China needs a voice that matches its national strength, international status: Xi Jinping

[Feng Leng]

China needs a voice that matches its national strength, international status: Xi - Global Times

www.globaltimes.cn

Chinese President Xi Jinping said China needs "to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status," as Chinese top leaders had a group study session on strengthening China's capacity for international communication on Monday, with experts saying China will not keep silent amid a stigmatization and propaganda warfare launched by the US and its allies, and China has the confidence to shape a more "reliable, admirable and respectable image."

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed improving the country's capacity for engaging in international communication to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China.

Xi made the remarks on Monday when addressing the group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai, delivered a presentation at the group study session on the topic, and gave advice for relevant work. The leaders of the political bureau listened to the presentation attentively and discussed the matter, Xinhua reported.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought a dramatic change in the public opinion fields inside and outside China, as Chinese are more confident in their own political system and governance while Westerners are being increasingly pessimistic and worried, and more hostile against China as they found their political system has many serious flaws and their moral image is collapsing.

Zhang, who also served as an English interpreter for Chinese former leader Deng Xiaoping and is a scholar who travelled more than 100 countries for research, focusing on Chinese studies for a long term, told the Global Times that "When China is successfully controlling the epidemic situation and making huge contributions to reinforcing the global fight against the pandemic, the West's poor performance and selfish decision-making look very embarrassing under the comparison," and the facts have proven that the Western liberalistic narrative can no longer prevail in the East or West, and more and more people have realized the trend.

Chinese and Western narrative powers are now experiencing "a period of transition," Zhang said.

Why China's voice still weak?

At the group study session, Xi stressed the need to have a profound understanding of how important and necessary it is to improve the country's international communication, and to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status.

Although China's influence on international discourse has improved since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the country faces new situations and tasks, he said.

Xi stressed greater efforts to construct China's own discourse and narrative, interpreting China's practices by its own theories.

Xi's remarks show that China is making a top-level design on building its own narrative and would encourage more people from society to take part in the communication with the outside world, said Steven Dong, professor and dean of the School of Government and Public Affairs under the Communication University of China, noting that new institutions or mechanism may occur to promote the work.

Analysts said that due to the cultural tradition of humility of the Chinese nation, China is not a country that loves promoting itself to other nations, and it doesn't like playing tit-for-tat with others and prefers to treat others with kindness. This is a key reason why China's voice in the Western-dominated global public opinion field is yet to match its national strength and influence.

"Our nation believes that as long as the works have been done nicely, the words would be unnecessary, and then the sincere compliments from others will emerge automatically," said Zheng Ruolin, a senior Chinese media professional and European studies expert based in France.

China is not interested in becoming a hegemony, so it has no clear plan to form a media hegemony to compete with the West, and it used to believe as long as China keeps a low profile and being peaceful, and has win-win cooperation with the West, then the West will be friendly to China, but the facts prove that this kind of thinking was naive, Zheng said.

The rising hostility held by the US against China in recent years proves that the US and its allies don't care about China's intention but only care about China's capability, said Chinese experts.

A Beijing-based expert on international relations who requested anonymity said that "it's easy for China to fix China-US ties immediately. As long as China announces it gives up 5G technology, space exploration, all advanced weapons and economic development, all struggles between China and the US would disappear. To stay weak and obey, and accept Western narrative hegemony in the international field of public opinion is the key for a non-Western country to keep the ties with the US friendly. It's never about democracy and freedom; it's about strength and autonomy."

Western hegemony in discourse

When the US and its allies have realized that they cannot bully China into submission through a trade war and military pressure, and failed in the competition with China in the performance of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, they have selected the battleground of public opinion, where they still have clear advantages due to the long-existing media hegemony owned by the West, said Chinese experts.

Although Chinese people, media and diplomats always pay efforts to introduce the truth and refute the lies, their voices are hardly heard since the West is controlling almost all major international media platforms, and this is how the media hegemony works when the West wants to crack down on its competitors, said Zheng.

