China needs coordinative public diplomacy

President Xi Jinping's scheduled visit to the United States in September is likely to create new opportunities for not only consolidating the "new type of major-power relationship" between Beijing and Washington, but also China's public diplomacy vis-a-vis the US. The two countries' cooperation on the economic front, and to maintain the world order and meet the global challenges is deepening with the increase in China's comprehensive national power.

The US and China now have dozens of dialogue and negotiation mechanisms to settle bilateral differences and problems. But some US think tanks' and media outlets' biased opinions about China, because of their anxiety over China's rise, cannot be changed through intergovernmental dialogue. For that to happen, therefore, China's public diplomacy has to play its due role; it has to help US think tanks and media outlets understand China's national conditions, principles, strategic intentions and development concept.

But since China does not have a unified mechanism to use its public diplomacy, it needs to make it more consistent, continuous and coordinative, as its non-governmental diplomatic channels, despite growing in influence, are still not that influential.