著者

張 雪斌

出版者

一般財団法人 アジア政経学会

雑誌

アジア研究 (ISSN:00449237)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.61, no.3, pp.18-37, 2015-07-31 (Released:2015-08-11)

参考文献数

86

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After the end of the Cold War, many countries reviewed and reconsidered their public diplomacy (PD), recognizing the increasing importance of engagement with foreign nations and international opinion. With the rapid rise of China, public diplomacy (gonggong waijiao) became a very important concept in China’s national strategy and foreign policy during earlier periods of the 21st century. Recently, scholars within and outside China are paying attention to the purpose and features of China’s PD, due to the expanding presence of China’s PD and its soft power. However, questions such as “what are the factors that drive China to pursue PD?” or “how have the concept of China’s PD changed?” remain unanswered.
This article analyzed the discourses of Chinese political elites and foreign policy experts through the perspectives of realism, constructivism, and neo-classical realism. As many scholars have mentioned, PD has been recognized as an important asset to enhance soft power and influence for China in the competition with “rivals” such as the US and Japan. The concept of PD, however, did not exist in official documents nor foreign strategy discourses until the early 2000s. This suggests that the appearance and development of China’s PD cannot be described only in the context of balance of power. It is also difficult to explain the developments of China’s PD as a process of complex learning through the view of constructivism. It is clear that Chinese political elites and foreign policy experts are learning about PD and even the concept of “new PD” developed in developed countries, which emphasizes that the role and autonomy of non-governmental actors are essential to the effectiveness and credibility of PD in the era of globalization, and they already have full understanding of the implications of PD from the discourses outside China. Chinese political elites and foreign policy experts, however, refrain from allowing the autonomy of non-governmental actors despite their important role in China’s current PD. Therefore, the process of change in China’s concept of PD should be explained as “simple learning” rather than “complex learning.” This article argues that the view of neo-classical realism is the most effective to comprehend China’s PD. Chinese elites’ perceptions of the international and domestic environment are the essential factor that has changed the concept of China’s PD.