Has Beijing Started to Bare Its Teeth? China’s Tapping of Soft Power Revisited

This study addresses the issue of the effectiveness of China’s soft power. Focusing on China’s management of soft power over the past five years, the article distinguishes between the strategic and tactical levels to measure soft-power efficacy, with the strategic level judged to be more successful. Overall, China’s policy has well served the interests of it and the world. As long as China perceives that the benefits of peaceful integration with the international system outweigh the risks and costs of revisionist behavior, it will hold on to its policy of tapping soft power and continue on the course of a peaceful rise.