Soft Power in Chinese Foreign Policy: Concepts, Policies, and Effectiveness

On January 4, 2006, President Hu Jintao told China’s Central Foreign Affairs Leadership Group that enhancing China’s international status and influence depended as much upon enhancing China’s soft power as improvements in China’s economy, science and technology (Li 2009a). “Improving China’s soft power,” Hu (2006) declared later that year, “is a paramount state mission.”