The West is using its hegemonic advantage in the battleground of public opinion to launch stigmatization against China and forge a negative narrative of China. This has damaged the external public opinion environment for China's development. So in order to realize the national rejuvenation, China must solve this problem, experts said.

Xi said multilateralism must be promoted while unilateralism and hegemony should be opposed to guide the international community to jointly shape a more just and equitable international order and forge a new type of international relations.

The friendly voices toward China are now unwelcome among Western social media and traditional media as the anti-China sentiment is becoming a "political correctness" of the West, said Zheng, but fortunately, Western countries, in terms of population, cannot represent the majority of the world.

"Among the third world countries, China's image is much more positive, and many countries' political elites and people in regions like Africa, Southeast Asia and Middle East are defending or supporting China's stance and image in the international arena. This is an optimistic trend for China," Zheng said.

It's impossible for China to convince every single country and make all Western countries friendly, but it's possible for China to win the support from the majority of the international community, so it's not necessary to merely focus on Western mainstream media's opinion, but to pay more attention to the public opinion in the third world, said some Chinese analysts.

China's image in future

Xi called for using new concepts, domains and expressions to better tell China's stories and the spiritual strength behind the stories.

On CPC's publicity, Xi urged greater efforts to help foreign audiences understand what the Party is pursuing is nothing but the Chinese people's well-being.

Xi also emphasized the efforts to introduce the Chinese culture abroad and strive to shape a reliable, admirable and respectable image of China.

However, China's rising confidence and firm stance to defend its interests in international occasions have been described by some Western media as "wolf warrior diplomacy," since they felt that China is being more and more aggressive and assertive toward the West.

"We need to make the West get used to this" since China's diplomacy is becoming more confident and firmer, and "We need to set rules for Americans" to let them learn what will happen if they are not respectful, Zhang said, noting that to talk to the arrogant and ignorant people, "we have to be straight, otherwise they don't understand."

Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, said "some people are afraid of offending the West. They don't dare to criticize the West even when the West is making mistakes. Why can't the US be criticized?"

China, as the only and the biggest developing country in the permanent members of the UN Security Council, is not just speaking for itself but also for the 80 percent population in the world who are from the developing countries, "so if China keeps silent when the West makes mistakes, who else could speak out?" Jin noted.

Aside from firm rebuttals of rumors and smears against China, narratives of China for international communication would be diverse and flexible, Dong said, adding that the future international image of China would be respectable and gentle, neither cringing nor arrogant.

 

[hualushui]

 

[mike2000 is back]

China needs a voice that matches its national strength, international status: Xi - Global Times

www.globaltimes.cn

Chinese President Xi Jinping said China needs "to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status," as Chinese top leaders had a group study session on strengthening China's capacity for international communication on Monday, with experts saying China will not keep silent amid a stigmatization and propaganda warfare launched by the US and its allies, and China has the confidence to shape a more "reliable, admirable and respectable image."

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed improving the country's capacity for engaging in international communication to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China.

Xi made the remarks on Monday when addressing the group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai, delivered a presentation at the group study session on the topic, and gave advice for relevant work. The leaders of the political bureau listened to the presentation attentively and discussed the matter, Xinhua reported.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought a dramatic change in the public opinion fields inside and outside China, as Chinese are more confident in their own political system and governance while Westerners are being increasingly pessimistic and worried, and more hostile against China as they found their political system has many serious flaws and their moral image is collapsing.

Zhang, who also served as an English interpreter for Chinese former leader Deng Xiaoping and is a scholar who travelled more than 100 countries for research, focusing on Chinese studies for a long term, told the Global Times that "When China is successfully controlling the epidemic situation and making huge contributions to reinforcing the global fight against the pandemic, the West's poor performance and selfish decision-making look very embarrassing under the comparison," and the facts have proven that the Western liberalistic narrative can no longer prevail in the East or West, and more and more people have realized the trend.

Chinese and Western narrative powers are now experiencing "a period of transition," Zhang said.

