Building Goodwill Through Soft Power: an Analysis of China S Reputation in Sri Lanka

Building goodwill through soft power: An analysis of China’s reputation in Sri Lanka

RDP.SampathRajapakshe

Abstract

Many scholars find out that influenced the forms of Chinese foreign policy beginning in the mid-1990s. However, Chinese foreign policy makers introduced “New Grand Strategy” for the 21st century in the mid-1990s. This strategy specially designed to promote and maintain China’s image in the abroad. On the other hand, Policy observers argue presenting of the South Asian region that strategically important to emerging China. Moreover, Chinese presence in Sri Lanka that articulated by policy observers many ways. Firstly, emergence of China as a global power center the geographic position of Sri Lanka is important to Chinese vital trade routes. Secondly, China’s engagement in is a tit-for-tat strategy in response to India’s engagement in China’s own South Asian peripheral. Thirdly, it is argued that this is a part of China’s “String of pearls” strategy establishing. These arguments express that China’s soft power in Sri Lanka that should be a great decision in Chinese foreign policy. This article explores current manifestation of China’s goodwill agenda examining two strains of Chinese current foreign policy in Sri Lanka that limit to observe foreign aid and the Confucius institute that conduct the Peoples’ Republic of China in 2000-2011. The paper also evaluates the success of this so called soft power campaign in Sri Lanka using an international survey to determine if the new orientation correlates with changed Sri Lankan opinions about China. This article evaluates the effectiveness of these efforts by analyzing public opinion polls gathered by the Gallup polling in 2011. Data used for this article has been collected from a large number of books, periodicals, magazines, journals. My findings indicate that the Goodwill Agenda has been successful at improving China’s reputation in Sri Lanka.

Key Words: Goodwill, Soft Power, Reputation

Introduction

On the other hand, Policy observers argue presenting of the South Asian region that strategically important to emerging China. Moreover, Chinese presence in Sri Lanka that articulated by policy observers many ways. Firstly, emergence of China as a global power center the geographic position of Sri Lanka is important to Chinese vital trade routes. Secondly, China’s engagement in is a tit-for-tat strategy in response to India’s engagement in China’s own South Asian peripheral. Thirdly, it is argued that this is a part of China’s “String of pearls” strategy establishing. These arguments express that China’s soft power in Sri Lanka that should be a great decision in Chinese foreign policy.

This article explores current manifestation of China’s goodwill agenda examining two strains of Chinese current foreign policy in Sri Lanka that limit to observe foreign aid and culture that offered to Sri Lanka by the Peoples’ Republic of China in 2000-2011. The paper also evaluates the success of this so called soft power campaign in Sri Lanka using an international survey to determine if the new orientation correlates with changed global opinions about China. This article evaluates the effectiveness of these efforts by analyzing public opinion polls gathered by the Gallup polling survey in 2011. Also here investigate when and why have attitudes of Sri Lankans towards China improved.

Soft power and InternationalRelations

According to international relations theories and debates, soft power is a modern concept which aims to raise awareness of the political dimension through cultural actions. In the international arena soft power is rooted largely in a country’s values expressed through its culture in handling its relations with other states. For example, after being defeated in the Franco-Prussian war, France attempted to restore his reputation by promoting its language and its literature through the Alliance Française, founded in 1883.[1] Accordingly, the projection of French culture abroad became an important component of diplomacy in that country.In order to achieve more effective efforts abroad, the decision makers of various states now analyze and implement new actions under the so-called soft power to achieve their foreign policy objectives.

Today, with the progress of the processes of economic and technological globalization, international relations will depend ever more intensely on culture, (or soft power) and economic power rather than military force.Although both hard power (political, economic and military action) and soft power are necessary instruments to conduct the foreign policy interests of one country, the exercise of attraction (Soft power) is much cheaper than coercion, and above all is of a higher value. A country wants to be a great power that needs material or hard power as well as soft power to gain flexibility within international politics. A world power should appears as a world cultural center including ideas, values, norms, social life and beliefs are attractive and appealing to people of rest of the world. soft power does not create automatically under the influence of hard power; it must be systematically improved and set up.[2]

What is soft power?

The ideas of soft power that one of themost well-known liberal concept of current international relations. Joseph S. Nye has been the tour de force behind theproliferation of the concept both in academic and policy circles. Today, it will not be anexaggeration to say that soft power is one of the most visible components of foreignpolicy strategy of many states around the world.[3] Five major writing of Nye define thehistory of the idea of soft power. These are: Bound to Lead (1990), The Paradox ofAmerican Power (2002), Soft Power (2004), Power in Global Information Age (2004)and recently The Future of Power (2011).

