(30/60) Eight Ways China is changing the world this month with soft power.
Every month (or in this case Quarter due to a spring break) we highlight 8 Chinese global soft power actions shaping the world. This quarter, your author personally visited the Central Asian/China Summit in Xian, seeing Soft Power in all its aplomb and purpose. This month’s report also focuses on China’s Grand Canal, China’s plans for a crewed moonbase, China’s 5th station in Antarctica, China’s C919 maiden flight, China’s mediation feat between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the yuan’s new users, and the growing free trade framework of RCEP in East Asia.
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.
Second Quarter / Spring 2023
1)Crewed China MoonBase. These soft power reports continue to follow China’s pace of space exploration and its plans with keen interest. This April in Wuhan (the “Optics Valley” as it’s known for its innovation reputation in China), China made another step forward in space exploration targets by compiling plans for a human-occupied moon base. This builds upon the last few years of momentous “Firsts” in human space exploration such as the Chinese mars landing (Tianwen-1 in 2021), landing on the dark side of the moon, the establishment of a Chinese space station (similar to the ISS), and having already returned moonrock from the moon (Chang’e 5). Chang’e 6 will take off in 2025 in 2025 the the Chang’e 6 will bring back moon rock from the southern pole.
Note: Each mission rises in number, from Chang’e 1 through 8… just as the pollo missions had done, or the Soviet Soyuz. “Chang’e” is a Chinese Moon Goddess.
The moon residence will be led by Chang’e 8, and there will be a focus on build bricks on the moon, to then build the stations with indigenous stone. These milestones are seen as an output of Chinese ingenuity and scientific progress, and are a reminder of the cordial scientific competition -and the cooperation — which exists between space agencies and countries. To acknowledge and applaud such soft power developments builds trust and understanding.
2) …from the moon, to the Antarctic. China has renewed its construction of its 5th station in the Antarctic which stopped in 2018. China is one of approximately 30 countries with 80 stations in Antarctica (scientific population ranges 5,000 to 1,000 between summer and winter). These range from Norway (the first explorer to ever reach the south pole was Norwegian Arnundson in 1911) to the old USSR and Belgium the newest three of Pakistan, Ukraine and Belarus (2007). Similar to space exploration. the Antarctic remains a testament to international cooperation, with exploration, with science as a common language and medium for trust building.
3) Honoring thy neighbours: Central Asian Summit. This May in Xi’an, China’s soft power was confirmed with its first hosted summit in years, the C+C5 Central Asia Summit. Five Central Asian countries’ Presidents and their wives (2 of them), met China’s leadership for two days in Xian. Your author visited the Summit to see firsthand of the manner and intent of China’s soft power engagement and to learn of its accompanying results. With the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative in October, this had an aura of BRI implementation and representation well beyond all the field projects these Soft Power reports have visited over the years. The Summit was far beyond political, focusing thoroughly on investments (energy, tech, agriculture, and renewable technology and energy innovative) and academic and cultural reflections, and partnerships. On the streets, Central Asian buzz was palpable in this Eastern starting point of the historical Silk Road. Museums were proud, ready, and well stocked, and taxi drivers were all aware of the Summit the city’s role in history once again. There was plenty of curious discussions in Mandarin about Central Asian countries, a a proud rekindling of China’s role in the history, growth and stability of Central and even Western Asia. There were many modern soviet-legacy products available in shops, markets, and hotels, showing the increasing trade between the region and China, and many shopkeeper speaking mercantilist Russian.
In the Summit and amongst the hundreds of Central Asians living there or accompanying the visit, it was refreshing for them to be so engaged with optimism, and seemingly apolitical applications or connotation. This extended to the local press back in their home countries. The Central Asians have seen firsthand growth of China into their countries over the past 20 years, and this was clearly an affirmation of where this relationship is. Altogether. it reminded of the sheer clarity of relationships when external distractions are not factored in and when soft power is omnipresent.
4) China brokers Iran and Saudi Arabian diplomatic relations. With this highly touted agreement to re-open embassies and relations, China has signaled its acumen as a new actor in mediation, and an a global intermediary. Indeed, this will also serve Chinese energy interests as China has been the top oil importer for both countries and it requires safe passage of such goods, though this goes far beyond that into the diplomatic circles across any region. With this, China has risen to diplomatic broker status as some such as Turkiye, Norway, South Africa, Russia, and others have done. Diplomacy and mediation is a fine tool of international statecraft, yet it is also a key component of a country’s soft power for how it is accepted and trusted. Ne’er is a country capable of diplomacy without soft power in its toolbox, and mediation has just been added to China’s toolbox for the world’s utility.
