Sharp power

When it comes to PRC and its soft power Nye points out that PRC started to work on its soft power since the 2000s and hit the peak in the 2008 Olympics but any significant progress then was destroyed by human rights abuses and crackdowns in Tibet and years later in Xinjiang. He also points out that because soft power comes from the free civil society which is very limited in PRC, therefore, any grass-root trends that could have world impact, thus promote Chinese soft power, have no chance to succeed as the most of their soft power is state-led, in media and narrative of development. ²⁵ Because of the promotion of this development narrative, Blanchard and Lu argue that China's soft power is contextual therefore works in some parts of the world. For example, in Africa, this development narrative is extremely popular as economic prosperity has a higher priority than human rights.²⁶ But in recent years researchers started to observe new phenomena especially connected with the various incidents concerning Confucius Institutes at American universities or Chinese media influence in Australia affecting Chinese diasporas. Institutions and their activities that should normally be considered as a standard part of public diplomacy and soft power started to take “harder” shape and approach. These incidents led to the creation of a new concept of power connected with PRC's activities together with Russia's and Iran's as well.

2.1.3 Sharp power

Sharp power is a relatively new term that has been introduced in the 2017 essay called From “Soft Power” to “Sharp Power”: Rising Authoritarian Influence in the Democratic World²⁷ by Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig. The Sharp power employs the usage of the manipulative diplomatic policies together with the management of the information about itself in the media, academia, and public space of another country to mislead or divide the public opinion in a target country. The second aim might be also diverting from the negative information about itself in the target country. This concept was later on published Foreign Affairs magazine under the name: The Meaning of Sharp Power: How Authoritarian States Project Influence²⁸, and finally their essay

25 NYE, Joseph. Why China Is Weak on Soft Power. [online]. New York Times, 2018. Retrieved from:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/opinion/why-china-is-weak-on-soft-power.html?_r=0. [visited: 26.2.2020].

26 JEAN-MARC, F. Blanchard and LU, Fujia. Thinking Hard About Soft Power: A Review and Critique of the Literature on China and Soft Power. [online]. Asian Perspective, Vol. 36, No. 4, Special Issue: China and Soft Power, 2012. Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42704806?seq=1. [visited: 26.2.2020].

27 WALKER, Christopher and LUDWIG, Jessica. “Soft Power” to “Sharp Power”: Rising Authoritarian Influence in the Democratic World. [visited: 22.12.2019].

28 WALKER, Christopher and LUDWIG, Jessica. The Meaning of Sharp Power: How Authoritarian States Project Influence. [online]. Foreign Affairs, 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2017-11-16/meaning-sharp-power?cid=int-fls&pgtype=hpg. [visited: 22.12.2019].

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has become an introduction in a broader report by National Endowment for Democracy (NED) called Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence: New Forum Report.²⁹

In the broader context of the globalized world, it is apparent that every country is trying to influence other countries through various means. Bigger and stronger country have richer means and its reach is far more reaching. Influencing was historically done by democracies like the USA or UK and today it is still happening by almost everyone. Nonetheless, the term sharp power was created to describe such activities conducted by the authoritarian countries namely PRC and Russia as they are using the imbalance in the openness of their regimes and democratic regimes.

In the mid-2000s we can observe two main things happening connected to sharp power phenomena. First is the establishment of “Russian television” in 2005 which was later renamed to RT from which it is harder to recognize its country of origin and affiliation. According to their webpage: “RT covers stories overlooked by the mainstream media, provides alternative perspectives on current affairs, and acquaints international audiences with a Russian viewpoint on major global events.”³⁰

The second thing of similar importance happened in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In 2004 program of establishing Confucius Institutes have begun in order to promote Chinese culture and forge new relationships abroad. This was later on in 2007 reaffirmed by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Hu Jintao who called for a new vision of Chinese soft power.³¹

One would say that any efforts by these two authoritarian countries would be dismissed immediately by democratic countries and their people because how these states can get any appeal when they are well known for their crippling issues such as political repressions, human rights abuses, and government-led censorship. But they were exploiting a fundamental characteristic of any democratic nation which is openness and freedom of speech and media therefore by the technique of try and error they could alter their messages and in time get more viewers, readers, and listeners. They found out that they do not have to make their regime type appealing but

29 WALKER Ch., LUDWIG J., CARDENAL J. P., KUCHARCZYK J., MASEZNIKOV G., PLESCHOVA G. Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence: New Forum Report. [visited: 22.12.2019].

30 About RT. [online]. RT, 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.rt.com/about-us/. [visited: 22.12.2019].

31 WALKER Ch., LUDWIG J., CARDENAL J. P., KUCHARCZYK J., MASEZNIKOV G., PLESCHOVA G. Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence: New Forum Report. [visited: 26.12.2019]. Page 8.

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decreasing the appeal of democracy is enough, this is especially true to the Russian strategy. The continuous attack on the prestige of the democratic system especially the United States of America and the European Union. The Chinese strategy is similar in degree but with more resources, its scope is broader and goals are more ambitious as with a business footprint over the globe its policies are masking the efforts to suppress any criticism towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) beyond PRC's borders. They are using co-optation and manipulation focusing on academia, media, and policy community. Even though both approaches are different in scope and shape both are identical in promoting state power over individual liberty while at the same time are hostile towards, freedom of expression of any kind, open debate, and independent thought.³²

What is striking, Walker points out, is the domestic situation in both countries and governmental attitudes especially towards their media and citizens has to be taken into consideration. Where there is state-led censorship and people are being persecuted for free speech and independent thoughts why the methods of these governments should be any different when they decided to reach abroad he asks.³³ As Chinese tech companies in which all of them employ self-censorship methods, Beijing is pushing the same manners towards western academia which talks about what PRC view as sensitive topics and any debate about home would be punished harshly. The nature of PRC and Russia have to be counted with when thinking about their influence efforts as they did not come to win the minds and hearts which is soft power's goal but instead, they have come to repress, divide, confuse and manipulate.³⁴

What makes sharp power so problematic to discover is that some activities PRC and Russia that they undertake certainly fit the box of normal public diplomacy but many others do not. Chinese cultural and educational initiatives that suppress alternative narratives and exploit partner institutions or Russian idea of the kleptocratic regime with the same ruler for almost two decades and now able to stay in power until 2034 is something “normal” is something new and there is a need to describe this phenomenon of soft power when speaking about authoritarian countries.³⁵

32 WALKER Ch., LUDWIG J., CARDENAL J. P., KUCHARCZYK J., MASEZNIKOV G., PLESCHOVA G. Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence: New Forum Report. [visited: 26.12.2019]. Page 9.

33 Ibid, [visited: 27.12.2019]. Page 14.

34 Ibid, [visited: 27.12.2019]. Page 12.

35 Ibid, [visited: 27.12.2019]. Page 13.

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Term sharp power might be more proper as these influence efforts are “sharp” in a sense that they pierce, penetrate or perforate the information environment. These methods should be seen as the tip of a knife because they indeed pierce. Sharp power also enables them to cut into society amplifying existing divisions. These tactics employ a degree of stealth as they are taking advantage of the open information nature in democratic nations, they are very hard to detect thus sharp power is also benefiting from a time difference before the target country realizes there is a problem. Sharp power perfectly captures the nature of these regimes which have little resemblance with soft power as their message propagates state monopoly on power, top-down control, censorship, or purchased loyalty, all of it projected outwards therefore those affected cannot be considered as an audience but much more as victims.³⁶