Chinese Overseas and China's Soft Power:Roles,Mechanism and Policy Recommendations

A spate of studies on China's soft power have been published over the past decade. Nevertheless,none of them has ever systematically addressed this topic from the perspective of Overseas Chinese affairs or related it to Chinese Overseas. This article examines the roles played,the influence mechanism created,as well as the challenges faced by the Chinese Overseas in the formation and development of China's soft power. A number of unique roles played by the Chinese Overseas are listed in the article,such as the dissemination of Chinese culture,conducting people-to-people diplomacy,propagating current situation and development in China,understanding,supporting and explaining China's policies and diplomatic actions. As for the influence mechanism,the authors believe that it is concerned with individual behavior or personal relations of Chinese Overseas,and the role played by ethnic Chinese media,Chinese education overseas and Chinese voluntary associations. The authors argue that different identities of Chinese Overseas may have different impacts on China's soft power. In the conclusion,the authors proposed a number of policy recommendations in order to better deal with current Overseas Chinese affairs.