Chapter 1 Introduction
1.5 Literature Review
1.5.2 The Response of the Chinese Communist Party
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pressure of the United States. However, nowadays almost no country has the will or ability to exert pressure upon China, or in another word, China does not concern the threats from the West.
There are even more cases and allegations in the international arena regarding the devastating Chinese sharp power. The author gives examples of more striking actual cases for the readers to better understand that Chinese sharp power is far beyond our imagination.
As can be seen from the above discussion, Chinese sharp power through its influence on the economic and trade market, the right to work, and even the security of life. That is, the comprehensive power of the authoritarian state, publicly or non-publicly exert pressure, to influence specific targets, succumb others or self-censorship, and achieve the goal of manipulation and influence public opinion. Its scope not only includes politics, economics, academics, technology sector, human rights, freedom of speech, which are closely related to our life but also threatens democracy and national security.
1.5.2 The Response of the Chinese Communist Party
To begin with, these sharp power actions from China indeed cause anti-Chinese hysteria around the world as repercussions. According to the Economist (2017b, p.19), for example, posters were put up in many universities threatening Chinese citizens with deportations; Chinese teenagers were beaten up at a bus stop in Canberra; graffiti with “Kill Chinese” in the University of Sydney. Since 1978, about 10 million Chinese have moved abroad, the Chinese government worried about these overseas residents affected by the democratic system, which may in turn affect China itself. According to the Economist (2017a, p.9), as a superpower, China has the ambition to shape the global rules— “rules
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created largely by America and western Europe and routinely invoked by them to justify their own actions”.
The concept of sharp power has accumulated and quickly projected the image of China Threat Theory. Chinese scholars were not reconciled to allow the West smash and control the narratives, one after another wrote articles to refute the paradox trap behind sharp power, and try to counterattack with the concept of “Balance Power” (和實力) and “Wise Power”
(睿實力). As believed by 譚峰（2015）a reporter from People’s Tribune (人民論壇), the so-called Balance Power refers to the fusion of military, economy, discourse, and institutional strengths, and the sum of this new power in its process of practical interchanges. It is an amalgamation concept that integrates the four major fields of military, economics, discourse and institutions, representing the inclusiveness of diverse academic traits in the field, it is also a refined concept that enriches the essence of Chinese tradition and has the academic quality in historical inheritance. It inherits the core essence of Chinese traditional culture pursues the mainstream values that the Chinese nation has held for thousands of years. The introduction of this concept shows the cultural values of Chinese nation and also forms a diplomatic strategic thinking with Chinese characteristics.
Together with, as claimed by 史安斌（2017), a professor from Tsinghua University, the concept of sharp power was put forward when the world entered the Chinese-leading
“New Era of Globalization” (新全球化時代), reflecting the anxiety of the Western intellectuals and elites in the face of global changes. Facing some Western media and scholars attempt to utilize sharp power to challenge China’s efforts in enhancing its global image and influence in recent years, we must take initiative and respond positively from
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theoretical practical levels. The first thing is to continue to strengthen the construction of our own theory and propaganda system, create our own Wise Power.
史安斌（2017) further elaborated that, in the past, China incorporated the concept of soft power proposed by Western scholars into the national strategy, representing the tradition of Chinese culture. Nonetheless, some Western scholars who hold the “Cold War Mentality” feel astonished and disturbed on the one hand, insisting that soft power is a patent of democratic country; on the other hand, eager to throw out the concept of sharp power to draw boundaries with China. In this regard, we must conduct Wise Power that is— combines the wisdom and moral appeals of Chinese culture, use the idea of “a community with a shared future for mankind” (人類命運共同體) as core philosophy, with the law of propaganda and needs of the audience to improve the external communication and public diplomacy in the new era of globalization and enhance its effectiveness of action guide.
