Has the 2008 Beijing Olympics Expanded China's Soft Power?

China Rising

Has the 2008 Beijing Olympics expanded China's soft power?

Synopsis

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games presented China with a unique opportunity to improve its traditionally, tarnished, negative international image and to significantly expand its soft power. However, despite some major successes, such as its high medals tally and a widespread recognition of the success of the Games, this essay argues that, on balance, the actions and decisions of China's leaders on issues such as human rights, environmental problems and its international political role undermined Chinese ambitions and attempts to expand its soft power influence.

Introduction

China quite clearly set out to use the 2008 Olympic Games to showcase itself to the world in an entirely different, more humane light. Rebuffed in its attempts to host the 2004 games, Chinese leaders strongly pursued the 2008 Games in its quest to enhance its image, gain prestige and, most importantly, advance its soft power in world politics. Power has been defined by Nye as "the ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes you want" . He suggests three main avenues to achieve this outcome: "threats of coercion (sticks); inducements or payments (carrots); and attraction that make others want what you want" . This third way is known as soft power: a country may achieve the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries want to follow it and emulate its example or because they admire its values or aspire to its level of prosperity and openness. Nye argues that "Chinese strategic thinking has long included ideas similar or equivalent to the concept of soft power, but in previous decades, the soft dimension of the Chinese power was seriously neglected" . In recent years, however, China has adopted this soft power concept from the United States, and it has become a source of inspiration in China's progress toward becoming a real global player.

This essay examines China's use of soft power in the context of the Olympic Games. It outlines Chinese successes at the Games, particularly athletic prowess and administrative efficiency. However, it argues that a host of issues, including human rights matters, its role in Tibet and in Sudan, the lack of freedom of the press and particularly its control of the internet severely detracted from the hoped-for increase in its soft power. In short, China's attempt to use the Beijing Olympics to strategically increase its soft power was not, on balance, successful.

Successes of Soft Power

Several authors contend that the games were a true manifestation of the global win-win spirit of the Olympics and thus a major success for China . The world-class facilities in Beijing and elsewhere