Soft Power and the Chinese Propaganda System

Abstract Chinese party-state officials now openly speak of the importance of increasing the country's soft power. This raises questions, however, about how the soft power concept relates to the party-state's existing propaganda system. This article investigates how the party-state interprets the soft power concept and how this fits into its broader approach to propaganda work. It argues that the way the party-state has interpreted the concept of soft power conforms to its approach to both foreign and domestic propaganda work. Like foreign propaganda, increasing soft power for the party-state involves improving international communication capabilities and is undertaken with domestic objectives in mind; like domestic propaganda work, policies designed to increase soft power are expected to balance the goal of promoting cultural creativity and variety with the goal of strengthening national cohesion.