{"id":48139,"date":"2021-06-02T10:56:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T08:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/?p=48139"},"modified":"2021-06-02T12:33:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T10:33:19","slug":"powers-of-persuasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/2021\/06\/02\/powers-of-persuasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Powers of Persuasion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Monday this week a collective study session<\/a> of China\u2019s Politburo, the top decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), addressed the topic of external propaganda and messaging, which in recent years has fallen under the rubric of what Xi Jinping calls \u201ctelling China\u2019s story well\u201d (\u8bb2\u597d\u4e2d\u56fd\u6545\u4e8b). Over the past two years, that story has seemed a rancorous one, delivered with venom from the \u201cwolf warriors\u201d at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts who sought clues to a possible tactical reset in the language of the collective study session found encouragement in one phrase in particular: \u201c[The Party] must focus on grasping the tone, being open and confident as well as having modesty and humility, striving to build a credible, lovable and respectable image of China.\u201d Language about the need for China to expand its \u201ccircle of friends in international public opinion\u201d (\u56fd\u9645\u8206\u8bba\u670b\u53cb\u5708) added, for some, to the sense of a tonal change.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u201clovable\u201d was an obvious temptation. If China wished to be loved, then surely it would begin to speak more cordially, if not affectionately. As for \u201cgrasping the tone,\u201d could that not suggest an inclination to tone things down? A report from Bloomberg<\/a> took the language on lovability and friend circles as \u201ca sign that Beijing may be looking to smooth its hard-edged diplomatic approach,” and that “Xi may be rethinking his communication strategy on the global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we invest ourselves too deeply, we should look carefully at the context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the textual fabric of the news of the collective study session there is plenty to give pause: the characterization of the challenge at hand as a \u201cpublic opinion struggle\u2019 (\u8206\u8bba\u6597\u4e89), a term redolent of the Mao era; the persistently tone-deaf language about educating foreigners about the goodness of the CCP; the talk of mobilizing, funding and training and, importantly, ideologically assessing local leaders on their input in terms of international communication work, which hardly seems conducive to a broad change in tone. On the issue of broadening the \u201cfriend circle,\u201d how can it escape notice that the next line is a reiteration of the \u201cpublic opinion struggle\u201d? In such a struggle, there are friends in the form of compliant media and apologists, and there are enemies in the form of recalcitrant journalists, academics and politicians who insist on criticism \u2013 exactly what this external push is designed to neutralize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But beyond the text itself, remembering that we have only Xinhua News Agency reporting, there is an important point of context so obvious many observers seem to have missed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a collective study session, and such sessions, whatever their topic, generally benefit from the instruction of experts. In this case, we are told right at the outset of the official news release that \u201cprofessor Zhang Weiwei of Fudan University offered his explanations on this issue, and suggestions for work.” What sort of teacher would Zhang Weiwei be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, Zhang Weiwei (\u5f20\u7ef4\u4e3a) is director of the university’s Institute for Chinese Studies. In the 1980s he served within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an interpreter for senior leaders, including Deng Xiaoping. He is an old hand when it comes to Chinese diplomacy, and in the course of his career has visited many countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhang is also a staunch defender of what he regards as the superiority of the political system led by the CCP, and of the so-called \u201cChina Model,\u201d which he insists<\/a> has \u2018performed better than other models.\u201d Internationally, one of his most remembered exchanges is his 2011 debate<\/a> with Francis Fukuyama, in which he extolled the virtues of the Chinese system and suggested that Western democratic systems \u201cmight be only transitory in the long history of mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise of China is what we call \u201cshi\u201d or an overall trend, the scale and speed of which is unprecedented in human history. My own feeling is that the Western system is trekking on a downward slope and in need of major repairs and reforms. Some Chinese always speak and think highly of the US model, but to someone who has lived in Europe and visited the US many times, this is a bit too simplistic and naive.