Monday, April 16, 2007

B.Raman: China's Quest for Soft Power

Nice article by B.Raman showing how the Chinese want to ape the West, mainly America in their quest for Soft Power. Not a word from them about India's Soft Power, which is light years ahead of the Chinese one. Shows how much regard the Chinks have for us.

Now to complement India's Soft Power, one should be happy that its also rapidly developing its Hard Power, the latest Agni III test being one such. More such strategic systems to follow in the very near future...

4 comments:

jamnalal said...

Our music, dance are really not that popular even in India. As for the films, their song and dance routines are mostly patronized by the diaspora.

Lets not deny China its due. Chinese cuisine, its predominance in certain sports and now Olympics, the Chinese spirit of martial self-respect as showcased by wordwide icons Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are greater successes than any Indian phenomena.

Western countries have colonised most of the world. That is one reason for their fan following. Another is that they are also the most economically developed - in fact the only ones for a long time. They - especially the USA have a tradition of giving foreigners a chance to stay and excel on their soil. Europe would come second. Also, for people stifled by centuries of societal norms such as Indian, the individual freedom their societied afford is really attractive.

Anyway why doesn’t the author appreciate that Chinese are so eager to develop their soft power. It is because of such focus that they cmae from nowhere to top the Olympics- I am sure if we have had even a part of their success, we would have been gloating like crazy.

Are we making any such efforts? If not, bitching about the Chinese doent really help.

KapiDhwaja said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KapiDhwaja said...

From B.Raman's article above, the Reds in China have issued this edict,


The NPC stressed five "don'ts" in this connection---- don't spit, don't smoke. don't swear at people, don't break queues and don't kill and eat wildlife.


I would add a few more Don'ts for the Chinese to follow to improve their international standing...

1) Stop claiming Arunachal Pradesh as your own.

2) Stop arming Pakistan & Bangladesh

3) Get out of Tibet

4) Lay your hands-off Taiwan...

san said...

We couldn't even get the gas pipeline deal from Bihar, despite a significant ownership stake. If soft power correlates to money, then we aren't stacking up terribly well against China, which is why they're beating us on all the natural resource contracts.