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Making sense of the changes in China's public diplomacy: Direction of information flow and messages

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Abstract

This research attempts to provide insight into the changes that occurred to China's mass communication-centred public diplomacy between 1949 and the present day on two levels: changes to the direction of information flow as well as changes in the messages. The qualitative research finds that China's public diplomacy has followed a pattern of moving away from one-way propaganda and public information to a mixed-motive model, or a blend of one-way and two-way communications. It also finds that there have been significant changes to public diplomacy messages in terms of strategies, intended audience effects, symbolic nature of language, motivation and strategic consideration by the government.

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Notes

  1. In 1990, the Chinese government officially replaced propaganda with publicity to translate xuanchuan. Its official mouthpiece started using public diplomacy in recent years, known as gonggong waijiao. In this paper, propaganda is used for the years before 1978, while public diplomacy is applied for the following period.

  2. Signitzer and Coombs (1992) argued that, with similar objectives and similar tactics, public relations and public diplomacy are conceptually converging. Grunig's four public relations models have been applied to examine public diplomacy. Grunig (1993) suggests that symmetrical public relations would eliminate most ethical problems of global diplomacy. Yun (2006) concluded that the conceptual and measurement frameworks of the Excellence Theory are applicable to public diplomacy.

  3. Smyth (2001) categorised US public diplomacy into media diplomacy/public statements, public information, international broadcasting service, education and cultural programs, and political actions. This research adapts the first four categories into one category: mass communication-centred public diplomacy. The political action dimension corresponds to China's civilian diplomacy (minjian waijiao), which takes many forms, such as foreign aid, art exhibitions and performance, conferences, sport events, sister cities and education programs. The semi-official organisation, The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), helps to coordinate China's civilian diplomacy activities. This research will not focus on civilian diplomacy on the grounds that it is affiliated to China's traditional foreign policy and its international aid programs. Only two public diplomacy strategies are analysed, namely the Confucius Institutes and Culture Year, because they have more elements of mass communication.

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Acknowledgements

This research is indebted to Dr Morris Saldov and Natalie Khantharoth for their insightful comments.

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  1. Department of Communication, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, 78249, TX, USA

    Juyan Zhang

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Zhang, J. Making sense of the changes in China's public diplomacy: Direction of information flow and messages. Place Brand Public Dipl 4, 303–316 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/pb.2008.19

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