Nye defines soft power as the “ability to get preferred outcomes through the agenda-setting, persuasion and attraction”. The successfulapplication of soft power depends on an agent’s “ability to attract, create credibility andtrust.” A variety of different actors – corporations, institutions, NGO's transnationalactors, and even individuals–possess the ability to exercise soft power, and the conceptis not restricted to states.

In the context of states, Nye finds three important sources of soft power: culture,political values, and foreign policies. A country’s foreign policy may also attract other countries when itpromotes trade, mutual relations, and good governance. Cultureattracts but often such attraction depends upon the context: who is getting attracted andby what? Similarly, political values are asoft power resource to the extent that a state. According to Nye, sometimes soft power is inherent in the history, culture, and political organization of a state. In such a situation, attraction is inherent to the existence of thestate. Nye calls such attraction the “passive approach” to soft power.[4] On the other hand,in an active consolidation of soft power, states consciously try to make themattractive and persuasive by availing themselves of a number of policy tools, such aspublic diplomacy, economic assistance, cultural exchanges, and media broadcasting.

Chinese perspectives on soft power

There is no hesitation that the increasing debates surrounding China’s soft power resources and strategies, also the dominant position China has acquired in international politics in recent times. Previously, the concept of soft power has been adopted officially by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and leaders of the CCP.[5] Chinese soft power is not a new phenomenon, for instance, the ancient Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, Lao Tsu and Sun Tsu who have contributed to develop Chinese perspective of soft power strategy.[6] According to historical interpretations, Chinese take on the idea of soft power, it is the most important to understand the cotemporary context and the reasons behind sudden attention of the concept of soft power in the official corridors of the CCP.

According to Suzuki, three primary factors behind the official recognition of soft power in Chinese foreign policy discourse.[7] First, with rise of China, most Chinese statesmen are more interested in understanding the primary component of the power in international politics. Increasingly soft power is seen as a primary component of a state’s power matrix. Second, with globalization and interdependence making wars obsolete, the China has started believing that competition among states will now be carried over in the realm of attractiveness rather than heavy weaponry. In this context, Raghavan argues, “China is expanding its use of cultural, educational and diplomatic tools to increase its appeal across the world”, and therefore, “The concept of soft power has made a strong impression in China”.[8] Lastly, soft power has been embraced as an instrument in fighting the China threat theory; by going soft, Chinese decision makers think that they can co-opt other states to their agenda rather than scaring them away by the use of hard power resources.

Literature on soft power in China and western academia demonstrates a wide and often a contradictory range of views. There are three schools of soft power discourses within China that emphasize different aspects of soft power. First, China has been long history of civilization. Chinese culture in this case is regarded as the essence of its soft power.[9] Second rapid economic development during past two decades makes China the new star among emerging countries. It is possible for less developed countries or industrialized countries to learn from China’s achievement.[10] Third, China’s political system is also regarded as an important part of China’s soft power. The Chinese economic model cannot be understood without understanding the Chinese political system.[11] The attractiveness of Chinese political system is constituted by two important elements: first is the ancient Confucian philosophy of state, which emphasized harmony without suppression of differences; where the new Chinese political is considered “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”[12] rather than a mere off shoot of liberal capitalism.

Mingjiang distinguishes the Chinese discourse from the western discourse on China’s soft power. He emphasizes that while western discourse mainly focuses on how Chinese soft power is influenced by international system, Chinese discourse analyzes sources and its application in relation to the county’s foreign strategy.[13] Thus, the influence of China’s own domestic culture, economy and politics is shaping China’s soft power. It’s soft power instruments range from culture to economic engagement. The political report of the 16th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) points out that “today world culture intertwines with economics and politics, demonstrating a more prominent position and role in the competition for comprehensive national power”.[14]The Chinese government often advertises its soft power through several official documents and policies by using phrases like “friendly and good neighborly”.[15]

Arguably, soft power remains an important asset in China’s foreign policy strategy to engage with its neighbors to maintain stable relationships and successful co-operation in Asia and abroad, as in evident in China’s soft power initiatives in the South Asian region.

Chinese foreign aid

China, in its development, that has attempted to integrate the interests of the Chinese people with people of other countries, providing assistance to the best of its ability to other developing countries within the framework of South-South cooperation to support and help other developing countries, especially, the less development countries (LDCs) to reduce poverty and improve livelihood. China has proactively promoted international development and cooperation played a constructive role in this aspect.

