Why China's Charm Offensive Will Stall

Abstract

Despite China's growing influence in the world, Communist Party leaders have expressed concern over the country's deep deficit of 'soft power.' Negative global media coverage of Tibetan protests in March 2008 still smarts with senior Chinese officials, who blame Western media outlets for framing the dominant narrative of state repression and turning a wave of international public opinion against China. By building trusted CCP news outlets into international outlets, China wants to take the fight directly to Western media. On one level, China's expansion of its 'media soft power' simply makes good sense. But the problem is that the CPP is monopolizing not only China's global media push by restricting involvement to trusted central party media, it is monopolizing the tone and tenor of 'China's voice.' Shaping news media with real and enduring credibility is an enterprise no amount of money can achieve, and its basic demand is that journalists work in a spirit of independence and professionalism.