Journal of Australia-China Affairs 2014

RIMPAC 2014: China’s Enhanced Military Soft PowerSheldon Zhao Sheldon Zhao is currently in her second year at the Australian National University, studying towards a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies and Bachelor of Computer Science. Xiaodong is very interested in world politics and even tried to enlist for the Chinese army. She has various leadership positions on campus and is the receipent of the ANU National Merit Scholarship and Chancellor’s Letters of Commendation. Translated into English from the original Chinese by Fount Zhu. Introduction While China and the US were disputing cyber-­‐security and the East China Sea in June 2014, China, a member of the Pacific Rim family, was unprecedentedly invited to join the RIMPAC 2014 military exercises hosted by the US Pacific Fleet, the largest international maritime military exercise in the world. Through this, China not only showed the world that it would join such an exchange, but also developed its navy’s soft power and international image. The Concept and Meanings of Military Soft Power In the late 1980s, the American scholar Joseph Nye proposed the term ‘soft power’, a co-­optive power that influences, lures and persuades others to accept or support your actions. It helps a nation incur fewer costs to pursue desired outcomes than conventional ‘carrot and stick’ hard power approaches. 1 This power is increasingly important in today’s world. Some nations are gradually relying more upon on soft power to lead affairs, to affect international politics and ultimately to consolidate their international positions and influence. Although China has been slow to consider soft power’s application to the military, Chinese academic Huang Jianguo opines, “Military soft power can be regarded as a capability that effectively transfers goods and human resources to fighting capability, and that influences and shapes other nations via non-­‐coercive approaches; different from military hard power, this power indirectly shocks and attacks opponents.” 2 Nowadays, countries are evermore interdependent and the cost of wars keeps rising; in such circumstance, it is important to skilfully and effectively use military soft power to take the initiative, before military combat, to safeguard national interests. The following three factors explain why China must enhance its military soft power. First, building and enhancing military soft power is a requirement of the times. Scholar Wang Hongwei believes, “the approach that military soft power uses to protect the national interest is so unique that it cannot be replaced by hard power”. 3 Great changes and great readjustments are happening in the world. Different and complex conflicts fill the international stage, most of them involving non-­‐confrontational disputes, and to which the 1 Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs, 2004. 2 Jianguo Huang, ‘Preliminary Study of Military Soft Power’, Journal of the PLA National Defence University (Studies of Strategic Issues), no. 7, 2004, pp. 22-­‐24. 3 Hongwei Wang, ‘On Military Soft Power and Chinese Military Affairs and Diplomacy’, Gansu Social Sciences, no. 2, 2009. 136 JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIA-­‐CHINA AFFAIRS