LettersChina’s soft power goals: look beyond brash media campaigns

Interpersonal relationships might be one of the most effective mechanisms for shaping China’s image rather than aggressive media campaigns

Even if those relationships are made through Chinese individuals critical of their own government, China might benefit in the long term

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Portuguese professional football club players pose with Chinese children ahead of a game, during a brief ceremony to express solidarity with China’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, at the Luz stadium in Lisbon on February 15, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:00am, 10 Jul 2021Updated: 11:07am, 11 Jul 2021

Last month, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei inaugurated his first art exposition called “Rapture” in his new adoptive country, Portugal. At the press preview of the show, Ai expressed his gratitude to the host country by starting his inauguration speech with “Welcome to my country, Portugal.”

Weiwei moved from the UK to Portugal two years ago. His reasons for it came from his expressed love for Portuguese traditional crafting and its slow-paced life. Portuguese media has enthusiastically covered his stay in Portugal as well as his art exhibition in Lisbon.

Given that Ai is a famous Chinese dissident and an outspoken critic of the Communist Party, how does this affect Portugal and China’s bilateral relations?

In the last 10 years, the diplomatic and economic relationship between Portugal and China has grown significantly, even by EU standards. That closer relationship, paradoxically, was accompanied by a proliferation of anti-Communist Party rhetoric in Portuguese media.