ABSTRACT
After three decades of phenomenal economic growth, China has become a global economic power. It became the world’s largest exporter in 2009. Its nominal gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed Japan to become the second largest in the world in 2010. Concomitant with its rapidly expanding economy is China’s apparently increasing global political influence, as well its rapidly expanding soft power. Soft power, according to its best-known intellectual proponent, Joseph Nye, is the ability of a state to influence other states through means other than guns and money. In recent years, China’s rising soft power and its expanding foreign aid have attracted a great deal of attention from policy-makers, journalists, and analysts from around the world. However, the two topics have been inadequately explored in academic circles, except for a small number of publications.
