ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the internationally mixed responses to China’s image construction efforts as demonstrated by opinion polls, and then explores the reasons behind these differences. It reviews the academic literature on the study of China’s soft power. The chapter argues that these differences result from an insistence on the use of a “state versus society” framework in these scholars’ analyses, leading to a neglect of the changed and changing relationship between state and non-state actors in China. It explains the continuities and changes of public diplomacy conduct from Deng Xiaoping’s era to that of Xi, and introduces the collaboration model between state and non-state actors in the practice of Tai Chi diplomacy. The chapter uses the Chinese yin and yang symbol to capture the dynamic nature of the collaboration model. As China moves from a participant and supporter to a builder of the international system, “the Chinese Dream has connected the global aspirations of development, from neighbours to those beyond.