Why China's voice still weak?

At the group study session, Xi stressed the need to have a profound understanding of how important and necessary it is to improve the country's international communication, and to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status.

Although China's influence on international discourse has improved since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the country faces new situations and tasks, he said.

Xi stressed greater efforts to construct China's own discourse and narrative, interpreting China's practices by its own theories.

Xi's remarks show that China is making a top-level design on building its own narrative and would encourage more people from society to take part in the communication with the outside world, said Steven Dong, professor and dean of the School of Government and Public Affairs under the Communication University of China, noting that new institutions or mechanism may occur to promote the work.

Analysts said that due to the cultural tradition of humility of the Chinese nation, China is not a country that loves promoting itself to other nations, and it doesn't like playing tit-for-tat with others and prefers to treat others with kindness. This is a key reason why China's voice in the Western-dominated global public opinion field is yet to match its national strength and influence.

"Our nation believes that as long as the works have been done nicely, the words would be unnecessary, and then the sincere compliments from others will emerge automatically," said Zheng Ruolin, a senior Chinese media professional and European studies expert based in France.

China is not interested in becoming a hegemony, so it has no clear plan to form a media hegemony to compete with the West, and it used to believe as long as China keeps a low profile and being peaceful, and has win-win cooperation with the West, then the West will be friendly to China, but the facts prove that this kind of thinking was naive, Zheng said.

The rising hostility held by the US against China in recent years proves that the US and its allies don't care about China's intention but only care about China's capability, said Chinese experts.

A Beijing-based expert on international relations who requested anonymity said that "it's easy for China to fix China-US ties immediately. As long as China announces it gives up 5G technology, space exploration, all advanced weapons and economic development, all struggles between China and the US would disappear. To stay weak and obey, and accept Western narrative hegemony in the international field of public opinion is the key for a non-Western country to keep the ties with the US friendly. It's never about democracy and freedom; it's about strength and autonomy."

Western hegemony in discourse

When the US and its allies have realized that they cannot bully China into submission through a trade war and military pressure, and failed in the competition with China in the performance of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, they have selected the battleground of public opinion, where they still have clear advantages due to the long-existing media hegemony owned by the West, said Chinese experts.

Although Chinese people, media and diplomats always pay efforts to introduce the truth and refute the lies, their voices are hardly heard since the West is controlling almost all major international media platforms, and this is how the media hegemony works when the West wants to crack down on its competitors, said Zheng.

The West is using its hegemonic advantage in the battleground of public opinion to launch stigmatization against China and forge a negative narrative of China. This has damaged the external public opinion environment for China's development. So in order to realize the national rejuvenation, China must solve this problem, experts said.

Xi said multilateralism must be promoted while unilateralism and hegemony should be opposed to guide the international community to jointly shape a more just and equitable international order and forge a new type of international relations.

The friendly voices toward China are now unwelcome among Western social media and traditional media as the anti-China sentiment is becoming a "political correctness" of the West, said Zheng, but fortunately, Western countries, in terms of population, cannot represent the majority of the world.

"Among the third world countries, China's image is much more positive, and many countries' political elites and people in regions like Africa, Southeast Asia and Middle East are defending or supporting China's stance and image in the international arena. This is an optimistic trend for China," Zheng said.

It's impossible for China to convince every single country and make all Western countries friendly, but it's possible for China to win the support from the majority of the international community, so it's not necessary to merely focus on Western mainstream media's opinion, but to pay more attention to the public opinion in the third world, said some Chinese analysts.

China's image in future

Xi called for using new concepts, domains and expressions to better tell China's stories and the spiritual strength behind the stories.

On CPC's publicity, Xi urged greater efforts to help foreign audiences understand what the Party is pursuing is nothing but the Chinese people's well-being.

Xi also emphasized the efforts to introduce the Chinese culture abroad and strive to shape a reliable, admirable and respectable image of China.

