27 November 2020, NIICE Commentary 6522
Aleena Joseph
China has improved its economic standards over the past few decades. With its increasingly economic strength, there are different views about the new world order which is currently being dominated by the western powers. Though China is expecting a peaceful and cooperative future, the rest of the world is expecting more competition than cooperation from China. Though its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), there is increasing Chinese interest in Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia. BRI is considered as the rejuvenation of the ancient Silk Route, which is an ambitious Chinese project. On the other hand, this group of countries is now aware of the challenges that they have to face with this initiative, which extends from individual projects to the nature of China’s behavior towards them. In this context, it should be argued on analyzing the current scenario that, what China had been doing, is gaining the trust of Southeast Asian countries through their public diplomacy. The public diplomacy that China has been practicing are based on their interest in each country.
Public Diplomacy and BRI in ASEAN
Analyzing the public diplomacy activities of China in the international realm, it can be argued that, China has a specific public diplomacy strategy for each country, and it does not change with the ASEAN countries too. China’s public diplomacy in ASEAN countries began in the mid-2000s, as a part of the strategic partnerships at regional and bilateral levels. The Confucius Institute network of China, which contributes a major share of the public diplomacy activities, has been promoting the rejuvenation of the ancient Maritime Silk Route and in developing Mandarin proficiency, and promoting business relations. Many scholars have used David and the Goliath metaphor in explaining the relation between China and the ASEAN countries, where China is the giant Goliath and the small and vulnerable David, the latter. The western ideologies and the concept that the smaller countries tend to feel that the bigger countries will dominate them reinforces the David and Goliath mindset. China’s public diplomatic activities continue to address this existing gap between them and ASEAN countries. There are many functional groups like the Confucius Institutes which complements the efforts of the governments to improve trade and economic relations between the countries.
As of now the 21st century Maritime Silk Road is considered a major platform for both China and the ASEAN countries to bridge their cooperation. The presence of countries like the United States and Japan in the politics of Southeast Asia, along with the aggressive territorial claims of China in the South China Sea can be considered as a motive for China in reviving the Maritime Silk route. This might have led China to raise questions about the regional leadership of Japan and the US in the region, with their public diplomacy as a tool. Along with that, the public diplomacy of China in ASEAN countries can also be considered as something to pacify China’s aggressive nature in the South China sea, apart from the BRI initiative.
It has been argued that the narrative the Belt Road and Initiative connectivity brings into the cultural and economic spheres together and thus, reducing suspicion and promotes common prosperity and through its vibrant culture and impact of the several policy aspects put forth by China. For this very reason, it has been clearly understood that culture under public diplomacy, does indeed shapes the economic corridors of China, and evidently through the newly revived Belt and Road Initiative, along with regional and cultural connectivity. With this stable and healthy growth of China-ASEAN relations, mutual political trust can also be regained between them. The BRI has been used by China to boost the communication it has with the ASEAN countries and thereby to align their economic development policies, share resources, and to optimize the industrial structures and specialization. This has also been reaffirmed by the former Ambassador of China to ASEAN, Xu Bu. Through this, China is enhancing its soft power strategies and is impacting to maintain its “Good Neighbour” image towards the ASEAN countries.
Good Neighbour Effect in BRI
China through BRI is bringing people from different cultural backgrounds together, by providing cooperation in several domains and establishing good neighborhood relationship policies and actively involving in regional organizations and aligning developmental plans of ASEAN countries. In the report “The Ties that Bind Quantifying China’s public diplomacy and its ‘good neighbor’ effect”, it has been reported that China follows a different public diplomacy strategy towards each ASEAN country. When with some countries it can be financial diplomacy, with other countries it is more than cultural diplomacy and the common linguistic link they share with China. With the BRI project, all these ASEAN countries are involved with China either through infrastructure development or other commercial projects. BRI has been used in implementing the promotion of China’s good neighbor image in Asia and the use of China’s soft power as a part of its foreign policy strategy. The cultural events conducted such as the “Silk Road International Arts Festival”, the Marine Silk Road International Arts Festival, and the Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo in different countries are examples for how BRI is used as an arena by China to promote their public diplomacy.
On talking about the various public diplomacy activities, China has been mainly focused on economic and aid diplomacy with the ASEAN countries. The President of Myanmar Win Myint has acknowledged that the cooperation between the countries would benefit the development of the countries and the people. Each country of ASEAN has different needs. While Singapore is the only country among the ASEAN that has a fully developed infrastructure, countries like Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia require more investments in basic infrastructure, and some provinces of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia need up-gradation to keep up with the economic growth. This implies the importance of public diplomacy activities and that BRI is playing a major role in meeting these requirements in the ASEAN countries. Cultural and economic diplomacy are the two major strategies that China has been doing to win back the hearts of the people in ASEAN countries. Along with the widespread Confucius Institutes over the ASEAN countries, many investments are also done by Chinese firms in developing ASEAN’s infrastructure.
Though resource diplomacy and economic diplomacy do come directly under public diplomacy, with BRI playing an important role, carry a lot of importance. With Myanmar, China shares cultural diplomacy, along with resource and economic diplomacies and infrastructural development. In the case of Cambodia, China shares cultural and exchange diplomacy, apart from the economic and aid benefits. Cambodia has been dependent on China and their relations are deeply rooted. The increased soft power of China through economic and cultural relations, Vietnam has initiated “Large Neighbour” diplomacy towards China, which can be considered as a step for cooperation between the two countries. Even with BRI and the economic and cultural diplomacy that China has been involved in, Singapore is looking for economic options beyond China. Brunei was the last member of ASEAN to enter bilateral relations with China. China has developed economic diplomacy with Brunei and has acknowledged that Brunei is an inevitable part of the BRI. In the case of Indonesia and the Philippines, China has tourism diplomacy, economic diplomacy, and has cultural exchange. China has also adapted tourism diplomacy towards ASEAN countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The impact of the Chinese tourists to these ASEAN countries has influenced the Sino-ASEAN relations deeply.
According to the tourist statistics mentioned by the ASEAN website, after the European Union, it is China that brings in more tourists to the ASEAN countries. Among the ASEAN countries, Thailand is most preferred by Chinese tourists. China is highly focused on changing its image in the international arena through various public diplomacy activities in ASEAN countries. It has resulted in winning over the “Chinese Threat” notion by the “Good Neighbour Effect”. Considering the COVID-19 situation and its outcome, the image of China internationally was tarnished but it tried to overcome it through its health diplomacy and ‘Mask Diplomacy’ which is also called as ‘Health Silk Road”.
