Another U.S. Deficit: China and America- Public Diplomacy in the Age of the Internet

The report is made by the One Hundred Twelfth Congress of the US to the Members of the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The report discusses the public diplomacy relationship imbalance between the US and China. It is contended that just as the American- Chinese trade is unfair and is leading to American job loss and export decrease, (presumably due to the Chinese’s government alleged practices of artificially keeping its currency low in order to boost its export led economy); the US public diplomacy efforts are also being damaged by the Chinese communist undemocratic controlling party.

In essence the report argues that the US government is finding it extremely difficult to communicate with Chinese audiences due to the censorship placed on potential public diplomacy means, these entail: American cultural centres in China, the American film industry, and the daily tampering by Chinese government officials of internet broadcasting sites such as Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America. There is also a concern for all the Chinese pro-democracy journalists, bloggers, and human rights activists detained and often tortured as a result of expressing their discontent with the Chinese communist government.

Conversely the Chinese government has been successful in promoting their public diplomacy in the US. The report advises the US to intensify public diplomacy efforts in China, it effectively encourages the US to develop new technologies such as the Internet Censorship Circumvention Technology to avoid Chinese internet censorship; this could allow potential Chinese audiences the ability to freely access information as if they were in the US.

There are also requests for the US government to increase funding to American universities with pre-existing programmes in China, and to open Centres for American studies at Chinese universities. This measure is a direct response to the Chinese government decision to only allow 5 American Centres in China; this is a big contrast particularly when the American government allows any Chinese Centres in their soil, there are about 70 Confucius Institutes throughout the US. Furthermore, there are also calls to increase the number of US students in China, this could indeed benefit citizen diplomacy efforts and also allow US citizens to know better the country which will become in the next few years their main rival for world supremacy.

The report suggests that the Chinese public diplomacy campaign the “Peaceful Rise of China” is not a true reflection of Chinese current domestic and international affairs. For instance, there is heavy criticism for their human rights record, corruption, its increasing military expenditure, and close relationship with undemocratic governments such as Iran and North Korea. It can be suggested that the report reflects on the US anxiety over the Chinese influence in the world economy and politics, the US appears incredibly frustrated with the Chinese government censorship over their public diplomacy efforts. Nonetheless, it can be noted that despite relative Chinese success at communicating with US public, the Chinese public diplomacy campaigns lack credibility in the US; this is mainly because campaigns that are state controlled are generally perceived as propaganda, thus it decreases its success.

It seems that the US public diplomacy efforts will always be challenged as long as the Chinese communist ruling party controls power. These two countries have different political systems and it is not convenient for the Chinese government to allow free internet access and democratic values into their society, it could threaten their position in power. Perhaps the best opportunity the US has to promote their public diplomacy campaigns is to rely on citizen diplomacy. There is evidence in this report that this initiative has not been sufficiently supported by any US government. As a result, more funds should be invested in exchange programs, more information should be distributed to the American public to encourage them to study and work in China, and above all interact more with the citizens of a nation that without a doubt will challenge the US for world supremacy in the next few years.

Bibliography

1.One Hundred Twelfth Congress of the US . (2011, February 15). Another U.S. Deficit: China and America- Public Diplomacy in the Age of the Internet. Retrieved May 2, 2011, from US Senate Committe on Foreing Relations: http://foreign.senate.gov/download/?id=208AEC06-D0CF-4EBD-9FCB-BB3CF4AA9181-