The Resistance and Resilience of National Image Building
An Empirical Analysis of Confucius Institute Closures in the USA
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12907234 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yue Hu (0000-0002-2829-3971, Tsinghua University), Yufei Sun (0000-0002-3554-8784, Tsinghua University, corresponding author), Duncan Lien (0000-0002-0659-2831, The University of Texas at San Antonio), Donald Lien (Richard S. Liu Distinguished Chair, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio , San Antonio, Texas, USA) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 209-226 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-17 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Chinese Journal of International Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1750-8916 • E-ISSN: 1750-8924 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/cjip/poac010 |
| OpenAlex | W4285250544 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
National image building (NIB) has become a critical strategy in public diplomacy. Extending the existing sender-focused literature on NIB, this study takes the receiver side into account. Our focus on the Confucius Institute (CI), China’s critical NIB effort in the USA, examines how a powerful receiver’s resistance affects the sender’s image locally. Based on an extensive data set of American CIs, we also pinpoint exactly who in the receiver country motivates the resistance to China’s NIB endeavours. The analytic results show that CI closures may indeed have diminished local US media attention to China, but empirical evidence nevertheless proves the resilience of China’s NIB—one whose ethos lingers even in places where institutes have been closed down. As to the motivators of NIB resistance, American colleges have called for a certain level of autonomy in regard to deciding the fate of CIs, and the government undoubtedly has influence on the issue, largely through public school decisions
Autonomy · China · Communication source · Diplomacy · Ethos · Government (linguistics · Political science · Psychological resilience · Public relations · Resilience (materials science · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Engineering · International Business and FDI · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Psychology · Law · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |