BOOK REVIEW: Carola McGiffert (ed.), ‟Chinese Soft Power and its Implications for the United States. Competition and cooperation in the developing world”, Washington D.C: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009, 136 p.

Abstract

The author outlines a renowned concept of soft power coined by Joseph S. Nye Jr. in the late 1980's as the ability of getting others to want the outcomes that you want, but in-depth there is much more to it. And rightly, Nye continued to further explain this concept which today without which many of us would not be able to imagine the entire system of international relations. In 2011, Hu Jintao was stepping off from China's helm giving the opportunity to a new generation to state itself; a generation represented by Xi Jinping. However, I believe that this new wave of Chinese leaders took automatically in an unconscious manner the idea that imagine matters, deciding therefore to invest a good portion of its energies towards enhancing China's soft power strategies. And in 2014, Xi announced, “We should increase China’s soft power, give a good Chinese narrative, and better communicate China’s messages to the world.” Under Xi, China has bombarded the world with a welter of new initiatives: the Chinese dream, “the Asia-Pacific dream,” “the Silk Road Economic Belt” “the Twenty-First-Century Maritime Silk Road,” “a new type of major-country relations,” and many others.