5) C919 maiden flight: China enters last step of technological soft power. China’s first home-grown airline has made its first commercial flight this May. It flew from Shanghai to Beijing in an emotional journey for many of the 150 passengers who consider this a reflection of Chinese innovation. From a soft power perspective, we consider the aviation industry as the final frontier for Chinese technological soft power reaching the world. In 40 years China has increased up the value chain into western and global markets from plastic household trinkets, to, appliances, to tractors and public machinery, to computers, mobile phones, to electric busses, to luxury electric vehicles, to IT hardware, to sub sea internet cabling, to offshore wind farms, to producing more patents than any other country, to semiconductors, to space exploration, and now, nearly, to aviation. With 1200 orders having been made (all domestic), the next space to watch is when an international order will be placed. Since Boeing’s 737 max disasters, Chinese companies no longer buys Boeing aircraft, creating more space for a new actor on the market.
6) China’s Grand Canal: its importance for ASEAN and China’s commitment to rural development. 3 quick facts about ASEAN: Trade between ASEAN and China is more than between the US and EU Trade. ASEAN is the 4th largest GDP on its own after the US, China, and the EU. ASEAN and China have a free trade framework (more on the RCEP in next point below). With that in mind, let’s consider a Chinese new 10B USD infrastructure megaproject which broke ground this month and which will be completed by 2026.
The Grand Pinglu Canal (see map) will provide a growth to southwest China’s rural development, and a boon to internal sea trade within China, connecting to China’s river networks and reducing burden (and expenses) on the rail and road networks. This engineering feat will dig three times the amount of soil as the three gorges dam and will result in a 135 km long canal. For comparison, the Panama Canal is 80km long and the Suez Canal is 180 km long. The Canal’s port (Qinzhou) has the same amount as traffic — for now- as Egypt’s Port Said, and the US”s 5th busiest port (NW SeaPort). The port will further increase trade and economic relations (ASEAN trade has risen 52% since 2019, compared with 20% increase with the EU). Through economic pacts and growth, Chinese soft power is closer to its shores than most realize.
7) Chinese Free Trade keeps growing: Philippines joins the RCEP. In the East, a goliath free trade agreement continues to grow under the global radar: The RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This June, Philippines joined, after Indonesia joined at the beginning of this year. Since its inception in 2020, it has grown steadily to now include 15 members (ASEAN + Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand). The increase in members signals that since inception it has provided mutual benefits, is being conducted with respect, and there is no one-way benefit as critics assumed years ago. Moreso, as in all business, it shows that there is has been a foundation of trust between these countries to work on which made the agreement worth pursuing.
Indeed, there are benefits to the agreement. For China, imports and exports between China and the other 14 RCEP countries has increased year on year to 580B USD (4 trillion yuan) during the first four months of this year, to a total of 1.8 trillion USD. These 15 countries are home to 2.25 Billion people with a combined GDP of 26 trillion, accounting for 30% of global trade. Under the agreement, more than 90% of trade in goods will be tariff-free. These numbers remind us that there are multi layers of communication between these countries, especially as the RCEP charter includes standards, dispute, resolution, IP, economic and technological cooperation — all areas which are far more than just economic, they are the foundation of building understanding and cashing in that trust dividend.
8) Yuan’s steady reach: from Argentina to Bangladesh. Argentina and China have agreed this month. Argentina are a significant importer and exporter with China, and have agreed to that all trade will be made in Chinese Yuan. Argentina has bene using USD for trade for years due to instability of their peso, Shifting from the USD signals the confidence in the Chinese yuan.
Other countries have grown their use of yuan in their trade dramatically. In Russia, for example, the yuan surpasses the USD as the most traded foreign currency on the Moscow exchange. In Saudi Arabia, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas exchange platform will be using yuan to settle oil and gas trading. Brazil have gained access to China’s version of SWIFT this April. Iraq , Thailand, and others are also increasing such agreements focused on specific commodities, such as CNOOC and France TotalEnergies who completed their first yuan-denominated purchased of LNG.
These agreements resonate beyond bilateral relations: For example, also this quarter, Bangladesh and Russia have agreed to use the Chinese Yuan as their trade currency, and also Pakistan is using yuan to buy Russian oil. The rising prevalence of yuan (still less than 3% in global trade) is far more present in the developing world and emerging economies, yet as trade increases, it will reach markets, and then increasingly into the general public.
