China's Public Diplomacy for International Public Goods

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, the question of how to balance national and global interests has been one of the important considerations in China's grand strategy. Since 2012, China's top leaders have argued that China should provide international public goods (IPGs) and pay more attention to public diplomacy as a new model of big power diplomacy. Nevertheless, based on an examination of the recent literature, this article finds that most of the discussions highlight China's responsibility to provide IPGs rather than the motivations behind it. To obtain an accurate understanding of the real strategic motivations behind China's IPG public diplomacy, a necessary methodological innovation from normative to empirical studies should be undertaken. Drawing on case studies relevant to the topic, this article concludes that power advantage, institutional, and social ecological factors play determinative roles in understanding the motivations behind China's new IPG public diplomacy. Further, IPGs are regarded as core to China's new public diplomacy for global leadership in the foreseeable future. Within the context of emerging antiglobalization movements around the world, China's public diplomacy for IPGs aims to drive the nation further along the track of global leadership alongside the United States.