Peking University, May 3, 2012: Upon the invitation by School of Marxism and Research Center for Chinese Culture, Peking University (PKU), Professor Joseph Nye from Harvard University paid a visit to PKU and delivered a lecture on the rise of Chinese soft power at Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center on April 24, 2012.

Prof. Joseph Nye

As the first scholar to develop the terminology and illustrate the concept of “soft power”, Joseph Nye had been served the Assistant Secretary of State in Carter’s administration, as well as the President of National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Assistant Secretary of Defense in Clinton’s Administration, now he is a professor of Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

“PKU is a very famous university, and we often refer to PKU as Harvard in China”, Professor Nye said at the beginning of the lecture and expressed his pleasure to be invited to PKU.

The concept of soft power was first developed by Professor Nye in his book Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power in 1990. Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes that people want, which could be done in three ways: coercion, payment and attraction. He realized that the conventional methods, such as economic and military resources, could explain coercion or payment, but not attraction and persuasion, which made him to develop the concept.

The usage of soft power, for good or bad purposes, has a long history even if the terminology of soft power is quite new. Professor Nye admitted that Chinese culture has a good understanding of soft power and gave an example of Lao Tzu. He then introduced the resources of soft power, culture, values and diplomatic policies. These are the key factors that translate soft power into attraction.

Professor Nye talked about Chinese soft power in detail. In the past decades, China published over a hundred articles on soft power and the term appeared on Chinese official language as well. He also pointed out that China has important resources, Chinese traditional values for example, for generating soft power. “China doesn’t export its values, but others come to see them”, he cited Henry Kissinger’s words. In recent year, China has tried different ways to enhance Chinese soft power by setting up over several hundreds of Confucius Institutes all over the world to teach Chinese culture and broadcasting or 24-hour cable news externally. Moreover, China adjusted the diplomacy to increase its attraction to neighbors.

“There are aspects of our relationship which involve competition and there are aspects which involve cooperation, but in the long run, we are going to have much more to gain from cooperation”, Professor Nye welcomed the rise of Chinese soft power in U.S. and he believed that if Americans have a better understanding and attraction to China, there is less likely that the competition will lead both countries into conflict.

How China and U.S. cooperate in soft power? “The Universities and colleges will play a more and more important role in terms of soft power development in the next decades and centuries”, Professor Zhu Shanlu, Chairman of PKU Council, said on his earlier meeting with Professor Joseph Nye. Professor Nye shared the same view. He thought that universities are leading opportunities to develop the soft power and good relation between universities is a very important part of soft power.

“If Chinese soft power grows in U.S., and American’s soft power grows in China, that can be a win-win situation”.

Joseph Nye’s speech triggered great interest among the audience. In the following Q&A session, they raised a lot of sharp questions on the issues related to soft power and Professor Nye answered them one by one.

Background Info:

Joseph Nye was born in 1937. In 1964, Joseph Nye got his doctoral degree in political studies at Harvard University. He was the Assistant Secretary of State in Jimmy Carter’s presidency, as well as the President of National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Assistant Minister of National Defense in William Clinton’s presidency. Then he went back to Harvard University again, and was dean of Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Now he is a professor of the school. Joseph Nye is the first person to illustrate the concept “soft power”. Recently his new concept “smart power” has become an important part of President Obama’s diplomatic policy.

Reported by: Gao Hongfei

Edited by: Zhang Jiang