Core values of Indian and Chinese civilisations such as morality, communality, spirituality, people’s centrality, harmony, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, honesty and loyalty are essentially oriental values that are omnipresent in all Asian civilisations. It is around these values that both India and China are building their soft power discourse.
If India has evoked ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one) from its civilisational roots that calls for collective responsibility of the humankind towards their shared future, the larger framework of China’s diplomacy is rooted in Chinese traditional philosophy of “the world is one family” (Tianxia Yijia). The concept upholds that since interests, aspirations and destinies of mankind are intertwined, the challenges are common and require common solutions.
Despite the similarities, the approaches towards realising the goals differ. China has pronounced traditional Chinese culture as the mainstay of “culturally advanced China”, but since China’s path, system and theory remain essentially ‘socialist’, it may not be too appealing to democracies, especially in the present geopolitical contest between the US and China.
China has established over 500 Confucius Institutes and over 1,000 Confucius Classrooms all over the world. The Chinese media has spread its wings across the globe, and has challenged the supremacy of the western media. The Xinhua news agency has 180 news bureaus globally; China Central Television (CCTV) has over 70 foreign bureaus, broadcasting to 171 countries and regions in six UN official languages; China Radio International, the world’s second biggest radio station after the BBC, broadcasts in 64 languages from 32 foreign bureaus; and major Chinese newspapers such as the People’s Daily and the China Daily have considerable reach.
China offers thousands of scholarships to foreign students. The state intervention is clearly discernible, although it has come under scrutiny recently in the west. China has been blamed of taking advantage of the openness of democratic systems even as it denies the same space to others inside China.
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Though India lacks China’s economic muscle, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has increased its activities. It runs Indian cultural centres in 37 countries, and has been engaged in promoting Indian culture in the form of organising cultural festivals, deputing chairs of Indian studies abroad and providing scholarships to foreign scholars to study in India.
Nonetheless, it is Indian spirituality that has greater appeal across the globe. It is estimated that there are 300 million yoga practitioners worldwide. In China alone, between 2017 and 2021, there were 42,000 yoga studios, according to a China Daily report. Besides, Indian classical dance, Bollywood movies, Indian cuisine and Indian diaspora have become important carriers of India’s soft power and furthering India’s influence globally.