China's Soft Power: Challenges of Confucianism and Confucius Institutes

Abstract

Abstract China's government considers soft power an important element in cultivating a better image of China. This article examines how recently revived Confucianism and Confucius Institutes serve as tools of the Chinese government's soft power and foreign policy goals. The aim is to highlight some of the major challenges for China's soft power, particularly within politically driven Confucianism and Confucian Institutes. The question is to what extent Confucianism and Confucius Institutes are intertwined with traditional Chinese culture as part of China's soft power “to win minds and hearts” in China's global reach, thus helping China to reach its foreign policy goals. The answer to this question is grounded in the theoretical framework. The central concept is soft power driven from international relations theory. Management and organization theories are applied to analyse the performance of the case study institute in Finland whereas critical theory combines the input and the outcome to demonstrate the challenges for Confucius Institutes. The chosen methodology is the qualitative method with a single case study to demonstrate that China's soft power, culture, values and policies face huge challenges to becoming attractive. The conclusion is that government driven Confucianism and Confucius Institutes seem not to be as powerful ingredients in soft power as the Chinese Communist Party intended.