{"id":422,"date":"2017-08-12T21:25:30","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T15:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/?p=422"},"modified":"2017-08-12T21:25:30","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T15:55:30","slug":"top-five-challenges-currently-facing-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/post-team\/top-five-challenges-currently-facing-china\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the top five challenges currently facing China?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"qtext_para\"><b>Total lack of soft power.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">I know what you\u2019re thinking &#8211; there are bigger problems out there. <span class=\"qlink_container\">Greg Blandino<\/span> , <span class=\"qlink_container\">Patrick Liew<\/span> and <span class=\"qlink_container\">Wenbin Wu<\/span> did a great job covering them, and I invite you to check out their answers as well. From an ageing population, a disappearance of low-end manufacturing to the lack of social welfare and environmental concerns &#8211; China does indeed face many challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">But these are challenges that all major economies are faced with, to varying degrees &#8211; the social net, for example, is still weak in the US. It\u2019s strong in France, but we can\u2019t finance it anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">The one thing that distinguishes China on the podium of the world\u2019s largest economies, and its biggest problem, <b>is the complete weakness of its soft power.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">I invite readers of this question to think long and hard about this one. When was the last time you watched a Chinese TV show? A movie? Bought a consumer brand for the brand itself, not because it was cheap? Read a book by a Chinese author?<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- iasmind --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8146264948355974\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2980833649\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">Now compare that with the other countries on the podium &#8211; the US, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, India. Russia is a thornier issue &#8211; it has immense soft power, but it tends to be more localized to ex-Communist countries. Still, soft power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">China has an incredibly difficult time in exporting an admiration of its culture to the world. It tried, in part, with the horribly clumsy Confucius Institutes &#8211; but the failure of those just goes to show how hard it is. Soft power is not forced down someone\u2019s throat &#8211; it needs to be voluntarily accepted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">The truth is, China has had a few hits. <b>A Bite of China<\/b> did an incredible job in showcasing Chinese regional food &#8211; and was an immediate success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\"><b>Wechat could have been an immensely popular tool in Asia<\/b>. I\u2019m a giant fan, and maintain that it is so advanced compared to Western alternatives that Facebook\u2019s playbook with Messenger is essentially: \u2018Copy Wechat\u2019. But then because of the inclusion of a map that showed that China laid claim to all of the China sea (the infamous 9-dotted line), users in Thailand and other countries began to shun it. Politics stepped in, and it destroyed the little soft power they had managed to create.<\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">Brands like Xiaomi are making great inroads as well, around the concept of affordable, but still high-quality and innovative smart products. But if China had more soft power to begin with, I can guarantee you Xiaomi would already be a household name. After all, if your favorite TV stars are all wearing a Xiaomi band, wouldn\u2019t you be curious?<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- iasmind --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8146264948355974\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2980833649\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"qtext_para\">There\u2019s a reason for this, and it\u2019s historical. It\u2019s even in China\u2019s name: \u4e2d\u56fd &#8211; literally \u201cCountry in the Middle\u201d. China has always been China-centric, and ever since doing away with Zheng He the explorer, striving for self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Total lack of soft power. I know what you\u2019re thinking &#8211; there are bigger problems out there. Greg Blandino , Patrick Liew and Wenbin Wu did a great job covering them, and I invite you to check out their answers as well. From an ageing population, a disappearance of low-end manufacturing to the lack of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[49,42],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post-team","category-world-news","tag-china","tag-india"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"views":58,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Aug1_2013_2639464_GlobeChina_ChinaChallenges_II2044972041.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youthdarpan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}