Fragmented Soft Power

Bureaucratic Politics and China’s Foreign Aid in Education to Africa

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12422844
AutoresWei Ye (0000-0001-7484-0609, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen32
Número142
Páginas635-651
Fecha de publicación2022-08-05
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Contemporary China (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1067-0564 • E-ISSN: 1469-9400
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10670564.2022.2109813
OpenAlexW4289939406
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6

Whilst China’s increasing foreign aid in education to Africa, its soft power remains insufficient. ‘Telling China’s story well’ attributes the lack of soft power to inadequate communication. This article argues that the ‘story’ rather than ‘telling’ matters. It reveals that the education-for-economic development paradigm adopted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education’s reluctance toward Africa jointly shape China’s ineffective practice in the international discourse. Institutional changes since 2018 can hardly alter this bureaucratic divide as the imbalanced capacity of China’s economy and education remains. This article contributes to bureaucratic politics in foreign policymaking by identifying ministerial influences subject to their relevance to foreign policy rather than their occupancy of resources in the issue area

Bureaucracy · China · Christian ministry · Economic growth · Economic system · Economics · Foreign policy · Hard power · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Relevance (law · Sociology · Soft power · Subject (documents · China's Global Influence and Migration · International Development and Aid · Law · Public Administration