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In a 2013 interview with Phoenix Weekly<\/em>, \u201cThe Chinese No Longer Require the \u2018American Dream\u2019<\/a>\u201d, Zhang spoke glowingly of China\u2019s achievements and the ways in which it has already surpassed the West. \u201cWe have learned a lot from the West and will continue to learn in the future, but we have a vision today that goes beyond the West,\u201d he said. Importantly, he spoke of a coming era of \u201cpost-Western discourse\u201d (\u540e\u897f\u65b9\u8bdd\u8bed) in which the rising dominance of a \u201cChinese discourse system\u201d (\u4e2d\u56fd\u8bdd\u8bed\u4f53\u7cfb) should be expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of a \u201cChinese discourse system\u201d appears, in fact, in the announcement from the collective study session, and we should note that it has generally not<\/em> been among the terminologies in the arena of external propaganda, soft power and so on. Here is the portion of the Phoenix Weekly<\/em> interview in which Zhang discusses this emerging system and its implications for scholarship and the \u201cnew world order\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese intellectuals should no longer be subservient to the Western discourse, but should think independently and, with their own conscience, knowledge and patriotic spirit, absorb the wisdom of the world while rejecting Western neo-obscurantism (\u897f\u65b9\u65b0\u8499\u6627\u4e3b\u4e49). They should jointly explore and construct a Chinese discourse system in the\u00a0era of “post-Western discourse,” making their own contribution to the formation of a new world order.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Zhang has repeatedly urged \u201cself-confidence<\/a>\u201d in China\u2019s model, and in the building of a \u201cChinese discourse\u201d grounded in self-confidence that can then be applied in public diplomacy. In a 2014 talk called \u201cChinese Must Have Self-Confidence\u201d (\u4e2d\u56fd\u4eba\u4f60\u8981\u81ea\u4fe1), Zhang urged an end to uncertainty: \u201cLet us remove the hat of flagging self-confidence and give it to our opponent,\u201d he said. It was with this newly asserted self-confidence that China should combat the distortions and misunderstandings of the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the unshakable premise that China\u2019s system is superior in terms of its performance, it naturally follows that the core problem is Western resistance. “Because the mainstream media in the West have long reported on China in an manner that is not factual, and with a strong ideological bias and cultural prejudice,\u201d said Zhang, \u201cmany people in many Western countries, and even many experts and scholars, have a very poor understanding of China.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a video interview<\/a> with People\u2019s Daily Online posted today, Zhang again places the blame for miscommunication squarely on the shoulders of the West. To the extent that the project of \u201ctelling China\u2019s story well\u201d has not succeeded as it might, and misunderstandings persist, this, he says, is \u201cmainly a problem on the part of the West.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Zhang speaks of the urgent need and responsibility of the West to \u201cunderstand China.\u201d Given his emphasis on the glories of the \u201cChina Model\u201d and the objective truth of \u201cChina’s story,\u201d which at its core is about the infallibility of the CCP, this need to \u201cunderstand China\u201d is not really about dialogue or dialectic. It is about acceptance. China must act with confidence to overcome these misunderstandings. As one senior German diplomat told GMF’s Noah Barkin recently: \u201cDialogue is now conditional on us not criticizing China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one detects a certain wolfishness in this perspective, Zhang does not disappoint in his views on how China should respond to the prejudices that are standard fare, according to the CCP narrative, for the West. Here is what Zhang said in September 2020<\/a>, during an interview on the \u201cThis is China\u201d television program:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese have a culture of ‘being kind to others’ and of giving face to others, which the West does not have. That’s why I often say that in order to communicate better with the West (\u4e0e\u897f\u65b9\u4ea4\u6d41), we have to learn to confront the West (\u4e0e\u897f\u65b9\u4ea4\u950b), and after confrontation we can often communicate better. Of course, confrontation does not mean you shout yourself hoarse, as the Chinese say. Confrontation is about stating your principles clearly. Western culture is a culture of the strong (\u897f\u65b9\u6587\u5316\u662f\u5f3a\u8005\u6587\u5316). They respect the strong, respect the winner. If they raise a provocative issue and you dare not respond, dare not confront, then you have lost. And you\u2019ve lost representing the country.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Zhang, with his talk here of “crossing swords” (\u4ea4\u950b), sounds very much like a proponent of what is so often now called \u201cwolf-warrior diplomacy.\u201d He is a champion of the Chinese system, and of its assertion in international discourse and diplomacy as \u201cself-confidence.\u201d Considering that the Shanghai professor has advised the leadership for a number of years on these questions, including at a May 2016 symposium<\/a> hosted by Xi, we should perhaps view him not as a moderating voice on the question of international discourse and diplomacy, but rather as a one of a number of architects and supporters of the approaches that have been applied over the past several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The West must be persuaded to see things China’s way. And to this end, confrontation, the crossing of swords, will likely remain as a core component of communication as conceived by the leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Language emerging from a recent collective study session of China\u2019s Politburo has prompted some observers to ask whether China might be softening its diplomatic tone. 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