An editorial from Huanqiu, a state-own newspaper based in Beijing argue that their accusations against China, such as China crowd out western company in its domestic market, while purchase important assets of the Western countries; mute criticism about China; manipulate western social elites; Chinese media propaganda in the west; steal intelligence from the West, and so forth. These accusations are ambiguous, and many of them are simply based on impressions. These false accusations indicate the west is unaccommodated about China’s rise, also reflect that the west is reluctant about some elites to recognize and accept China’s rise. Therefore, looking for various kinds of shackles to attack China and exaggerate the normal friction between countries in different society to the maximum. “However, China does not need to be nervous. We must firmly believe that
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these disputes cannot influence China’s rise. All our countermeasures should be built on this amply confidence” （社評：中西這一輪摩擦，2017）.
The Confucius Institutes has always been considered to reflect China’s soft power, it was originally based on Chinese and cultural studies, but as more and more institutions point out that the Chinese government controls the Confucius Institute in the United States, Argentina, Peru, and other democratic countries, intervening in targeted countries’
academic circles, gradually politicized, now it has been considered as a weapon of China’s sharp power. In addition to not allowing to discuss sensitive topics such as Tiananmen Square Protests, Dalai Lama, and Falun Gong, which surely shouldered the responsibility of propaganda for China. Subsequently, sharp power did not increase the strength of soft power, instead, damage it. Nevertheless, Huanqiu also responded to this issue. According to the report, many of the controversial projects were welcomed when they first entered Western society. For example, the Confucius Institutes have a large demand for Western school. Most of the Confucius Institutes were requested initiative by the Western universities, and the conditions for establishment are also negotiated by both sides. Now, the West alleged that the Confucius Institutes is a tool of exerting sharp power, is actually a reflection of the diversification of national interests. With regard to this complexity, China asserted can face it calmly. As long as it is legal cooperation and also welcomed by Western society. Yet, when the Western public opinion about the controversies are high, it should be explained by those countries and Chinese-cooperated agencies. If some Western countries cooperatives cannot stand the pressure of public opinion, then withdraw. China will not suffer any losses. “In the future, we Chinese should deal with the West to establish a sense that the other party’s psychology status often changes from superiority to weakness.
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It should be processed cautiously when dealing with cooperative projects that are prone to disputes, and avoids carrying out domestic thought in the Western counties. In addition, sometimes you can consider giving more interests when dealing with them, it is not a bad idea” （社評：中西這一輪摩擦，2017）.
The Economist (2017b, p.18) also suggest that “they would be unlikely to convince students in the West that China’s authoritarianism is admirable, even if they tried”.
Shambaugh (2015) points out that China invest 10 billion a year in order to increase its soft power influence, nonetheless, it has yet to see any provable improvement in terms of its global image, because the way China handles public diplomacy in the same way as building infrastructure: investing money and expect to see progress as soon as possible. What China fails to understand is that despite it has mainstream culture, food, human capital, and miracle economic rise over the past few decades, as long as its political system rejects rather than commits itself to achieve human freedom, it is deemed to face a thorny battle.
In business, the United States arrested and prosecuted Chinese citizens for theft of technology. On January 28, 2019, 23 charges against Huawei were announced, including allegations that Huawei had stolen T-mobiles robots’ information for testing mobile phone since 2012, and secretly measuring and taking photo on confidential information, even stealing part of the electronic device. The U.S. Department of Justice also accused Huawei of using bonuses to encourage employees to steal confidential intelligence information from companies around the world. In the lawsuit, the emails sent to its employees by Huawei as evidence of the allegation. On January 31st, 2019, the Financial Times also reported that the second Apple Chinese engineer was arrested for stealing the secretes of autonomous cars. Jizhong Chen, a hardware engineer on the company’s self-driving car
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project, has been charged with stealing trade secrets, and taking photo on confidential information. According to a criminal complaint file unsealed in federal court, Mr. Chen had a personal hard drive filled with company’s proprietary material, including details of car sensors and custom-built harnesses (Hannah Kuchler, 2019). In addition, Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese citizen serving in the U.S. Army Reserves Program was arrested in Chicago for recruiting engineers and scientists for Chinese Intelligence, including some U.S. Defense contractor staff. Mr. Ji was accused of working for an unnamed high-ranking intelligence officer, according to a criminal complaint filed in a Chicago court (“Chinese national”, 2018). As reported by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the regular press conference on January 31, 2019, in the light of the Democratic Party senator of the U.S.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mark Warner, worried that Chinese large-scale technology companies would acquire and replicate sensitive information with the help of the Chinese government. And the Senator, Chuck Schumer, accused China of intending to replace the U.S. technology dominance position by stealing intelligence property.
