts China’s goal of reaching the young people of Western countries who are or one day will be in the position to influence government and business organizations. Furthermore, because the content of these publications is largely influenced by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and lacks freedom of speech, the audience tends to find the information provided to be untrustworthy. Much of the news presented by Chinese media outlets intended for Western consumption only highlight positive aspects of China, and viewers see the material as being propagandistic. 

If China truly wishes to reach its audience in Western countries, then it will have to look at the successes of other more subtle policies, like its "panda diplomacy". In order to ease the tensions after the high-profile arrest of an Australian business executive of a mining corporation, China sent the pandas Wang Wang and Funi to visit the Adelaide Zoo. In 2011, pandas were also leased to the Smithsonian's National Zoo in the United States. These acts alone harnessed more good will for China than previous efforts of public diplomacy. If China can harness the sincerity of its more successful diplomatic attempts and applies it to all of its endeavors, then China will be closer to achieving its diplomatic goal of Western recognition.

This is the article I used: http://thediplomat.com/2013/12/beijings-public-diplomacy-challenge/?allpages=yes

Japanese Public Diplomacy for 2020 Tokyo Olympics

     Japan was chosen for the host of 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. However, even though this was a great victory for both Japan itself and Abe administration, an important problem has remained unsolved, which is radiation problem caused by Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 11^th in 2011.

      Tokyo is not distant from Fukushima very much, so there have been many voices that worry about health of athletes from around the world. Moreover, there have also been doubtful opinions against Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) because of its mismanagement. According to Abe’s statement, Abe administration will support Tepco, but it is difficult to say there is a faith and trust for Tepco from the world since this accident happened.

     Therefore, it is time for Japan to take action for cleaning up Fukushima and to regain trust from the world by 2020. And this will be strongly related to Japanese Public Diplomacy. If the government repeatedly states that "Tokyo is safe" without showing any evidence, that will be seen as propagandistic because it is seen as manipulating information and implanting certain information into the public. Therefore, Japanese government should present reliable evidence that shows Tokyo is not contaminated.
Also, if the government creates or intervenes the guidelines for this plan too much, that will be seen as propagandistic policy because, according Jay Black, excessive use of power of authority became propaganda even if people do not mean to make it propagandistic. Moreover, James Pamment argues that new public diplomacy in modern society is more collaborative, and more actors are engaged in it; therefore, not only the government but also some other actors should elaborate to make public policy be successful.

     Jay Black also argues about Propaganda by comparing and contrast education and propaganda. He claims that education takes long time and is slow process for letting receivers know and learn, while propaganda is training receivers quickly and takes short time. Therefore, Japan can take long time to let people around the world know the process of achieving goal gradually by 2020 with publishing some statistic data and statement, which can be educational, not propagandistic.

This is the article that I referred:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-snow/tokyo-2020-the-whole-worl_b_3887372.html

By Jalita Moore : Dennis Rodman- Basketball Diplomacy

http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1002905375

Dennis Rodman and His basketball diplomacy

Is he hurting or helping U.S.-North Korean relations?
Jalita Moore

When Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for conspiring against the North Korean government last year, the State department and other officials did little to fight for his release. This left Bae’s status practically stagnant and his family waiting on action to be taken. Around this time, America was also facing nuclear threats, credible or not, from North Korea. To smooth U.S. – Korean relations, who better to step in than the controversial basketball legend Dennis Rodman?

CNN has followed Dennis Rodman’s visits to North Korea extensively. Controversy surrounds the friendship between Dictator Kim Jong Un and Mr. Rodman. Although Kim is a renowned villain, Rodman is genuinely confident that his association with Kim is positive and even beneficial. After being constantly questioned about his complicity with Kim’s “policies”, Rodman assures that he doesn’t condone them, but still feels close to Kim as a person, not a politician.

