Chinese Soft Power and American Exceptionalism: A Comparative Analysis in the Global Context

Abstract

The United States of America’s proclamation of its unique status as a symbol of liberty, freedom, and democracy has had a global impact. America’s global superpower status is derived from both material wealth and normative power. America also claims superiority over non-Americans for its national identity of exceptionalism. America’s hard and soft power dominated the world after World War II and continue to prevail. More recently, China’s economic rise and increasing global engagement is changing the power dynamics globally. In this context, China’s successful cultural and economic diplomacy is emerging as a competing narrative to the US ideals of exceptionalism, trend that is also changing the global order. There is plenty of literature produced on how China’s economic rise is a challenge to the US hegemony. However, this article is focused on a comparative analysis of American exceptionalism as a driving force of the US foreign policy, a justification for its global hegemony, and its contradictions vis-à-vis the growing potential of Chinese influence through economic diplomacy. Drawing on Joseph S. Nye’s principles of soft power, this paper argues that China’s win-win cooperation mantra for economic engagemens is appealing to the developing world and is projecting its soft power more broadly in variance to the basic principles of soft power presented by Nye.