However, China's rising confidence and firm stance to defend its interests in international occasions have been described by some Western media as "wolf warrior diplomacy," since they felt that China is being more and more aggressive and assertive toward the West.

"We need to make the West get used to this" since China's diplomacy is becoming more confident and firmer, and "We need to set rules for Americans" to let them learn what will happen if they are not respectful, Zhang said, noting that to talk to the arrogant and ignorant people, "we have to be straight, otherwise they don't understand."

Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, said "some people are afraid of offending the West. They don't dare to criticize the West even when the West is making mistakes. Why can't the US be criticized?"

China, as the only and the biggest developing country in the permanent members of the UN Security Council, is not just speaking for itself but also for the 80 percent population in the world who are from the developing countries, "so if China keeps silent when the West makes mistakes, who else could speak out?" Jin noted.

Aside from firm rebuttals of rumors and smears against China, narratives of China for international communication would be diverse and flexible, Dong said, adding that the future international image of China would be respectable and gentle, neither cringing nor arrogant.

Not going to happen. CCP is too old school/weak in propaganda and not sophisticated enough.

 

[kankan326]

1, Reason why China is weak at propaganda. Long term of keeping low profile policy. Prapaganda to other countries is aggressive move. Which didn't match China's former strategy.

2, China's high morality. People tend to watch/accept conspiracy theories/ gossips. Which leaves huge room for lies, rumors. China's verson "propaganda" are full of truths, positive narratives and self defences, which are dull for audience.

3, Lies. Programs in West media are more sharp, casual and of course free. Freedom is a byproduct of west democracy and election political system. China's media can never match west in term of freedom due to China's different political system. People from democratic countries are very proud of their freedom. But we can not draw a conclusion that democracy is better than China's mode. Because there is another byproduct----lie. Westerners are not born liairs. Their society rewards liars and punishes honest people. We see tons of fake news every day from western countries. US president talks shits everyday. Meanwhile you barely see any fake news from Chinese media.

4, Lies give western countries both power and damage. Politicians and media are used to lying to their citizens. There is no guilt at all for them when they use lies as propaganda weapon to enemy countries. And lie is indeed an effective and destructive weapon to weaken their enemy countries. But we all know lie has double blades. Sometimes it causes more damages to liars themselves. Look at the chaos in the western countries.

5. China's strategy. Self defence doesn't work in the propaganda war. China should be more aggressive. I mean China should not follow west media's fabricating fake news path. China should turn from an honest dumb into a gossiper. There are a lot of conflicts and conspiracy theories in western countries. China should grasp them as weapons to attack enemies.

 

[mike2000 is back]

Xi's remarks show that China is making a top-level design on building its own narrative and would encourage more people from society to take part in the communication with the outside world, said Steven Dong, professor and dean of the School of Government and Public Affairs under the Communication University of China

Which society? Censorship in the country for such a long time has led to a situation where it's unlikely people from society will play much of a role in this regard, since you can't be sure if what you are saying is right or wrong by the party . That's also why the country cultural performance/influence abroad hasn't been anywhere close to its size/status since artists/independent creators etc often shy away from dwelling into some new works which they might believe (rightly or wrongly) that it might be censored, since the rules on this can be vague and so authorities can apply it when you don't even expect it . So it complicates things even more I believe.

 

[dbc]

Not going to happen. CCP is too old school/weak in propaganda and not sophisticated enough.

yeah, the CPC doesn't know how to control the narrative without censorship, social credit and re-education camps.

 

[Viet]

China needs a voice that matches its national strength, international status: Xi - Global Times

www.globaltimes.cn

Chinese President Xi Jinping said China needs "to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status," as Chinese top leaders had a group study session on strengthening China's capacity for international communication on Monday, with experts saying China will not keep silent amid a stigmatization and propaganda warfare launched by the US and its allies, and China has the confidence to shape a more "reliable, admirable and respectable image."

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed improving the country's capacity for engaging in international communication to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China.

