China’s success in growing a powerhouse economy and sharing those gains with the underdeveloped nations of the world sounds like a story the world would get behind - except China is being met with derision and skepticism across the globe. What does China need to do to change its image among the world’s existing powers?

The crisis in Ukraine has arrested the world’s attention, especially in regards to relations with Russia. In the U.S. this has revealed a multitude of opinions about America’s threats and enemies abroad from other global powers such as China.

China’s image abroad is a pressing concern for its senior leadership. If they hope to expand their international influence, Chinese officials must accept criticisms of their actions or risk alienating societies who share differing values.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced his wish for China to take on a softer approach to the world surrounding it. That means dialling back their rhetoric and picking their non-negotiable issues wisely.

In a world in flux, it's important for China to navigate creatively. It must keep the global picture in mind, in a bid to make new progress in its foreign policy as America declines.

China’s soft power offensive in Africa has enabled it to make gains that have largely eluded it in the developed world, but it cannot be considered soft power in the traditional sense.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has shown little interest in public diplomacy. And yet public diplomacy – a government’s efforts to communicate directly with other countries’ publics – is one of the key instruments policymakers use to generate soft power, and the current information revolution makes such instruments more important than ever.

The evidence is clear. Donald Trump’s presidency has eroded America’s soft power. Only 30% of people recently polled by Gallup in 134 countries held a favorable view of the United States under Trump’s leadership, a drop of almost 20 points since Barack Obama’s presidency.

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.”