ENGLISH EDITION OF THE WEEKLY CHINESE NEWSPAPER, IN-DEPTH AND INDEPENDENT
site: HOME > > Economic > Opinion
How to Improve China's International Image
Summary:

Observer, page 51, issue 458, Mar 1, 2010
Interview and Chinese translation by Liu Bo
[Chinese]


An interview with French academic and former diplomat Lionel Vairon.

This is the original text of the interview, a translation of the interview first appeared in the print edition of The Economic Observer on Mar 1, 2010. The text has been edited for clarity. 

Economic Observer: From your observation, how is China perceived in the western public? How do you view the change of China's image in the west over the last decade?

Lionel Vairon: China used to have until the last decade a quite good image in the West, maybe particularly in Europe, due to the image Europeans had of an ancient and prestigious civilization on one hand, and to the shift from Maoism to such successful economic reforms during more than 20 years. During the last decade, this image has started to change under the pressure of two major factors: on one side, Western economies have met a series of difficulties, challenges, setbacks which has caused unemployment, precarity, frustration and a form of jealousy from ordinary people, reinforced by the dominant medias' lack of objectivity towards China, more specifically in Europe. When the situation worsens economically and socially, people can easily turn against some scapegoats, like immigrants today in Europe or China. The second reason is that China is slowly becoming more assertive in her foreign policy, with sometime threatening tones against Westerners, which are causing a growing fear that China is aiming at becoming a superpower willing to impose her views on others, like Westerners did over the past four centuries.

EO: How do you view the role of the western media in forming China's image in the west?

LV: The media has an overwhelming responsibility in the growing misunderstandings between Western public opinions and China because they are simplifying issues, stressing only the dark side of China's policies, drawing caricatures about China which remains a broadly unknown country despite tourism, cultural and other exchanges.

EO: If China wants to improve its image in the west, what should it do?

LV: I strongly believe that there are several vital things to do for China in order to improve her image not only in the West but in developing countries as well. First of all, and I've already underlined this issue many times, is changing the way it communicates, to adapt this communication to what Westerners and others cultures can apprehend and understand. The policy of communication is essential. Some people in China told me there is no reason for China to adapt herself to the external world because the others will adapt themselves to China. This is I believe a huge mistake. Whether we like it or not, we need to be realist and acknowledge the fact that Western culture has been dominating for centuries, and communication is still nowadays based on Western concepts. Either China adapts her communication in order to improve peacefully her image and make it possible to be understood in her policy and strategies and to explain the world as she would like to see it, either she doesn't care about being understood and while the world will remain westernized we will progressively move towards a major conflict between her and others, and this will be a lost game for all parties.

EO: Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the Beijing consensus vs. the Washington consensus, what is your view on this issue?

LV: I strongly believe China can bring a lot of new concepts to the international community in all fields, and developing countries are looking with great interest to what is going on there. But centuries of western domination has left deep influence on mentalities and people in developing countries, even where they have fought against colonization; still remain more familiar with European or American culture than with Chinese one. I think the Washington consensus is dead but the Beijing consensus is only at the foetal stage.

EO: China’s economic power is growing, but on other aspects, it is not doing very well. In order to be a real global power, what should China do in political and cultural areas?

LV: My point of view is that being a real global power doesn't rely on economy, technology or mere hard power, the most important factor is imagination, influence on imagination, making people dream. The USA have been particularly successful since 1945 in this respect, due to the image they project abroad through cinema, written and audiovisual propaganda. This soft power is the most efficient one. For the time being, China has an extremely limited soft power based on her economic development, but this soft power is influencing governments, decision-makers, for instance in her immediate periphery, but in no way it influences public opinions, ordinary people, the youth of other countries. This is due to several reasons: media campaigns against China, lack of communication skills from China’s side, lack of work on the Chinese side on the idea of a model, not only economically but socially and politically as well. A global power cannot be a threatening power. If you consider the USA, they are of course invading countries, threatening others, using force whenever necessary, but still ordinary people from these “enemies” of them are dreaming about America, about the American way of life, about the movies and cars, about a certain freedom of expression etc. They are controlled by images, which just give them a very limited vision of what is really America, but this is enough. China seems sometime to believe that she will become a global power through imposing her views to other governments, this is not the point, the target should be people, but this needs the identification of a model, a model that would combine economic development, a way of life and the respect of basic rights, this is the only territory on which she could compete on a long term base with the US.

EO: The U.S. hegemony has much to do with the influence of its values. Compared with the U.S., influence of Chinese values in the world is weak. In order to change this situation, what should China do?

LV: It brings us back to previous point. What are Chinese values? On one hand, we cannot accept the total human-rightist conception of western powers which more than often just hide basic mercantile interests or power games, but there are some basic human rights concerns that remain important for all human beings and need to be addressed, they are related to corruption of officials, right to fair justice, some basic rights that are still in trouble in China despite obvious efforts from central authorities. I believe in essential values that have been forgotten in our western societies, like respect for elders, man-to-man solidarity, work as a social value etc., and China still keep such values and must not change, but China needs also to improve the situation in the field of justice for people in order to emerge as a model in term of values as well. US culture – not values – is strong since the 2nd world war thanks to one major vector: the cinema. China is still too weak in this field.

Lionel Vairon has a PhD in Vietnamese studies and has also received degrees in Chinese studies and political science. After working as a journalist and diplomat in South-east Asia and in Iraq, he's now professor in the Vietnamese Studies department of the French National Institute for Oriental Studies (INALCO). He is also a lecturer at the IHEDN (Institute of Higher National Defence Studies) and at the CID (Collège Interarmées de Défense).

He has published numerous academic articles related to the Chinese diaspora and Indochinese communist movements.  

Related Stories

0 comments

Comments(The views posted belong to the commentator, not representative of the EO)

username: Quick log-in

EO Digital Products

Multimedia & Interactive