China has a long and distinguished history of innovation and cultural exports, but its soft power today is pretty well limited to pandas, food, and martial arts movies. The government is acutely aware of the problem, but has struggled to solve it. Why?
There are two reasons:
- The Chinese language, which provides the gateway to the culture, is very difficult to learn. It is essentially two languages in one; you have to memorize the characters as well as learn the oral words. You can’t really put characters on a keyboard. As a result, parts of the culture are inaccessible to you and me.
- The government puts too many limits on freedom of expression to appeal to outsiders. Would you really want to live in a country that is guarded by the Great Firewall? Didn’t think so.
In the long run, the best source of Chinese soft power is likely to be what it is today–money. Of course, as long as Trump is President, none of this will matter much; he’s the best salesman on the planet for the Chinese system.