Xi made the remarks on Monday when addressing the group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai, delivered a presentation at the group study session on the topic, and gave advice for relevant work. The leaders of the political bureau listened to the presentation attentively and discussed the matter, Xinhua reported.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought a dramatic change in the public opinion fields inside and outside China, as Chinese are more confident in their own political system and governance while Westerners are being increasingly pessimistic and worried, and more hostile against China as they found their political system has many serious flaws and their moral image is collapsing.

Zhang, who also served as an English interpreter for Chinese former leader Deng Xiaoping and is a scholar who travelled more than 100 countries for research, focusing on Chinese studies for a long term, told the Global Times that "When China is successfully controlling the epidemic situation and making huge contributions to reinforcing the global fight against the pandemic, the West's poor performance and selfish decision-making look very embarrassing under the comparison," and the facts have proven that the Western liberalistic narrative can no longer prevail in the East or West, and more and more people have realized the trend.

Chinese and Western narrative powers are now experiencing "a period of transition," Zhang said.

Why China's voice still weak?

At the group study session, Xi stressed the need to have a profound understanding of how important and necessary it is to improve the country's international communication, and to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status.

Although China's influence on international discourse has improved since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the country faces new situations and tasks, he said.

Xi stressed greater efforts to construct China's own discourse and narrative, interpreting China's practices by its own theories.

Xi's remarks show that China is making a top-level design on building its own narrative and would encourage more people from society to take part in the communication with the outside world, said Steven Dong, professor and dean of the School of Government and Public Affairs under the Communication University of China, noting that new institutions or mechanism may occur to promote the work.

Analysts said that due to the cultural tradition of humility of the Chinese nation, China is not a country that loves promoting itself to other nations, and it doesn't like playing tit-for-tat with others and prefers to treat others with kindness. This is a key reason why China's voice in the Western-dominated global public opinion field is yet to match its national strength and influence.

"Our nation believes that as long as the works have been done nicely, the words would be unnecessary, and then the sincere compliments from others will emerge automatically," said Zheng Ruolin, a senior Chinese media professional and European studies expert based in France.

China is not interested in becoming a hegemony, so it has no clear plan to form a media hegemony to compete with the West, and it used to believe as long as China keeps a low profile and being peaceful, and has win-win cooperation with the West, then the West will be friendly to China, but the facts prove that this kind of thinking was naive, Zheng said.

The rising hostility held by the US against China in recent years proves that the US and its allies don't care about China's intention but only care about China's capability, said Chinese experts.

A Beijing-based expert on international relations who requested anonymity said that "it's easy for China to fix China-US ties immediately. As long as China announces it gives up 5G technology, space exploration, all advanced weapons and economic development, all struggles between China and the US would disappear. To stay weak and obey, and accept Western narrative hegemony in the international field of public opinion is the key for a non-Western country to keep the ties with the US friendly. It's never about democracy and freedom; it's about strength and autonomy."

Western hegemony in discourse

When the US and its allies have realized that they cannot bully China into submission through a trade war and military pressure, and failed in the competition with China in the performance of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, they have selected the battleground of public opinion, where they still have clear advantages due to the long-existing media hegemony owned by the West, said Chinese experts.

Although Chinese people, media and diplomats always pay efforts to introduce the truth and refute the lies, their voices are hardly heard since the West is controlling almost all major international media platforms, and this is how the media hegemony works when the West wants to crack down on its competitors, said Zheng.

The West is using its hegemonic advantage in the battleground of public opinion to launch stigmatization against China and forge a negative narrative of China. This has damaged the external public opinion environment for China's development. So in order to realize the national rejuvenation, China must solve this problem, experts said.

Xi said multilateralism must be promoted while unilateralism and hegemony should be opposed to guide the international community to jointly shape a more just and equitable international order and forge a new type of international relations.

The friendly voices toward China are now unwelcome among Western social media and traditional media as the anti-China sentiment is becoming a "political correctness" of the West, said Zheng, but fortunately, Western countries, in terms of population, cannot represent the majority of the world.