Geng Shuang, Deputy Director of Foreign Ministry Information Department of PRC responded: “China recognizes that the United States is the world’s number one technology powerhouse, meanwhile, hopes that the U.S. can treat the technological development and progress of other countries with an open and comprehensive attitude. You cannot only allow yourself to develop, but not others”. He expressed that “it is completely unreasonable to defame, blame and suppress the development and progress of science and technology of other countries”. What is more, he emphasized that “China’s achievements in scientific and technological development, not relying on stealing nor snatching, but the gains of
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working and struggling by wisdom and sweat of the vast number of scientific and technological dedicators” （外交部：希望美方以開放包容， 2019）.
Since 2017, Western countries have frequently accused China of infiltrating the Western value system through sharp power measures. Wang Yi, the State Councilor adjunct Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Communist Party, attended the 2019 New Year reception of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicates that China adheres to the path of peaceful development, never seeks hegemony, and never engages in expansion. He pointed out that China insists on not interfering in other countries’ domestic affairs and persists in building a pattern of international relations of cooperation and win-win. Only in this way can the earth achieve universal and true peace. It is quite a refutation of the allegations against sharp power （在外交部 2019 年新年招待會上的致辭，
2019）.
Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the CCP, published a signed article, titled 「文明 交流互鑑是推動人類文明進步和世界和平發展的重要動力」 [Civilization and Mutual Understanding is an Important Driving Force for the Advancement of Human Civilization and the Peaceful Development of the World] in the organ of the Central Committee Party of China—Qiushi Magazine (求是雜誌) on May, 1, 2019. He emphasized in the article that “we should promote mutual respect and harmonious coexistence among different civilizations, and let civilization exchanges and mutual understanding become a bridge to enhance the friendship between communities, promote advancement of human society, and a bond to maintain world peace”. In conjunction with, he addressed that “all kinds of civilization have their own merits, there is no good and bad distinction. To understand the
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true meaning of various civilizations, we must uphold an attitude of equality and modesty.
Pride and prejudice are the biggest obstacles to the exchange of civilizations. As long as we adhere to the spirit of inclusive, there will be no “clash of civilization”, and we can achieve cultural harmony” （ 習 近 平 ， 2019 ） . In this regard, it seems to have implications on downplaying the accusation of sharp power.
To conclude this section, based on the above information on Chinese side, for a long time, in order to enable the people of the world, especially for democratic countries, to understand the Chinese political system, China has spent a lot of resources to reduce the emotional exclusion of Westerners against China, thus affecting the attitude of Western governments to facilitate the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides to proceed smoothly. However, such “defensive” soft power blueprint is now regarded as “offensive”
tool in the Western community. China believes that such misjudgments will inevitably have a devastating impact on cultural exchanges, as well as the development of mutual trust.
China argued that, if the United States and the West truly understand the essence of Chinese culture, precisely understand China’s development philosophy and goals, and objectively understand China’s contribution to the cause of human peace, project such as Belt and Road Initiatives, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, it should be noted that China is not contributing to “sharp Power” but to new choices and positive energy.
Finally, the successful development of China has proved that there is more than one direction to proceed in the world, and countries can completely follow the path that suits their national conditions, respectively. China’s proposition of building a community with a shared future for mankind, constructing a new pattern of international relations embodies the Chinese wisdom of what kind of approach human being should take in the 21st century.
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Appendix 1 enumerates the news regarding China’s sharp power influences in the targeted countries in terms of the means used and the comments to it. By the way of collecting the released news worldwide, this table can authenticate the argument over China’s ambition to discredit the democracies, also overthrow the Chinese side counterargument on global accusation.
