China\u2019s president wants to be seen as leading the defense of globalization, but this will be easier said than done.<\/p>\n
By John Ford
January 28, 2017<\/p>\n
The American withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has opened the door to China to try and strike a pose as the leading defender of liberalized trade and globalization. The public face of this new push is none other than China\u2019s president, Xi Jinping. This month, Xi became the first Chinese president to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where he set forth the case <\/a>for continuing to expand global trade.<\/p>\n His effort was at least somewhat successful, with the Wall Street Journal<\/em> running the headline \u201cChina\u2019s Xi Seizes Role as Leader on Globalization.\u201d<\/a> China has backed its leader\u2019s public statements with a renewed push for a regional trade deal of its own<\/a> called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Program, or RCEP. China is also looking at pursuing separate deals with countries that were once set to join the TPP<\/a>. The RCEP is not an anti-TPP program<\/a> (several countries are part of both initiatives) but the failure of the TPP has opened the door for China to position itself as taking the lead on trade liberalization.<\/p>\n Xi\u2019s effort to portray China as the leader of the pro-globalization camp is not entirely new; it is just the latest effort by China to expand its international soft power. Soft power is a notoriously vague term coined by Joseph Nye to describe the ability of a country to get what it wants without coercion or force. China has spent many years pursuing influence by way of growing its soft power but its previous efforts have produced anemic results. There is a good chance Xi\u2019s current public relations offensive will fall short for the same reasons previous efforts had so much difficulty.<\/p>\n Enjoying this article?<\/strong> Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.<\/a><\/p>\n China\u2019s efforts to accumulate greater soft power by improving its international image have included hosting events like the 2008 Beijing Olympics<\/a> and the 2010 Shanghai Expo<\/a>. However, hosting big international events has not always gotten China the positive press it craves. For example, China has hosted the Miss World pageant six times since 2003 but the most recent headlines it won were about how Beijing denied Miss Canada a visa<\/a>, preventing her from competing because she has criticized the Chinese government for human rights abuses.<\/p>\n China has also tried to advance its cultural reach through measures like the Confucius Institutes, which partner with foreign universities to open Chinese language and cultural programs. But the Confucius Institute initiative has run into problems as well. Beijing doesn\u2019t want to fund academics who criticize<\/a> its policies so a number of major universities have terminated their relationships<\/a> with Confucius Institutes over concerns about academic freedom.<\/p>\n Undeterred, China has pursued other soft power initiatives like joining the Paris Climate Accords to improve its image on environmental issues. It has leaned on the overseas Chinese diaspora to help expand its economic and diplomatic reach<\/a>. And of course it has tried to leverage its huge and growing economy to win favor abroad via initiatives like the ambitious RCEP and the enormous \u201cOne Belt, One Road<\/a>\u201d program. China hopes that by investing in infrastructure projects that can help expand its global trade it can increase its economic reach while also bolstering its image. Beijing has spoken of spending $890 billion on \u201cOne Belt, One Road,\u201d with $40 billion already committed.<\/p>\n But China faces serious obstacles to successfully rebranding itself as an avatar of liberalism. When the London-based consultancy firm Portland Communications released a survey measuring the soft power of 30 countries<\/a>, China came in dead last despite its efforts to improve its image. The primary obstacle is the obvious one: China wants to be embraced by the liberal West without actually being a very liberal country. As China scholar Bill Bishop put its<\/a> \u201cHow can you win hearts and minds when you are known as a country that blocks Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter?\u201d The fact is that China\u2019s government is still an authoritarian regime, which makes it hard for China to earn soft power. Most people do not admire censorship of the press or suppression of dissent.<\/p>\n