(24/60) Eight Ways China is Shaping the World this Month using Soft Power (Dec. ‘22)
Every month we highlight 8 Chinese global soft power actions of the past month. This month, we look at China’s infrastructure and media focus on Western Asia (Middle East), Chinese cinema and Michelle Yeoh, China’s top soft power partners, Xinjiang tourism and trade, China’s convening role in biodiversity, China’s carbon strategy (“30–60"), and some South-South trade relief.
Previous Reports: https://china2025.medium.com/
These reports run through China’s current 5 year plan (until 2025), and are intended to: i) Capture the acceleration of a more multipolar world. ii) Show the importance of soft power in China’s growth overseas. iii) Strengthen East-West and South-South understanding.
This is based on tertiary sources and in-country local accounts.
Dec 2022
1) Enabling more South-South trade. This month, China continued its positive engagement with the global south by confirming Zero Tariffs to 10 countries: Afghanistan and 9 in Africa (Benin; Burkina Faso; Guinea-Bissau; Lesotho; Malawi; Sao Tome, Principe; Tanzania; Uganda and Zambia). This includes zero tariffs on 98% of taxable products. Speaking with former colleagues currently in Afghanistan, small to medium enterprise optimism remains as this news trickles down for land trade through Uzbekistan and Pakistan (Wakhan is still not logistically and air is not economically viable for most items).
2) China’s convening role in climate change and biodiversity. This month was the ‘COP 15’ in Montreal focusing on Biodiversity, which is similar to the far more publicized COP 27/28 (which focuses on climate change). China’s relevance and convening power to this area is twofold: 1) Biodiversity primarily affects the developing countries and in this session in Montreal, China emerged once again as the representative voice of the developing world in several sessions. Secondly, China spearheaded a declaration called Kunming Declaration (named after the city in China’s Yunnan province) which the UN Development Program’s Chief called the the ‘First Step’’, where “Global Biodiversity framework is the exclamation mark to raise the level of ambition”. China’s role in climate change is paramount to a more environmentally-responsible world, and these are additional signs along with i) Chinese companies and China’s regulatory functions focus on ESG (Environment, Social, Governance); ii)China’s strategy to achieve “Carbon Peak by 2030”, iii) China’s overall carbon ambition which the Chinese refer to as “san ling liu ling” (30-60) which means carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
3) China’s engagement with the Gulf / aka: “Western Asia”. This month, China’s President made a historic visit for 4 days to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the first bilateral visit since covid (the President had also been to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan re: SCO meeting). Three events occurred during the visit. First was the wider regional China-GCC Summit. Second was a commitment between the country’s leaders. And third, was the first ever China and Arab States Summit (which represent interest of most of the Arab world). The timing is significant as Saudi implements its impressive “Saudi Vision 2030” including including hardware, renewable energy transition technology (jey focus on hydrogen), and smart city solutions —expertise which China can provide under BRI. This visit builds upon last month’s announcement of a joint venture between KSA’s Sovereign Wealth Fund and China’s FoxConn to build the Middle East’s first electric car IN Saudi Arabic (call the Ceer) and paves the way for several inevitable examples of positive partnerships ahead.
4) Egyptian engagement as well: Building upon China’s increased engagement with the Western Asia (Middle East) region, is the growing engagement with Egypt. China is building the ‘heart’ of the new Administrative Capital to be called the Central Business district (“CBD”). The idea of this is for Egypt to continue its historic positioning as the connector between Africa and the Middle East, which now includes the largest subsea internet cabling in Africa. The district consists of 4 hotels, 10 biz towers, including the Chinese-built (by CSEC ) 360 meters-high tallest building in Africa. The CBD is heralded as the most highly valued (Belt and Road) project in the world and is highly innovative with climate control, high pressure water pumps, desalination, renewable energy. China continues to contribute to developing more smart cities — and technology transfer between the countries and many of its companies, just as Egypt’s president has just returned from his 6th visit to China.
5) China-Arab Media Cooperation: This month China and several Arab countries have establisheda media cooperation Forum, including Algeria, Palestine, Sudan and others. This will highlight individual stories of people in each in each country.
6) Xinjiang Tourism and Trade. Trade from Xinjiang has increased over 60% this month from January to approximately 27 B USD as it remains a key gateway to Europe through Central Asia. Also, tourism continues to boom with nearly 200m domestic tourists visiting the region this year, culminating in the 20th Urumqi Silk Road Ice and Snow Festival, showcasing how Xinjiang has the bets snow resources in the country. The facebook page @explore Xinjiang is worth viewing for travelers.
7) Chinese cinema: Honk Kong actress Michelle Yeoh has been nominated for various awards for her role in the film Everything Everywhere all at Once, and has made the cover of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Being from Malaysia, and having acted in many Chinese wuxia films, this is a boon for Asian cinema, and of course Hong Kong. She actually only learned Cantonese and mandarin in her 30s and 40s, saying it was her “greatest regret” to not learn it earlier (telling Vanity Fair in 2022). Chinese cinema continues to grow overseas withe Chinese epic The Wandering Earth 2 also opening in South African cinemas shortly. Domestically, China has opened its market to the marvel series once again after a 3 year hiatus, and this month Avatar 2 was released in China showing Chinese cinemas increasing engagement with Western cinema once again.
8) A survey of China’s top global partners and soft power reflection: A study was produced this month focusing on China’s potential influence by DoubleThink Labs. This is a fascinating study looking if viewed from a soft power perspective in terms of the strength and length of their partnerships and reciprocal engagement. Among other areas, it included cultural links, economic ties, media, world-higher education and 5 other areas. For South Asia, the top position is Pakistan; in South East Asia Cambodia and Singapore are top, along with Thailand and Philippines and Malaysia. In Africa it’s South Africa, while in Europe it’s Germany. In Central Asia it is Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (which we reported on at length in Report #16 with first hand accounts).