When providing foreign assistance, China adheres to the principle of not imposing any political conditions, not interfering on the international affairs of the recipient countries and full respecting their right to independently choosing their own paths and models of development.[16] The basic principles China upholds in providing foreign assistance are mutual respect, equality, keeping promise, mutual benefits and win-win.

In recent years, China’s foreign assistance has kept growing. Financial resources for foreign assistance from 2010 to 2012 China appropriated in total 89.34 billion Yuan (14.41 billion US dollar)[17] for foreign assistance in three types: grant (aid grant), interest free loan and concessional loan.

Grant is mainly offered to help recipient countries small or medium- sized social welfare projects, and to find human resources development cooperation, technical cooperation, material assistance and emergency humanitarian aids. In the last three years China provided 32.32 billion Yuan of grants, accounting for 36.2 percent of the total assistance volume.[18]

Interest free loan mainly use to help recipient countries construct public facilities and launch projects to improve people livelihood. In the last three years, China offered 7.26 billion Yuan of interest free loan, taking up 8.1 percent of its foreign assistance volume.[19]

Concessional loan is mainly used to help recipient countries undertake manufacturing projects and large and medium infrastructure projects with economic and social benefits, or for the supplying of complete plants, machinery and electronic products. In the last three years, concessional loans China provided to other countries amounted to 49.76 billion Yuan, or 55.7 percent of its total assistance volume in the same period.[20]

Distribution of foreign assistance from 2010 to 2012, China provided assistance to 121 countries, including 30 in Asia, 51 in Africa, 9 in Oceana, 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean and twelve in Europe.[21]The forms of foreign assistance of China, from 2010 to 2012, provided foreign assistance mainly in the following forms: undertaking complete projects, providing goods and materials, conducting technical cooperation and human resource development cooperation, dispatching medical teams and volunteers, offering emergency humanitarian and reducing debt of the recipient countries.[22]

Sino-Sri Lanka relations

Sri Lanka recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in January 1950. Two countries established full diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors in February 1957. In between China-Sri Lanka Rice Rubber Agreement, signed in April 1952 formed a constructive part of China-Sri Lanka economic relations and was renewed several times. The first agreement on economic and technological cooperation between China and Sri Lanka was signed that maritime agreement in 1963. The Sri Lanka-China Society was formed in 1981, while the joint trade committee formed in 1982 and the Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee in 1984 were amalgamated in 1991 to from the Sino-Lanka Joint Commission for Economic and Trade Cooperation.[23]The China-Sri Lanka Business Cooperation Council (SLCBCC) was later formed in 1994. These developments suggest that throughout this period, China has been an importing trading partner and a significant source of foreign economic assistance to Sri Lanka.

In a friendly atmosphere, the two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest and reached broad consensus. The two Nations agreed that in the 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, these relations have continued to strengthen despite changes in the international environment and enjoyed healthy and smooth growth, serving as a model of good relations among small and big countries. The development of China-Sri Lanka good neighborly and friendly relations not only served the common interest of the two people but also contributed to peace, stability and development in the region. They noted with satisfaction the positive progress achieved in all areas of cooperation, including political affairs, economic and trade relations, culture, tourism and education.[24] The two sides would make joint efforts to push forward their-all round cooperative partnership of sincere mutual support and ever-lasting friendship.

Building Chinese goodwill through soft power

South Asia is steadily emerging as a strategic priority for the People’s Republic of China and Sri Lanka located in strategically place in the Indian Ocean. The 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress held in November 2012, had discussed the policy parameters of the new leadership. It said; “Peaceful development is Chinas basic state policy, and win –win cooperation is banner for China’s friendly relations with other countries. To realize “China’s dream”, we must have a peaceful international environment. At the same time, the country will resolutely safeguard its national sovereignty, security and core interests. The two policies are two pillars of Chinese diplomacy, and do not conflict with each other.”[25]

In the South Asian context, China’s policy perception would translate as vigorously defending the integrity of its borders, pursuing its territorial claims, developing strategic communication lines to the border areas. India’s emergence as a rapidly growing economic and military power dominating the Indian Ocean this adds to China’s strategic concerns. China’s unresolved border dispute and unfulfilled territorial claims with India have continued to simmers well as India’s growing strategic relationship with the US and Japan.[26]

Considering this environment, building a strong relationship with Sri Lanka was a logical step for China as it centers a strategic advantage in protecting its interests in the Indian Ocean region while providing a strategic pivot in the Under belly of India.

Sri Lanka has the potential to make a huge impact in India’s strategic security thanks to its geographic proximity to India. However, smaller size makes it moves vulnerable to India’s strategic moves.[27] This is relevant to the emerging role of China in Sri Lanka.