Most populous nation generator#
Most populous nation series#

The most powerful soft power generators in China’s neighbourhood, such as Japanese manga and South Korean pop, emerged when their countries liberalised and developed a civil society. One reason is the top-down control that shapes Chinese policy at home.

Most populous nation generator#

Yet overall, China’s desire to become the No 1 soft power generator has stalled, still ranking well behind the US. It also can’t match the audience China has for its story about its rise to global power. TikTok, a product of the Chinese company ByteDance, has been a cultural gamechanger, although some of its success stems from downplaying its links to its country of origin.Įven India, a country generally wary of China’s geopolitical intentions, sees regular anguished debates about why it can’t match China’s GDP and poverty reduction record.

Most populous nation series#

Chinese multi-part dramas and soaps have become popular across south-east Asia, and have started to develop an audience in some African countries: last year, social media users in Kenya became big fans of the major Chinese TV fantasy series The Untamed.

The effort has seen some success, particularly in the global south: the idea of China as an impressive technology innovator has taken hold in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, where cheap and effective 5G provision has trumped fears about security. There is a reason that Xi Jinping was just one of the many Chinese parents who sent his daughter to study in the USĬhina has poured immense resources into trying to turn itself into a soft power superpower over the past two decades.

There is a reason that Xi Jinping was just one of the many Chinese parents who sent his daughter to study in the US. Despite the many geopolitical disasters (Vietnam, Iraq) and domestic injustices (the politics of race), the capacity of the US to project an idea of itself around the world has been – and remains – immensely strong. However, in the 00s ambitions shifted: instead of “comprehensive national power”, Chinese analysts started to talk in terms of increasing China’s “soft power” – the capacity that states have to lead other states through persuasion rather than coercion.įor much of the period since 1945, the US has been the undisputed No 1 in this area. Deng’s analysts ranked its existing resources such as its labour force and material and mineral resources, as well as projecting future capacity in areas such as new technologies.ĭuring the 1990s, scholars debated how far China had risen in the global rankings. Much of the assessment started within the military, with assessments of weaponry and training, but attention quickly turned to economic factors. During the 1980s and 90s, Chinese policymakers responded to challenges from the paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, to construct a model that tracked a concept they termed “ comprehensive national power” ( zonghe guoli). The quest to grow GDP is part of a wider project to head the rankings in a range of areas.

In terms of nominal GDP, it’s still No 2 to the US, but many economists suggest that it’s likely to reach the top by the late 2020s (although unexpected factors such as the economic effects of Covid quarantines could get in the way). The drop to No 2 in global population is likely to bring soul-searching about that quest for the other global top spot.ĭespite those denials from its leaders, there’s no doubt that China is aiming to become the world’s largest economy, and by some measures such as purchasing power parity, it already is. Yet for years, Chinese social media has overflowed with confrontational voices demanding that the country should be “No 1”.