Adding Asian color to public diplomacy

On March 7, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi delivered a speech at the annual session of National People's Congress, highlighting the achievements of China's diplomacy. However, China's public diplomacy, which was not mentioned by Yang, deserves applause, too.

Public diplomacy, which many consider a major foreign policy tool, has drawn a lot of attention from Western countries, particularly the United States. It helped the US become a globally "attractive" power after World War I. US public diplomacy has successfully communicated the American way of life to people outside that country. It has helped the US, and other Western powers following similar policies, to connect with and influence the rest of the world.

But the attacks on the US on Sept 11, 2001, raised serious doubts about the effectiveness of Western public diplomacy and forced the US and other Western powers to revisit these policies.