"Among the third world countries, China's image is much more positive, and many countries' political elites and people in regions like Africa, Southeast Asia and Middle East are defending or supporting China's stance and image in the international arena. This is an optimistic trend for China," Zheng said.

It's impossible for China to convince every single country and make all Western countries friendly, but it's possible for China to win the support from the majority of the international community, so it's not necessary to merely focus on Western mainstream media's opinion, but to pay more attention to the public opinion in the third world, said some Chinese analysts.

China's image in future

Xi called for using new concepts, domains and expressions to better tell China's stories and the spiritual strength behind the stories.

On CPC's publicity, Xi urged greater efforts to help foreign audiences understand what the Party is pursuing is nothing but the Chinese people's well-being.

Xi also emphasized the efforts to introduce the Chinese culture abroad and strive to shape a reliable, admirable and respectable image of China.

However, China's rising confidence and firm stance to defend its interests in international occasions have been described by some Western media as "wolf warrior diplomacy," since they felt that China is being more and more aggressive and assertive toward the West.

"We need to make the West get used to this" since China's diplomacy is becoming more confident and firmer, and "We need to set rules for Americans" to let them learn what will happen if they are not respectful, Zhang said, noting that to talk to the arrogant and ignorant people, "we have to be straight, otherwise they don't understand."

Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, said "some people are afraid of offending the West. They don't dare to criticize the West even when the West is making mistakes. Why can't the US be criticized?"

China, as the only and the biggest developing country in the permanent members of the UN Security Council, is not just speaking for itself but also for the 80 percent population in the world who are from the developing countries, "so if China keeps silent when the West makes mistakes, who else could speak out?" Jin noted.

Aside from firm rebuttals of rumors and smears against China, narratives of China for international communication would be diverse and flexible, Dong said, adding that the future international image of China would be respectable and gentle, neither cringing nor arrogant.

Very good
Xi realized the weaklings in globaltimes and Xinhua are underperformers.
Time to give them a kick in their a…
Xi should hire a western agency to promote the peaceful rise. With socialist china characteristics of course.

 

[mike2000 is back]

yeah, the CPC doesn't know how to control the narrative without censorship, social credit and re-education camps.

The thing is that the massive use of censorship has become so routine that sometimes censors even censor things that shouldn't be censored it has become kind if likeca bureaucracy which is normal since it now consists of tens of thousands of people such a huge apparatus is bound to have such bureaucracy and even interests groups. Since who even knows who really calls the shots and decides what should be censored or not? Since there are tens(if not hundreds) of millions of posts made by Chinese people everyday and this requires hundreds of thousands if not million of censors to police . So sometimes it can also comes down to the decision of the censor staff dealing with a particular case where he can use his own discretion/make his own decision about what needs censoring or not . Its not easy policing such a huge population who are now very tech savy and mobile/net oriented . Its a huge headache if we look at it from this perspective.
So this contradictions and complexity creates an environment where artists/creators can't be sure about what their creativity might mean for the censors and thus sniffles creativity in some ways.
So there are both advantages and disadvantages about every system I suppose. Can't eat your cake and have it . You must forego some other things to get others .

 

[Abid123]

View attachment 749965

This picture is so damn true

 

[Beast]

Not going to happen. CCP is too old school/weak in propaganda and not sophisticated enough.

Sure, sending PLAN aircraft carrier fleet to Hawaii for passage of freedom sure will make them listen.

Btw, how much China spend on media vs US and western? Do you know why China catch up with western at fast pace? Becos China wisely used the money to improve science and technology rather than propaganda.

Western surely win on propaganda but ask yourself why ESA got left behind in Mars exploration compare to CNSA?

 

[PakFactor]

View attachment 749965

Your going to have the Indians after you now, you forgot there flag lol

 

[Leishangthem]

Not going to happen. CCP is too old school/weak in propaganda and not sophisticated enough.

