The Key to Unlocking China’s Global Communications Challenge? Fewer Platitudes, More Evidence

[The following opinion-piece - which dissects China's external Communications - was published on Feb. 15th, 2022, by?Telum Media, a Singapore-based hub for the PR and media industries. Your feedback is most welcome.]

By Michael J. Jordan

NEW YORK CITY?– As we watch the Beijing Winter Olympics, and hear Chinese officials try to fend off various allegations – especially centered around human rights – I’ve been reminded of when I first grasped the crux of China’s “global Communications challenge” with the West.

It was Spring 2017, well before the tit-for-tat accusations and angry threats that have erupted more recently over flashpoints like COVID, Xinjiang, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Huawei and the US-China trade war. At the time, I was living in Beijing and working as a Communications Consultant,?among other roles.

I also realized?why it all matters?– because China itself matters: As the world’s most-populous nation and second-largest economy, virtually everything China does reverberates around the world. So let me share with you a few insights as to why China’s communication challenges are so challenging.

That Spring 2017 epiphany struck me just as China was about to host an international forum to support its US$1 trillion?Belt & Road Initiative. Chinese officials were touting the massive infrastructure project – which?spans the globe?– in typically lofty, flowery terms. The BRI is?“not a solo song, but a chorus.”?A?“symphony of all relevant parties.”A?“Chinese solution for global economic blues.”

However, Western skeptics?weren’t?buying?the hype.

Then I read a?Los Angeles Times?report?about one BRI project?in Sri Lanka: a billion-dollar Chinese investment to revamp a poor port-city on the Indian Ocean. High in the story, readers heard from the Chinese ambassador to Sri Lanka, who promised locals that added investment of perhaps “$5 billion in three to five years” could “create 100,000 jobs.”

Nowhere in the piece, though, could readers find evidence that the project had yielded any positive impact yet. Instead, for local Sri Lankans, “Chinese ambitions” are “stirring distrust” and “violent protests.” Moreover, because “details are murky,” “suspicions run deep” of “Chinese colonization.”

I imagined how this story might impact a neutral, open-minded reader; it’s not hard to visualize the lasting impression of?negative messaging, delivered straight to the heart and mind.

On the other hand, I’d discuss this dilemma with many of my dear Chinese colleagues, students and friends. They’d collectively scratch their heads, puzzled by why Western critics weren’t placated by Chinese reassurances. Most often, these Chinese chalked it up as proof that the West is hopelessly biased against China – and bent on restraining its rise as a global, muscular superpower.

In response, I’ve often heard?the Chinese lament:?We must do better at explaining China to the world. (Even if the line between explanation and propaganda is often blurred.)?President Xi Jinping himself has advocated that “we must tell China stories better.” Like in June 2021,?when Xi exhorted?fellow Communist Party members to improve international communications.

However, I see other factors at work – especially the Chinese mode of communication. With all due respect, Chinese communicators routinely fail to first consider their target-audience: Who they are, why them, what they may already think or feel about China and the Chinese, and so on. (Though, some suggest that?when they talk tough?to a foreign audience, the true aim is domestic consumption.)

Next, there’s the need to muster some empathy, to imagine why exactly a smart, curious but skeptical foreigner might think what they think, or feel what they feel, toward China. Plus, how exactly to communicate with that audience – as strategically, effectively and persuasively as possible.

Then, my greatest lesson-learned about why the Chinese struggle to impact the most influential segments of their foreign audience: We must produce concrete, credible, verifiable evidence – and present it transparently – to underpin arguments and have any hope to persuade a skeptical mind.

Part of this, I attribute to cultural differences. Though I’m no expert in Chinese history or culture, my sense is that historically, the pronouncements of Chinese officialdom – when aimed at their Chinese audience –?featured a more patriarchal, paternalistic form of communication.

As in: “This is what we’re doing.” Or “This is what we’ll do.” No compunction to explain “Why.” Nor, to lay out evidence and defend decision-making. After all, who’d dare question them, publicly?

The Western audience, though, is reared with a more “democratic” style of communications. While plenty of Westerners will swallow whatever news and information they’re fed, uncritically, many others feel empowered as taxpayers to demand transparency from the authorities. We’ve also grown to rely on a “watchdog media” to hold leaders accountable for their words and deeds.

Over time, when speaking to Chinese colleagues, trainees or students,?I’d introduce what I call?my?Spectrum of China’s Foreign Audience. This is already a relatively “elite” strata of society, as I’ve learned from living in America, Europe, Africa and Asia: Most people are indifferent to the world beyond their borders, but more concerned with what affects them, their family, their community, their country.

Among those who pay attention to China’s actions, I divide them into three cohorts:

On one end of the spectrum is the anti-China crowd. They’re anti-China, even anti-Chinese, for?some?reason. Nothing positive they hear about China will ever change their mind. There’s no budging them, so write them off as an unrealistic target.

On the other end of the spectrum is the pro-China crowd. Pro-China, even pro-Chinese, for?some?reason. Nothing negative they hear about China will ever puncture that notion. With this audience, you can communicate with relative ease – and without much effort.

Then there’s the cohort in between. They may be on the fence regarding China and the Chinese, viewing neither in black-and-white terms, but with nuance. They’re smart, skeptical, perhaps also open-minded, willing to be persuaded.?They could be potential foreign investors, diplomats, supply-chain partners, analysts, activists, professors, researchers, journalists, customers, among many others.

The bottom line is,?they may swing either way – depending on how we approach them.

It’s this audience that Chinese communicators should “work hard” (intellectually speaking) to impact. To reiterate, the most effective and persuasive way to reach this audience is with a lawyerly argument that transparently presents concrete, credible and verifiable evidence.

Without a clear understanding of this target – and striving to grasp their motivations, inspirations or mindset – we’re firing blindly in the dark. Even worse, without supplying a dose of credible evidence, we shouldn’t be surprised if our unconvinced audience ignores what we say.

That said, if we ourselves lack any credible, persuasive evidence, well … that’s another story.

Now based in New York,?Michael J. Jordan?is Founder of his Global Communications Consultancy,?MJMethod LLC, and Vice President of Global Communications & Media Relations for?North American Ecosystem Institute, which assists westward-growing Chinese companies with their Communication needs. While living in Beijing from 2015-2020, Jordan earned what he calls a “PhD in China’s Global Communications Challenges” from working as a Visiting Professor of International Journalism at top Chinese universities; a Communications Consultant for both for-profit and non-profit organizations; and as News Editor, Scriptwriter and Media Analyst for the state-controlled China Global Television Network.