Asia's hardening soft power

In 2000, Chinese novelist Gao Xingjian (高行健) won China's first Nobel prize for literature, followed a year later by the Indian diaspora writer V.S. Naipaul. The film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became the highest grossing non-English film, and Indian movies such as Monsoon Wedding were global box-office successes. Indeed, "Bollywood" produces more movies every year than Hollywood.

Expatriates

The list goes on. Yao Ming (姚明), the Chinese star of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets, could become another Michael Jordan, and China is set to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Large expatriate communities in the US -- 2.4 million Chinese and 1.7 million Indians -- have increased interest in their home countries among other Americans. Moreover, transnational connections in the information industry are close, as Western high-tech companies increasingly employ affiliates in Bangalore and Shanghai to provide real-time services.

But the real promise for China and India lies in the future. A country's soft power rests upon the attractiveness of its culture, the appeal of its domestic political and social values, and the style and substance of its foreign policies.

In recent years, both China and India have adopted foreign policies that have increased their attractiveness to others. But neither country yet ranks high on the various indices of potential soft-power resources that are possessed by the US, Europe and Japan. While culture provides some soft power, domestic policies and values set limits, particularly in China, where the Chinese Communist Party fears allowing too much intellectual freedom and resists outside influences. Both countries have a reputation for corruption in government.

India benefits from democratic politics, but suffers from overly bureaucratized government. In foreign policy as well, both countries' reputations are burdened with the problems of longstanding disputes over Taiwan and Kashmir. Moreover, in the US, the attraction of an authoritarian China is limited by the concern that it could become a future threat.

The soft power of Asian countries, then, lags behind that of the US, Europe and Japan, but it is likely to increase. Indeed, if the US continues to pursue unattractive policies, it may find that its absence from the summit in Malaysia next month is a harbinger of things to come.

Joseph Nye, a former US assistant secretary of defense, is a professor at Harvard University.

Copyright: Project Syndicate