cover image: The Hard Edge of Sharp Power

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The Hard Edge of Sharp Power

25 Oct 2018

A derivative of Joseph Nye’s soft power, a term coined in the 1990s to describe a country’s abil- ity to influence the behaviour of others through its cultural and political appeal, sharp power encapsulates a strategy by autocratic regimes China commands that, according to the report, “pierces, pene- trates, or perforates the political and informa- a comprehensive tion environments in the targeted [...] Despite the disparate nature of many of the organizations and individuals involved in China’s political warfare activities, the general direction and tone is set by the CCP itself. [...] In Australia, for example, a study of electoral commission data conducted in 2017 showed that “[n]early 80 percent of the foreign donations made to Australia’s political parties since the year 2000 were linked to China”(Gomes 2017).10 In all, the mechanisms of and key agencies in Chinese political warfare worldwide are only beginning to be better understood, thanks to recent controversies in count [...] Most countries, perhaps with the exception of Taiwan, have been slow in acknowledging the prob- lem, in part due to a lack of expertise as well as the economic attractiveness of China – what the Mercator Institute for China Studies report describes as “fits of ‘preemptive obedience’ to curry favor with the Chinese side” (Benner et al. [...] In one case, an American professor of Chinese de- scent at the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore allegedly “used his senior position” in the school “to deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapore’s expense.” According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the suspect “did this in collaboration with foreign intelligence agents,” which amounted “to subve
china government politics economy media canada computer security culture ethics investments defamation national security human activities society communist party of china macdonald-laurier institute libel hanban okinawa people’s liberation army confucius institute the south china morning post chinese unification scmp okinawan ryukyu independence
Pages
36
Published in
Ottawa, ON, CA

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