Fragmented Soft Power: Bureaucratic Politics and China’s Foreign Aid in Education to Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Whilst China’s increasing foreign aid in education to Africa, its soft power remains insufficient. ‘Telling China’s story well’ attributes the lack of soft power to inadequate communication. This article argues that the ‘story’ rather than ‘telling’ matters. It reveals that the education-for-economic development paradigm adopted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education’s reluctance toward Africa jointly shape China’s ineffective practice in the international discourse. Institutional changes since 2018 can hardly alter this bureaucratic divide as the imbalanced capacity of China’s economy and education remains. This article contributes to bureaucratic politics in foreign policymaking by identifying ministerial influences subject to their relevance to foreign policy rather than their occupancy of resources in the issue area.