China’s Soft Power In Southeast Asia And Confucius Institutes

(Abstract):In the last few years, experts have tried to apply the idea of soft power (Joseph Nye,1990,2004) to China, in order to explain Beijing’s foreign policy during Hu Jintao’s era, although often with deeply divided opinions. As usual, applying western ideas that work as a model for U.S. cultural and political influence, in the post-Cold War world, is usually not as applicable to China. Does it really make sense to talk about China’s soft power? And does China’s rise represent a challenge to the international order and U.S. hegemony?In this paper, we first analyze the concept of soft power, and its adaptability to China debate. We will also have a look at the so-called Beijing Consensus, which is a model of development based on China’s experience which seems in recent years to have attracted more and more the attention of China scholarship. Then, we will have a close look at one of the most important and evident aspect of China’s soft power policy, i.e. the creation of Confucius Institutes and the attempt of Chinese government to control the teaching of Chinese language and, more generally, the international debate on China.The political system of China and its economic growth model have been seen in recent years as a possible alternative to the liberal rules dominating international institutions such as IMF and World Bank, and it has been named "Beijing Consensus". However, this kind of economic model might be attractive only in a certain context, although it seems that in the future it could play a role in bolstering the Chinese soft power in Southeast Asia. The activities of Confucius Institutes, in this sense, might be crucial.