CCP propaganda bureau specialize in social stability not global propaganda dessimination ,that was KMT's forte for it literally invented a whole Nanking Massacre which plays such a more pivotal role for a total imaginary massacre.
In the end ,the sort of propaganda US and much of the west deploys is self defeating in the long run.

 

[OIO]

China needs a voice that matches its national strength, international status: Xi - Global Times

www.globaltimes.cn

Chinese President Xi Jinping said China needs "to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status," as Chinese top leaders had a group study session on strengthening China's capacity for international communication on Monday, with experts saying China will not keep silent amid a stigmatization and propaganda warfare launched by the US and its allies, and China has the confidence to shape a more "reliable, admirable and respectable image."

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed improving the country's capacity for engaging in international communication to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China.

Xi made the remarks on Monday when addressing the group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai, delivered a presentation at the group study session on the topic, and gave advice for relevant work. The leaders of the political bureau listened to the presentation attentively and discussed the matter, Xinhua reported.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought a dramatic change in the public opinion fields inside and outside China, as Chinese are more confident in their own political system and governance while Westerners are being increasingly pessimistic and worried, and more hostile against China as they found their political system has many serious flaws and their moral image is collapsing.

Zhang, who also served as an English interpreter for Chinese former leader Deng Xiaoping and is a scholar who travelled more than 100 countries for research, focusing on Chinese studies for a long term, told the Global Times that "When China is successfully controlling the epidemic situation and making huge contributions to reinforcing the global fight against the pandemic, the West's poor performance and selfish decision-making look very embarrassing under the comparison," and the facts have proven that the Western liberalistic narrative can no longer prevail in the East or West, and more and more people have realized the trend.

Chinese and Western narrative powers are now experiencing "a period of transition," Zhang said.

Why China's voice still weak?

At the group study session, Xi stressed the need to have a profound understanding of how important and necessary it is to improve the country's international communication, and to develop a voice in international discourse that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status.

Although China's influence on international discourse has improved since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the country faces new situations and tasks, he said.

Xi stressed greater efforts to construct China's own discourse and narrative, interpreting China's practices by its own theories.

Xi's remarks show that China is making a top-level design on building its own narrative and would encourage more people from society to take part in the communication with the outside world, said Steven Dong, professor and dean of the School of Government and Public Affairs under the Communication University of China, noting that new institutions or mechanism may occur to promote the work.

Analysts said that due to the cultural tradition of humility of the Chinese nation, China is not a country that loves promoting itself to other nations, and it doesn't like playing tit-for-tat with others and prefers to treat others with kindness. This is a key reason why China's voice in the Western-dominated global public opinion field is yet to match its national strength and influence.

"Our nation believes that as long as the works have been done nicely, the words would be unnecessary, and then the sincere compliments from others will emerge automatically," said Zheng Ruolin, a senior Chinese media professional and European studies expert based in France.

China is not interested in becoming a hegemony, so it has no clear plan to form a media hegemony to compete with the West, and it used to believe as long as China keeps a low profile and being peaceful, and has win-win cooperation with the West, then the West will be friendly to China, but the facts prove that this kind of thinking was naive, Zheng said.

The rising hostility held by the US against China in recent years proves that the US and its allies don't care about China's intention but only care about China's capability, said Chinese experts.

A Beijing-based expert on international relations who requested anonymity said that "it's easy for China to fix China-US ties immediately. As long as China announces it gives up 5G technology, space exploration, all advanced weapons and economic development, all struggles between China and the US would disappear. To stay weak and obey, and accept Western narrative hegemony in the international field of public opinion is the key for a non-Western country to keep the ties with the US friendly. It's never about democracy and freedom; it's about strength and autonomy."

Western hegemony in discourse

When the US and its allies have realized that they cannot bully China into submission through a trade war and military pressure, and failed in the competition with China in the performance of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, they have selected the battleground of public opinion, where they still have clear advantages due to the long-existing media hegemony owned by the West, said Chinese experts.

