Soft Power

Smart, soft and subtle

By David Gosset (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:24

While the US public diplomacy apparatus works to persuade the world of its benevolent "smart power", China is quietly reshaping the global village with the effectiveness of its "subtle power".

The notion of "smart power", an approach strongly advocated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is generally defined as the combination of hard and soft powers. "Subtle power", China's way of extending influence, can be described as the art of using three minimalist axioms - non-confrontation, non-interference and readiness for paradigm change - compatible with classical Chinese strategic thinking.

Despite the acceleration of an economic process which puts China in a position of growing strength, many still point to what they perceive as Beijing's weak soft power. This is, for example, the view of the venerable American political scientist Joseph Nye.

But such an emphasis may be explained in relation to a perceptive remark of Italo Calvino in Invisible Cities: "It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear." Or, more precisely, the China story is often rewritten in fiction which can be reassuring for Western ears but which does not always reflect reality.

One should not approach China as an intrinsically imperfect entity whose reach will be limited by some essential inadequacies. Rather, one should look at it as a developing force on the way to fully realize truly unique potential.

While the West would like to believe that China's progress is synonymous with Westernization, the Chinese renaissance is in fact the renewal and reaffirmation of the Chinese identity. In other words, the West would like to re-create China in its image - and, by doing so, help to solve the so-called China's image problem. But China's representation of itself cannot correspond to such a fantasy.

Interestingly, the Western discourse on China's so-called lack of soft power could be another case of Western-centrism. Indeed, it can be argued that China is not trying to conform to Western models, to adopt foreign standards or to operate according to exogenous references but developing a sui generis modus operandi in a permanent effort to maximize effectiveness.

Laozi, 2,500 years ago, prepared the Chinese mind to a world of paradoxes: "The sage relying on actionless activity (wu wei) carries on wordless teaching." He also famously described the most subtle skills necessary to maintain internal political equilibrium, an ideal preparation for the infinite nuances of effective diplomacy: "Ruling an immense country is like cooking a small fish."

Also, he noticed that "the highest good is like that of water", and explained that "nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water" even if "one cannot alter it". In the 21st century, China's "subtle power", softer than Joseph Nye's soft power, will quietly extend its influence and it is in the highest interest of the West not to underestimate the force of the Chinese momentum.

In a sense, as it might be smart for China to increase its soft power by articulating a universal narrative, the wise thing for the West to do would be to learn from China's "subtle power" by showing less but achieving more.

David Gosset is director of the Euro-China Center for International and Business Relations at China Europe International Business School, Shanghai & Beijing, and founder of the Euro-China Forum. This is an abridged version of an article that appeared earlier in China Daily.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page46)