Confronting China`s Charm Offensive in East Asia: A Simple Case of Fighting Fire with Fire?

Abstract

This article examines the United States` response to China`s charm offensive in East Asia, particularly the latter`s use of soft-power diplomacy to erode Washington`s strategic preponderance and its ability to respond to a crisis in the Taiwan Strait and other hot spots in the region. In such a situation, U.S. analysts, diplomats, and policymakers have become apprehensive that the United States is losing in the soft-power competition with China. Accordingly, they clamor for increased U.S. funding for public diplomacy and official development assistance (ODA). This article, however; raises the question whether overemphasis on U.S. soft power will rectify the imbalance of influence between the two powers. In conclusion, it argues that the apparent disparity is the result of the general asymmetry in the two countries` power relations and that what is consequential is not the amount earmarked for ODA and public diplomacy spending, but the United States` prudent use of its co-optive capability in the face of China`s growing political and economic clout in East Asia. This entails applying US. soft power not only to constrain Chinas` charm offensive, but also to form and strengthen an association of liberal-democratic states in East Asia.