Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World (A New Republic Book) | 
 enlarge | Author: Joshua Kurlantzick
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 44175
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0300136285
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780300136289
ASIN: 0300136285
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
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Product Description
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power. And though much has been written of China’s rise, a crucial aspect of this transformation has gone largely unnoticed: the way that China is using soft power to appeal to its neighbors and to distant countries alike.
This book is the first to examine the significance of China’s recent reliance on soft power—diplomacy, trade incentives, cultural and educational exchange opportunities, and other techniques—to project a benign national image, position itself as a model of social and economic success, and develop stronger international alliances. Drawing on years of experience tracking China’s policies in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, Joshua Kurlantzick reveals how China has wooed the world with a "charm offensive" that has largely escaped the attention of American policy makers.
Beijing’s new diplomacy has altered the political landscape in Southeast Asia and far beyond, changing the dynamics of China’s relationships with other countries. China also has worked to take advantage of American policy mistakes, Kurlantzick contends. In a provocative conclusion, he considers a future in which China may be the first nation since the Soviet Union to rival the United States in international influence.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Good, but a bit disorganized November 17, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
 Charm offensive September 6, 2007
It's very very hard to put down I enjoyed it very much and found it intersting.
Doug Allgeier
R/C CA
A political discourse of Chinese Soft Power July 21, 2007
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
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.
 Disappointing and incorrect understanding of soft power June 21, 2007
18 out of 29 found this review helpful
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.
China's Effective Soft Power May 24, 2007
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
If you are wondering how China has been able to effectively exert their soft power around the world, Joshua Kurlantzick's Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World is a good place to start.
Kurlantzick is a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Special Correspondent at the New Republic, and Senior Correspondent at the American Prospect. Many of his articles on Asia and U.S. foreign policy have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly and other well-known publications. Much of the observations he writes about are the result of many years of on-the-ground experience while living and traveling in various countries and tracking down China's policies in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
As mentioned in the Preface, Kurlantzick states that the book represents an attempt to close the knowledge gap about China's soft power and its increasingly sophisticated diplomacy, which has and will transform international relations. He was quite taken aback when a few years ago he started to ask Washington's policy makers about China's new global influence- its soft power. The reaction was one of blank stares and even some of these individuals had asked him to brief them about the topic. In other words, while the Americans were asleep at the switch, China was spreading the word around that it was no longer to be perceived as unsophisticated in matters of diplomacy. It was now willing to become involved in aid programs and other ventures where in the past it was the Americans who dominated this terrain.
Using his personal experiences and knowledge, Kurlantzick offers readers an excellent synthesis as to how China began to court the world with its soft power- a term that was invented more than a decade ago by Prof. Nye of Harvard. Quoting from Nye, Kurlantzick describes soft power as resting on the ability "to shape the preferences of others...It is leading by example and attracting others to do what you want. If I can get you to do what I want, then I do not have to use carrots or sticks to make you do it."
The way in which it can conveyed is through a variety of means such as a country's popular and elite culture, its public diplomacy such as government funded programs with the intention of influencing public opinion abroad, its businesses' actions abroad, international perceptions of its government policies and the gravitational pull of a nation's economic strength. However, as Kurlaznick points out, soft power as it is applicable to China is more than the original concept advanced by Nye, as now it is broader in its scope. China perceives soft power as anything that is outside of the military and security realm and this includes not only popular culture and public diplomacy but also coercive economic and diplomatic levers such as aid and investment as well as participation in multilateral organizations-something that China shied away from in the past.
The book is divided into eleven well-written chapters that illustrate how China has built its global soft power and how it has drastically made over its image in many parts of the world from dangerous to benevolent. Moreover, readers will learn how China uses that power and how nations are responding particularly those whose relations with the United States have been faltering such as Venezuela and others whose leaders display autocratic traits.
It should be mentioned that in the main, Kurlantzick focuses on China's pursuit of developing nations in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia-areas of the globe that have been alienated in one way or another by the USA. It is here where China succeeds in promoting itself as having an effective model for social and economic success and where it turns a blind eye to the dictatorial shenanigans, even atrocities that are common in these parts of the world.
In his concluding chapter, Kurlantzick makes various suggestions as to how the USA can respond and as he states, it still enjoys crucial advantages over China, particularly with its military power that if used correctly, can compliment soft power. Case in point is its deployment for humanitarian missions such as the tsunami response that demonstrated that only the USA had sophisticated military to move aid overnight.
Kurlantzick should be applauded for this timely book particularly when American foreign policy has suffered several set-backs over the past few years. Although, for some more knowledgeable about the subject matter, the book is hardly terra incognita, however, for the vast majority it very enlightening and certainly an eye-opener.
Norm Goldman, Editor & Publisher Bookpleasures
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