Dennis has a conflict within himself. He constantly reminds reporters that he is not a politician or a diplomat. Yet, he feels that he is doing more to improve U.S. North Korean relations. Is he lying though? Just imagine if Rodman and Un never became friends, Un may have just decided to launch those bombs. Isn’t Rodman doing what the State Department is supposed to do, which is to improve our interest abroad?

With the public’s negative reaction towards Rodman’s and Un’s friendship, I wonder if the American media and government enjoy having an antagonist. While Rodman’s public battle with drugs and flamboyant appearance does not make him the ideal representative of America, he is displaying an aspect of maturity and bravery that many polished and poised politicians are not. He is potentially risking his life just for the mere possibility that the U.S. and N.K. can get on better terms.

The commentary on many media outlets express anger, embarrassment, and confusion as to why Dennis Rodman, out of all people, has been selected as one the most grueling dictator’s confidants. However, when media outlets point out the horrendous things going on N.K, we are at the same time eluding that we do not have blood on our hands. The media does a great job of making us appear beneficent and other selected countries as evil.

Rodman’s friendship with Un is the most public diplomacy that has happened between the U.S. and N.K so far. It is practically historic. Through basketball, Rodman and Un’s friendship has created hope for our relations with the NK. We cannot expect Rodman to be the ultimate fixer. We also can not overlook his bravery to take on this risk. We can only hope this friendship will reduce U.S. and North Korean tensions down the road.

Hawaiian Paradiplomacy

          When considering country "branding" in public diplomacy, it is more common to see an entire country being presented rather than parts of the whole. While this does a good job of alerting attention to the country itself, smaller parts of the state, such as language and regional cuisine, are overlooked. Nicholas Cull points out in "Listening for the Hoof Beats" that public diplomacy is expanding to include more actors than just the government, such as NGOs, international organizations, and even sub-national regions and cities, spurning "city-level diplomacy". This type of diplomacy has been dubbed paradiplomacy, in which "sub-national actors such as states or regions [conduct] diplomacy and public diplomacy,". The United States has definitely taken advantage of paradiplomacy, as documented in the Huffington Post article "Aloha Diplomacy: Hawaiian Public Diplomacy".

            The state of Hawaii is currently being utilized as a separate brand that still promotes the United States. Although other American states may try to create a cultural and diplomatic brand separate from the entire country, Hawaii will be more successful due to their cultural closeness with the rest of Polynesia. Before Hawaii became a state in 1959, it was its own kingdom with a culture and language completely unrelated to the continental U.S. In 2011, Hawaii was given its own pavilion at the Taipei Flora Expo, while the United States was situated in a different pavilion. For the 2012-2013 season of the State Department's American Music Abroad program, a Hawaiian group playing slack key guitar and hula music was prominently featured in a five week tour of Brazil. Dubbed the "Ambassadors of Aloha", the group performed in concerts, held classes at music schools, collaborated with local musicians, and taught Brazilian students about Hawaiian music and culture. Hawaiian cuisine is also becoming influenced by China, Japan, and South Korea. Hawaiian restaurants are preparing more raw fish dishes, following Japan's lead, as well as mochiko chicken, a type of sweet rice flour-battered chicken which caters to the increasing Asian love for fried chicken. Hawaii's food scene also creates a gastronomic exchange with the continental U.S., as Hawaiian cuisine is arguably more exotic than that of the rest of the country and can introduce fellow Americans to Asian-Hawaiian fusion dishes.

            Cull states that successful public diplomacy is carried out by "NGOs, international organizations and even sub-national actors — whose outreach is not restrained by being inconveniently tethered to a geographical unit that is divided by contradictory internal opinion and inconsistent behavior,". Hawaii is conveniently located in the middle of the Pacific, which distances the islands from the U.S. but also makes them more accessible to the Asian nations that are developing an interest in Hawaii. While public diplomacy is now a two way flow of information and engagement between members of different states, Hawaii is in the unique position of offering American cultural exchange, while also exchanging its own culture to both the continental U.S. and foreign countries.  

The full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rockower/aloha-diplomacy-hawaiian-_b_4633759.html