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Media Report
January 09 , 2018
  • The Wall Street Journal：China's Strategy to Psych Out the West Is Paying Off
    The Wall Street Journal reports: "To those it seeks to influence, the Chinese Communist Party can be an intimidating presence. The China scholar Perry Link once called the party 'the anaconda in the chandelier.' Just by hovering, it induces self-censorship and subtle behavioral changes. This has long been the case within China. Increasingly, as China projects outward, prominent figures in the West—politicians, executives, academics—are making nervous adjustments, too. David Cameron should know. The former British prime minister faced the party's reproach after meeting the Dalai Lama in 2012, then spent the rest of his term straining to get back into its good graces, including declaring a 'Golden Era' in U.K. relations with Beijing. Put this down as another win for the party's psychological pressure tactics. The mere fear of retaliation suggested by Chinese displeasure was enough to trigger a shift in government attitudes. No British leader is likely to receive the Tibetan spiritual leader again. London has adopted a more deferential—critics would say sycophantic—diplomatic tone toward Beijing. Officials soft-pedal human rights. And now Mr. Cameron has re-emerged from the aftermath of the Brexit vote as an ambassador for China's flagship Belt-and-Road geopolitical project. Dealing with the party's coercive influence techniques is likely to become the greatest single challenge to Western-style democracies."
  • Bloomberg：Oil Burning on Tanker Off China Could Curb Sea-Spill Fallout
    Bloomberg reports: "The fire engulfing an Iranian tanker off China is being fueled by the oil on board, a scenario seen reducing the amount of supply that may spill into the sea and cause widespread environmental damage. The Sanchi was ferrying 1 million barrels of condensate -- a highly flammable hydrocarbon liquid that's used in petrochemical production -- when it collided with a Chinese cargo carrier on Saturday, leaving the Iranian vessel's 32 crew members missing or dead. The tanker is still ablaze and its cargo is what's keeping it burning, according to South Korea's Coast Guard, which is involved in search and rescue operations... Condensate is more flammable than crude oil or fuel, and a portion of it will be burnt off rather than spilled into the sea, a Korean Coast Guard official said on Tuesday, adding that it's watching for any possible environmental damage."
  • The Strategist：China's Soft and Sharp Power
    The Strategist comments: "China has invested billions of dollars to increase its soft power, but it has recently suffered a backlash in democratic countries. A new report by the National Endowment for Democracy argues that we need to re-think soft power, because 'the conceptual vocabulary that has been used since the Cold War's end no longer seems adequate to the contemporary situation'. The report describes the new authoritarian influences being felt around the world as 'sharp power'. A recent cover article in The Economist defines 'sharp power' by its reliance on 'subversion, bullying and pressure, which combine to promote self-censorship'. Whereas soft power harnesses the allure of culture and values to augment a country's strength, sharp power helps authoritarian regimes compel behavior at home and manipulate opinion abroad. The term 'soft power'—the ability to affect others by attraction and persuasion rather than the hard power of coercion and payment—is sometimes used to describe any exercise of power that does not involve the use of force. But that is a mistake. Power sometimes depends on whose army or economy wins, but it can also depend on whose story wins. A strong narrative is a source of power. China's economic success has generated both hard and soft power, but within limits. A Chinese economic aid package under the Belt and Road Initiative may appear benign and attractive, but not if the terms turn sour, as was recently the case in a Sri Lankan port project. Likewise, other exercises of economic hard power undercut the soft power of China's narrative. For example, China punished Norway for awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. It also threatened to restrict access to the Chinese market for an Australian publisher of a book critical of China. If we use the term sharp power as shorthand for information warfare, the contrast with soft power becomes plain. Sharp power is a type of hard power. It manipulates information, which is intangible, but intangibility is not the distinguishing characteristic of soft power."
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