Xi Jinping regularly exhorts Chinaâs diplomats, propagandists, journalists, writers, filmmakers, and cultural figures to âtell Chinaâs story well.âThe slogan flows naturally from the operating assumptions of Party state strategists: in their telling, a central pillar of any nationâs âcomprehensive national powerâ (çťźĺĺ˝ĺ) is what these Chinese have labeled âdiscourse powerâ (čŻčŻć).
Discourse power is the ability to mold the assumptions, conceptions, and values of foreign princes and peoples. The concept sits midway between Beltway talk of âsoft powerâ and the sort of influence leftists describe with the phrase âcultural hegemony.â Discourse mirrors the instrumentalism of the first termâdiscourse power is not just a set of static social relationships or societal norms, but a tool to be wieldedâbut is far less associated with happy-go-lucky rhetoric about admiration, emulation, and attraction so closely bound up in American conceptions of soft power.
Triumphant victors of the Cold War would conceptualize the issue in such terms: Â the victors of any given cultural conflict always believe they have won through the wide appeal of their vision and the free choice of those attracted to it.
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