The purpose of Appendix 1 is to reveal the following three things. Firstly, the influence of Chinese sharp power is evidently covered the five continents: America, Oceania, Europe, Africa and Asia. Secondly, the level (aspects) of sharp power perforation includes: political, economic, academic, media, and universal values. Thirdly, China exploits economic incentive (markets) to expand its global influence and to eliminate criticism.
As specified by Walker and Ludwig (2017, p.6), “what we have to date understand as authoritarian ‘soft power’ is better categorized as ‘sharp power’ that pierces, penetrates, or perforates the political and information environments in the targeted countries”. In the other article by the two authors on Foreign Affairs, the definition is also used consistently and more attributes are added on top of it, including how sharp power produces distraction, manipulation, self-censor, suppressing, co-optation, exploit, inoculate, subversion and so forth behavior characteristics. Equivalent description can also be seen in the Economist (Economist, 2017a; 2017b). Furthermore, when the concept of sharp power is based on this definition and repeatedly quoted or discussed by different units (media, scholar, individual…), the concept gradually spawned more negative attributes, including threats, coercion, disinformation, bullying, intimidate and so on. Surprisingly, these reports and articles have the same content as the news collected, which almost coincided with the description of China’s sharp power.
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d means of Chinese development of sharp power. Simultaneously, it is hoped that by straightening out the cases, point out the loophole where the country is threatened by foreign forces, the government can exert its state power to resist further subversion. In society, the mass population should also have a better understanding on national defense, prevent Taiwan from further subversive actions.
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Table 1 Integration of Chinese Sharp Power Behaviors
Political • Snatch diplomatic allies: compressed international space, perish recognition of ROC.
• Agents: bribe politician to issued statement favor China.
• Foreign political donations: outlawing money to influence domestic election.
• Political elites: who seek to attract Chinese money or attain greater recognition may support China even it contradicts national interests.
• Intervene law-making process: to comply with Chinese side of interests (e.g. Hong Kong Extradition Bill).
Economic • Economic dependence: intimidation to publisher or corporation from criticizing China (loss Chinese market).
• Market incentive: use economic power as a weapon to achieve its ends (to export its totalitarian model oversea, “go with us or go home”).
• Policy: hope to attract professionals via high salaries (31 Incentives to Taiwan), may become China’s helper in the future.
Academic • Chinese spy: academic exchange, but collecting information and affect psychological cognition (cultivate Chinese-friendly people).
• Sponsoring think tank: to lead research agenda and discussion (censorship on publication).
• Confucius Institutes: considered as vehicles for CCP propaganda and cover for political activities (e.g. Belt and Road Initiative).
• Penetrate oversea Chinese communities, student association, to gather information.
• Ban dissident scholars: intervening the universities personnel appointment.
Media • Control media: eliminate criticism, shape favorable opinions.
• Mergers/invest newspaper or digital publication: set up English program to lead and shape image.
• Cyber army and content farm: against candidates during election, distribute fake information on social media (e.g. PTT, KKnews).
• Local media: fund/donate/invest/purchase local media to conduct infiltrating activities by disseminate biased information.
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Universal Rights
• Human right: through economic factors (Chinese investment) to influence a country to Veto condemnation for it (e.g.
Greece).
• Detaining foreigner or citizens for Rebellion reason based on their criticism to the CCP or religion (Xinjiang Re-education Camps, Tibet Re-education Camps).
• Religion freedom: influence religion groups to spread the
“patriotic” thinking, and should be leaded and supervised by the government (Bureau of Religious Affairs and United Front Department).
• Unregistered religious groups are constantly subjected to various levels of persecution by authorities, including
intimidation, harassment, and detention (e.g. Falun Gong are regarded as cult).
Source: organized by the author.
Through the collection and collation of the above literatures and news reports, there is a debate presenting here required to be discussed and settled: many countries and elites believe that China’s sharp power is highly critical and needs to be confronted and repelled;
Through the collection and collation of the above literatures and news reports, there is a debate presenting here required to be discussed and settled: many countries and elites believe that China’s sharp power is highly critical and needs to be confronted and repelled;