China’s Efforts to Build Its Soft Power

The USC U.S.-China Institute presents a discussion with political scientist Stan Rosen to evaluate whether or not China’s soft power has grown in recent years.

Watch a video of the presentation here.

China has invested heavily in strengthening its cultural industries, its media industries, and in promoting study of the Chinese language and Chinese culture. Political scientist Stan Rosen has long studied China’s efforts, particularly in film. In this talk he’ll examine what soft power is and how it works and discuss Chinese efforts to acquire more of it. Rosen will conclude with an evaluation of whether or not China’s soft power has grown in recent years.

About the Speaker

Stanley Rosen, a member of the USC U.S.-China Institute’s executive committee, is a professor of political science. He is editor, along with Kingsley Edney and Ying Zhu of the forthcoming book Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds (Routledge, 2019). Among his earlier edited books are Chinese Politics: State, Society and Market (with Peter Gries), Art, Politics and Commerce in Chinese Cinema (with Ying Zhu), and On Socialist Democracy and the Chinese Legal System (with Jonathan Unger and Anita Chan). He’s the author of Red Guard Factionalism and the Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou and many articles and book chapters. He is the co-editor of the journal Chinese Education and Society.