Harnessing soft power for next China Dream

In the last 35 years, China occupied itself with learning how to get along with the rest of the international community, while the rest of the world invested similar effort in getting to know China better.

That honeymoon period is over, but the learning curve is still as steep as ever.

For China, the lessons are getting even harder on the domestic front as it deals with physical and social problems, the side effects of progress and affluence that have rippled from urban centers toward rural regions long accustomed to hardship and frugality.

China is already paying the price for becoming the world’s largest manufacturer, a strategy that admittedly gave the country a taste of profit and prosperity.

In many aspects, the ability to make a quantum leap from a planned to a market economy has only been possible because of the Chinese ingenuity to make-do and re-invent — necessary qualities that have seen the people through thousands of years of history.

Sometimes, though, ingenuity alone is not sustainable.

Seemingly endless natural resources and cheap, plentiful labor drove that first quickening — but supplies dried up and the debris of over-industrialization has left unsightly keloids all over the land and below.

In current references, ingenuity must be tempered with foresight and an acute awareness of consequences.

Enough has been said about pollution and erosion in geographical and social terms. We know the problems. We now seek the solutions.

There is no easy answer, but perhaps we should look at the one resource that will enable China to move toward the next stage of development and reinforce its image in international relations. And to realize a more sustainable, organic China Dream.

People.

By investing in the education, health and wellness of its most valuable resource, China will unleash a soft power that will match the sophisticated hardware it has so far developed. It will close the gap between machinery and man that we so obviously see now.

Witness the unequal supply and demand of trained and professional staff in China. An educated, gracious population will not only close the chasm but will have tremendous impact abroad.

It can also solve most of the multitude of problems affecting China now.

Better education translates into more informed farmers and well-managed agricultural communities no longer dependent on those who directly contribute to a disparity of income, and a price paid to producers commensurate with the price consumers pay for produce.

It translates to the intelligent use of pesticides and chemicals, in contrast to the uneducated estimates that now poison the land and raise the specter that food is a threat, not a treat.

It means employers can tap a workforce with unlimited potential, and offer opportunities that can raise dustmen to company directors and laborers to lecturers. It will raise and equalize standards of living and avoid the dangers of a top and bottom-heavy psychographic profile.

It can allow China to monopolize a world service industry that is always short of staff. Just as certain Asian countries are well known for their service with a smile, China too can educate its people that there is professional pride at every level.

There is already a saying that "a scholar arises from every profession".

From a broader perspective, a people of better, more even quality will change the way the world looks at China, and neutralize the image of the rich, rude Chinese who sweep the shops of luxury goods with much money but little taste, or the queue-cutting passenger at airports and rail stations who jostle with elbows jutting straight out.

A civil society with properly instilled work ethics and bottom-line moral values can win over the world better and faster than any orchestrated advertising or publicity campaign.

It is not that hard.

The hardware is already in place. It takes nothing more than the careful deliberation of what software must be installed in schools, colleges and institutions.

Education creates better opportunities, and it means more than a life-and-death contest for that place in a university. More organized and targeted vocational training and career guidance form part of the total package.

With so many sages and so many thousands of years of civilized existence to draw upon, it is just a matter of re-learning what best suits China now.

There is also the matter of making ourselves better understood internationally, and here I quote the anecdote of the mother cat who taught her kittens how to bark.

Soft power is all about us — the nearly 1.4 billion Chinese. We simply need to know how to harness it.

Contact the writer at paulined@chinadaily.com.cn