Yung LinPublic diplomacy is a way of exerting soft power. It is how the foreign publics understand and perceive a country. With the understanding of Chinese and Taiwanese context of soft power, it raises the context of how the domestic public understand and see their own public diplomacy. Public diplomacy strategy: China The factor that drives China to practice public diplomacy is that China wants the world to think of it as a countable and convincing powerful state. Conducting public diplomacy, China sees itself with advantages. First, China’s remarkable economic performance and political development has paved the road for drawing the world’s attention and attracting the world’s audience. For example, in 2008 Olympic Game, China government did not set up major plan but believe that the world’s attention was already on China; hence, China put it as ‘People’s Olympics’ for the massive population would attract the attention. It serves China to the second point that the massive population advances China to implement public diplomacy. China cannot only dispatch many Chinese language teachers to Confucius Institutes but also polices and soldiers for UN peacekeeping mission. It again shows the world that it has the ability and responsibility of its power. Third, China considers itself to be a government with massive political, economic and cultural resources, which, therefore, if the government emphasizes public diplomacy, it is expected to be an effective approach. Reviewing China’s public diplomacy practices However, China does not mobilize these advantages well. It shows that it focuses more on quantity rather than the quality; thus, there are problems with Chinese public diplomacy strategies. First, foreign publics cannot be taken as one entity but complex focus groups. Although the world does pay attention to China but the attention is not solely on language, literature, cuisine…etc cultural perspective but also on human right, regional relationship, rule of laws…etc. China did not direct the world’s attention well but could damage its image. Second, sending out Chinese language teachers and polices may build a good image on the vast amount of human resources but not on a good image of China, the nation. Take Confucius Institute for example. It is established simply because the name, Confucius, is worldwide notable but it is criticized for not teaching the real spirit of Confucianism but only the language. Moreover, it is contested for being as a political mission rather than a culture-promoting agency. The understanding of the relationship between culture and politics in the liberal democratic world is different from China’s understanding. China shapes culture to be an instrument promoting Chinese Communist Party. Third, China’s government represents more the authoritarian political system rather than the effective power system. Inside China’s government, many bureaucracies support public diplomacy but have no complete and well-coordinated bureaucratic system to conduct the policy. It reveals that Chinese public diplomacy is scattered and the long-term impact is still doubted. Therefore, Chinese public diplomacy is a question mark because its international effect is still to be discussed. Public diplomacy strategy: Taiwan Taiwan has no advantages such as world attention, massive population and a government with political, economic and cultural resources. However, Taiwan has enviable resources very much from its culture and recent history waiting to be mobilized. The practice of using these resources have already paved the road for public diplomacy. First, Taiwan has already built up a good image in some countries such as in the US. The US acknowledges Taiwan’s participation in international community and maintains the unofficial diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Moreover, the advocacy of Taiwanese NGOs engaging in diplomacy cannot be neglected; for example, Formosan Association for Public Affairs. Although it was initially set up for changing Taiwan’s political situation, it now has gradually developed to become a crucial channel for Taiwan and the US. Second, Taiwan has a precious political resource – democracy, which is the key element to build up the image and to broadcast to the international world. In this liberal democratic world, unlike China’s political values, the organization - Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, engages in the international agenda such as human right, security, economy and development with other countries. Third, Taiwan has vast amount of economic resources. Sending agricultural practitioners overseas is a vivid example. It reveals again that Taiwan has resources pioneered to public diplomacy; however, Taiwan’s public diplomacy practices face some challenges. Reviewing Taiwan’s public diplomacy practices The problems of Taiwanese public diplomacy thwart its international status and space. Regarding the above-mentioned three points, the good image in the US, the political value—democracy, the practical foreign aid group, it is the way Taiwan approaches public diplomacy exerting these resources that is problematic. Contrary to China, Taiwan should enhance the visibility of these quality resources. First, although a good image in the US, statistics show that only 29% Americans know that Taiwan is a democratic state. Still, these surveyed people claim that media sources may help offer the information. This leads to an approach for Taiwan to conduct public diplomacy. Second, democracy is a selling point but Taiwan should broaden the perspective toward democracy. It is not only the political system but also the democratic values and topics more on LGBT rights, aboriginal survival, immigration and grassroots participation, which can attract the world’s attention. Third, it is the lack of media promoting Taiwan’s avant-garde technology and skill that defers the influence of public diplomacy. In a nutshell, compared to China, Taiwan already has advanced resources in public diplomacy but simply fallen short of the approach. Copyright @NEApproach mini archive
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