Cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy as supporting concepts of China’s soft power: an analysis of the Confucius Institutes in Brazil

Abstract

Cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy are strongly present in China’s strategic foreign policy agenda. Both diplomatic strategies support the construction and maintenance of China’s soft power, which is highly praised by current Chinese government. The term soft power was coined by the Harvard Professor Joseph Nye; however, several scholars adopt the term with different perspectives. In the Chinese academic perspective, it is possible to affirm that the Middle Kingdom aims to establish and deepen relations with other countries through people-to-people exchanges and cooperation with the major objective of having a peaceful development. For instance, creating bonds of trust through non-coercive manners is a key source in the eyes of the Chinese government; an ancient value commonly seen in China’s current diplomatic strategies. Despite the language and cultural barriers, the political system and its giant economic growth in the last three decades generates a major global fear which commonly represents China as a threat. Considering these imminent challenges along with its national interests, while China’s cultural diplomacy aims to disseminate the Chinese culture and values worldwide, the public diplomacy aims to reshape a positive image of China. The Confucius Institutes (CIs) are considered mechanisms of China’s soft power with the purpose of spreading the Chinese language and the Chinese culture throughout the world. There are currently 11 Confucius Institutes and 3 Confucius Classrooms throughout the Brazilian territory, according to the website of Hanban. As an important emerging country and largest Latin American partner to China, Brazil acknowledges the Confucius Institutes as tangible resources for part of the Brazilian population to learn about China and as promising mechanisms to the Sino-Brazilian relations in different areas. The number of Chinese investments and companies, besides from social projects and political agreements in Brazil are gradually increasing and so is the necessity of professionals with qualified skills of Chinese language and culture. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to analyze how aspects of China’s cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy through the Confucius Institutes in Brazil can support China’s soft power.