The problems with, and evolution of, China's soft power projectThe Wǒ Men Podcast is a discussion of life in China hosted by Yajun Zhang, Jingjing Zhang and Karoline Kan. Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men Podcast can be found here, and you can subscribe to Wǒ Men on iTunes here.Against the backdrop of the China-US trade war, the recent “debate” between two presenters from opposing sides of the argument — Trish Regan from the Trump-supporting Fox network and Liu Xin from State-owned Chinese media platform CGTN — attracted a lot of eyeballs.What materialized was ultimately more of a conversation than a debate, yet it was refreshing to see China’s State media engaging in a direct conversation with an international audience and attempting to share its perspective directly into the homes of audiences in the US.Related:Fox’s Trish Regan Invites CGTN’s Liu Xin to Trade War Debate “Round 2”But what’s at the root of the perception that China is afraid of engaging in difficult conversations? What’s going wrong with China’s so-called soft power project? And is there a better way to tell a good China story?In the latest Wǒ Men Podcast, Jingjing and Karoline share their own experiences and observations regarding China’s attempts at storytelling and soft power and how these have evolved in recent years.Listen below on Mixcloud, or find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.
