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2 May 2013

May 3: Talk – China’s Soft Power Efforts and Foreign Observers

Dr. Rogier Creemers

Dr. Rogier Creemers

Dr. Rogier Creemers, Research Officer at the University of Oxford’s Programme for Comparative Media Law and Policy, will deliver a talk at the JMSC on Friday, May 3, on China’s recent efforts to raise its international standing through soft power.

For the past several years, China has been using soft power, the ability to influence foreign countries by means other than force or bribery, as a way to complement its expanding economic and political strength.

China’s leaders have spent billions of dollars on aid and development projects in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast and Central Asia.

They have opened hundreds of Confucius Institutes around the world to promote China’s culture and language. They have also granted thousands of scholarships to foreign students to come and study in China.

At the same time, however, China has been repeatedly criticized by the Western media for censorship, pollution and human rights abuses.

Has China’s soft power campaign been successful? Do foreigners see China in a better light? What challenges does China face from Western journalists? These are some of the questions Creemers will discuss.

Prior to joining the University of Oxford, Creemers was the Euro-Asian Law and Business Studies’s Executive Programme Coordinator at the University of Maastricht. He holds two Masters of Arts degrees from the University of Leuven, in Sinology and International Relations, and a Doctoral degree in Law from the University of Maastricht.

He edits the China Copyright and Media website, an online resource for information about Chinese law and policy regarding public communication.

Details of the event are below.

Talk: Keep Quiet and Listen! China’s Soft Power Efforts and Foreign Observers

Date: Friday, May 3, 2013
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Venue: Shum Wai Yau Reading Room, Eliot Hall, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU
Speaker: Rogier Creemers, Research Officer, Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, University of Oxford

This talk is open to all JMSC students, alumni and staff.