Although Chinese people, media and diplomats always pay efforts to introduce the truth and refute the lies, their voices are hardly heard since the West is controlling almost all major international media platforms, and this is how the media hegemony works when the West wants to crack down on its competitors, said Zheng.

The West is using its hegemonic advantage in the battleground of public opinion to launch stigmatization against China and forge a negative narrative of China. This has damaged the external public opinion environment for China's development. So in order to realize the national rejuvenation, China must solve this problem, experts said.

Xi said multilateralism must be promoted while unilateralism and hegemony should be opposed to guide the international community to jointly shape a more just and equitable international order and forge a new type of international relations.

The friendly voices toward China are now unwelcome among Western social media and traditional media as the anti-China sentiment is becoming a "political correctness" of the West, said Zheng, but fortunately, Western countries, in terms of population, cannot represent the majority of the world.

"Among the third world countries, China's image is much more positive, and many countries' political elites and people in regions like Africa, Southeast Asia and Middle East are defending or supporting China's stance and image in the international arena. This is an optimistic trend for China," Zheng said.

It's impossible for China to convince every single country and make all Western countries friendly, but it's possible for China to win the support from the majority of the international community, so it's not necessary to merely focus on Western mainstream media's opinion, but to pay more attention to the public opinion in the third world, said some Chinese analysts.

China's image in future

Xi called for using new concepts, domains and expressions to better tell China's stories and the spiritual strength behind the stories.

On CPC's publicity, Xi urged greater efforts to help foreign audiences understand what the Party is pursuing is nothing but the Chinese people's well-being.

Xi also emphasized the efforts to introduce the Chinese culture abroad and strive to shape a reliable, admirable and respectable image of China.

However, China's rising confidence and firm stance to defend its interests in international occasions have been described by some Western media as "wolf warrior diplomacy," since they felt that China is being more and more aggressive and assertive toward the West.

"We need to make the West get used to this" since China's diplomacy is becoming more confident and firmer, and "We need to set rules for Americans" to let them learn what will happen if they are not respectful, Zhang said, noting that to talk to the arrogant and ignorant people, "we have to be straight, otherwise they don't understand."

Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, said "some people are afraid of offending the West. They don't dare to criticize the West even when the West is making mistakes. Why can't the US be criticized?"

China, as the only and the biggest developing country in the permanent members of the UN Security Council, is not just speaking for itself but also for the 80 percent population in the world who are from the developing countries, "so if China keeps silent when the West makes mistakes, who else could speak out?" Jin noted.

Aside from firm rebuttals of rumors and smears against China, narratives of China for international communication would be diverse and flexible, Dong said, adding that the future international image of China would be respectable and gentle, neither cringing nor arrogant.

I think voice is not that important to China, western propaganda machines have hurt themselves, so just let them do it.

 

[Feng Leng]

Not going to happen. CCP is too old school/weak in propaganda and not sophisticated enough.

All we have to do is nuke somebody -- let's say Australia -- and then all of our words will be taken very seriously.

Which society? Censorship in the country for such a long time has led to a situation where it's unlikely people from society will play much of a role in this regard, since you can't be sure if what you are saying is right or wrong by the party . That's also why the country cultural performance/influence abroad hasn't been anywhere close to its size/status since artists/independent creators etc often shy away from dwelling into some new works which they might believe (rightly or wrongly) that it might be censored, since the rules on this can be vague and so authorities can apply it when you don't even expect it . So it complicates things even more I believe.

There is no censorship in China.

 

[Feng Leng]

yeah, the CPC doesn't know how to control the narrative without censorship, social credit and re-education camps.

Jew media is all fine and dandy until it manufactures the consent among Americans to enter into a nuclear exchange with China and then it becomes not so much fun anymore.

Very good
Xi realized the weaklings in globaltimes and Xinhua are underperformers.
Time to give them a kick in their a…
Xi should hire a western agency to promote the peaceful rise. With socialist china characteristics of course.

LOL where did you see the two words "peaceful rise" in that article?