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Pakistani diplomat launches book "Chinese Soft Power Code"


Source : Nihao-Salam.com   Date : 06-05-2015   By : Muhammad Arif 

Pakistani diplomat launches book

Beijing, May 06: Pakistan’s Ambassador to Germany, Syed Hasan Javed,  has launched  his new book "Chinese Soft Power Code"  an enlightening piece of observations and thoughts on modern China by this writer who stayed and worked in China as diplomat.

The book explains quality of China's soft power based on writer's observations of ordinary Chinese people and China's traditional culture that provides a strong support to China's rapid development; the other is that the transmitter of soft power is the people.

In his interview  to China's "the People's Daily"  Mr Javed said , I love China adding that whenever there are English books about China in bookstore, I will buy them. China's achievements in the past decades have attracted worldwide attention, but unfortunately, the majority of books written in English have failed to clarify the real reasons (behind China's success). So I decided to decode the China Story through my own observations and thoughts.

Mr. Javed summarized the core values of the Chinese people he has observed, namely righteousness, humility, discipline, kindness, loyalty, enthusiasm, patience and perseverance. He also extended 88 moral qualities to which Chinese people attach importance, such as hard-work, patriotism, professionalism and impartiality.

He explains that soft power is the capacity through which a country takes advantage of its non-material and intangible assets to promote policies and strengthen national power. He attributes China's rapid change in the past decades to the country's rich culture and soft power.

Mr Javed came to Beijing in 1980 as a young diplomat for a two-year Chinese language course. "Chinese was like no other language," he said. "My difficult journey (to learn Chinese) was made easy by the love, understanding and respect, the Chinese showered on me. As a young man, I was ready to learn and explore. I would not fail to ask questions from everyone I met, listened or came across. I observed every action of my friends, teachers and ordinary people closely. I gained insights into Chinese people's values in their daily life, working and looking at the world. They are not unchangeable, but in evolution." Mr Javed thinks that Chinese people are good at understanding foreign cultures and then combining them with their own.

Mr Javed is an officer of the Foreign Service of Pakistan. He spent nearly a decade in China on two diplomatic assignments, first as a Third and Second Secretary from 1980-1987, and second as the Deputy Head of Mission/ Minister in the Embassy.

He is also the author of the book Chinese Made Easy: Conversational Chinese in a Hundred Lessons, published in 2012.

The Chinese language is the best medium to understand Chinese soft power, said Mr Javed. For instance, a country is called "Guo Jia", meaning a country is made up families. It shows Chinese people cherish families and family education.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell described "Xin Ping Qi He" or "calm" as the most important characteristic of the Chinese people, by which he meant the tendency to try to resolve disputes by negotiation rather than violence, said Mr Javed.

He also finds that Chinese people prefer to describe the power of water. For example, "Shang Shan Ruo Shui" and "Da Guo Zhe Xia Liu" mean the more powerful a country, is, the more humble it should be. This concept well illustrates why China takes the road of peaceful development, is committed to building a harmonious world, and rejects the old logic that big powers seek hegemony once they grow strong.

"The world knows only the big numbers of GDP, exports and investment data coming out of China. Only a few have ever attempted to understand the values and attributes of social capital which are fuelling China’s rise. In fact, soft power is China’s biggest export. I believe the future belongs to societies which are blessed with soft power", said Mr Javed.

The clock of time cannot be reversed, says Mr Javed. China cannot be distracted from achieving the "Chinese dream" of becoming fully developed country by 2050 AD. Beyond that, history belongs to China, come what may, as long as China continues to harness its soft power assets. The world will look more and more to China in the coming decades for answers to global, regional and local issues.

During the interview, Mr Javed emphasized that Pakistan is very fortunate to be a good neighbor and good partner with China. In the future, the peaceful development of China is not only a source of strength to be recognized by the world, but also a beacon of hope and aspiration.

At the book launch, Mr. Chen Jianyang, Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre, introduced Mr. Javed as a genuine China expert who has spent a decade in China and has a true grasp of Chinese language and culture. He described the book as a useful tool to understand the riches of China's Cultural heritage.

China's Ambassador to Germany, Mr. Shi Mingde told People's Daily reporter that the largest treasure trove of Chinese soft power is traditional culture. It boasts a strong vitality and carries the genes of five thousand years of Chinese culture.

Volker Schlegel, former Minister (Economics) at the Embassy of Germany to the United States, said that the book offers insights on China's road to development from a cultural point of view. He expressed his hope for hearing more similar voices beyond Chinese media and among diplomats.