Exporting an economic model
Dan makes some important points, as he does in his review of my book. The term "soft power" has perhaps gotten too confused at this point,which is why, in the book, I try to define my own use of it as broader than Nye's. However, I think Dan overlooks an important aspect of China's rise that perhaps differentiates it from South Korea or Singapore. Indeed, in some respects China's own economic reforms are similar to those pursued in other Asian high-growth economies. But none of the other countries in any way attempted to promote their reforms to other nations, and their relatively small size meant that they did not command the tools to promote their reforms.
Now, as I mentioned, I'm still unsure whether China wants to export an ideological model, but I think there are clear signs that it is at least implicitly touting its model and its success. Singapore and South Korea did not train thousands of African officials, or create programs to take opinion leaders from Southeast Asian nations to their countries for junkets. In other words, China clearly has the potential to wield the tools of exporting its model.
Singapore and South Korea did not train thousands of African officials, or create programs to take opinion leaders from Southeast Asian nations to their countries for junkets.
In the case of Singapore, I don't think this is true. Vietnamese officials have been visiting Singapore on study trips very regularly for the past decade, and those visits have intensified recently. I'm not sure who foots the bill for the trips, but they are very clearly part of Singapore's efforts to solidify its influence in Vietnam for commercial and strategic purposes. And Lee Kuan Yew was hardly reticent in the 1990s about his desire to export a "Singapore model". However, Singapore's ability to export such a model is obviously sharply limited by its size. (Though, on the other hand, one might argue the opposite: Vietnam in particular has been eager to assimilate Singaporean lessons precisely because, unlike the Chinese colossus, the country is in no sense a threat. President Nguyen Minh Triet, when he was Party head of Binh Duong province and later of Ho Chi Minh City, was a particularly assiduous devotee of the Singapore model, and HCMC's economic success owes a lot to that influence.)
Accumulating Peripherals
June 26, 2007 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink