August 12, 2026
BEIJING – The BBC recently reported that: “More people around the world now favor China over the US.” This story explained the results of a global study by the US-based Pew Research Center, in which 42,000 people were polled across 36 countries and regions between February and May. This is the first time Pew has recorded such an outcome. (see: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd959q11g54o)
I first wrote in China Daily about the steady rise of Chinese soft power almost three years ago after a well-known US congressman, Raja Krishnamoorthi, warned in the journal Foreign Policy that: “The US cannot afford to lose a soft power race with China.” (see: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/356728)
I noted that almost all geopolitical soft power explanations draw on the seminal analysis by the late Harvard political scientist, Joseph Nye, who promoted the term in his 1990 book Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. Nye wrote, “When one country gets other countries to want what it wants (this) might be called co-optive or soft power in contrast with the hard or command power of ordering others to do what it wants.”
About a year later, in China Daily, I outlined why a continuing rise in Chinese soft power was evident. This article drew on a report in the journal Foreign Affairs about a Yale University survey conducted across a range of developing countries. That investigation confirmed how a majority of those surveyed — after being given access to increased basic information about China — concluded that the Chinese system was “more responsive (than the US political model) and better at delivering growth, and, remarkably, more democratic in character”. (see: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/595383)
The significant, comparative rise in Chinese soft power looks set to continue. Professor Tang has lucidly explained why: “Ultimately, technological supremacy is not measured by how many raw language models a nation can produce in a laboratory. It is measured by how effectively those innovations improve human life in the real world. By aggressively focusing on technology for good, whether through accessible EVs, practical AI, or labor-saving humanoids, China is building a brand that wins the hearts and minds of the world.
Since then, Chinese innovative manufacturing has intensified its pioneering role in so many areas that are positive for global consumers. Examples include: a pivotal contribution advancing every aspect of green energy infrastructure; remarkable logistics and shipping improvements; affordable electric vehicles (EV) and regular motor vehicles; and open-source/open-weight, low-cost AI agents — labeled “artificial intelligence (AI) communism” by some outpaced, sulky Western critics. (see: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/20/china-google-ai-race)
China is also still providing a vast range of value-for-money, high-demand consumer goods, including clothing, toys, electronic hardware, building materials, computers, and mobile phones, as well as, at the macro-level, massive tunnel-boring machines. (see: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/636683)
Thus China has continued to deliver products and services globally that are steadily and affordably improving the daily lives of millions on a remarkable scale. And not just in the Global South. UCLA professor Christopher Tang vividly captured one aspect of this soft power growth in a recent China Daily article entitled: The Power of Practical Tech: How China is Winning the Global AI Race. Tang’s airport ride after arriving in Paris was in a Chinese EV. The Romanian immigrant driver said he had recently sold his Mercedes and purchased a BYD Seal because the Chinese EV was cheaper, superior in quality, and far more economical to operate, adding that he felt China was doing something that could benefit common people like him. (see: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/636823)
When Nye wrote his book on soft power, the United States was, in his view, the exemplar of how to develop and wield such power, and he was surely right. The US had a remarkable story to tell about itself, linked to exceptional marketing prowess evident in America’s global dominance of every English-language media sector.
However, the basis of America’s soft power ascendancy claim has severely deteriorated since then. Moreover, no amount of Western political marketing can, today, smother frightful, US-led war-mongering realities in ways that remained possible in the 1990s.
In March, I wrote about America’s dismal decade, since 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected as president. I also argued how the foundations for this accelerated adulteration of the American brand were laid by President Barack Obama after 2009 and observed how then-president Joe Biden had gravely amplified this relapse during his tenure in the White House, exemplified by Biden flying to Israel to hug Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in public as Israel unleashed an unbridled, genocidal attack on Gaza following the fearful Hamas assault on Israel in October 2023. With that single embrace, Biden mortally debased America’s global political credibility and moral standing, as he aligned America with Israel’s brutal aggression against a weak neighboring state and helpless people. (see: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/630683)
In May, Professor Stephen Walt, from Harvard University, published an article in Foreign Policy arguing that Trump had impelled “The end of America’s soft power”, concluding that “The United States has given up on one of its core international strengths.” (see: https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/04/trump-soft-power-usa/) Shortly before this, Sasha Mudd, writing for Prospect Magazine in the United Kingdom, said that “Trump has destroyed American soft power.” (see: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/united-states/72128/trump-has-destroyed-american-soft-power)
More recently, Professor Robert Pape, from the University of Chicago, described Washington’s Israeli-guided decision to wage war — yet again — on Iran, in this way: “What a stupid, stupid war. Unbelievable, what a dumb, stupid war.” (see: https://www.newsmax.com/us/robert-pape-u-s-strikes/2026/08/03/id/1264945/)
Unsurprisingly, most coverage of the growth of China’s soft power discusses how this rise compares with the US soft power benchmark. The present, critical collapse of American soft power, observed by a growing number of commentators, accordingly works to China’s advantage today, as the soft power ledger is being squared.
However, as significant as this factor is, the recurrent appreciation of Chinese soft power is far more grounded in China’s exceptional, long-term performance legitimacy, apparent in China and globally.
Here is a fundamental explanation of this remarkable achievement.
America, with its Gothic military budget greater than the next nine nations combined and with close to 800 worldwide military bases, has been repeatedly involved in global warfare throughout its history, according to former US president Jimmy Carter, (see: https://www.blackagendareport.com/jimmy-carter-us-most-warlike-nation-history) and more than ever since the end of World War II, especially, horrifically, in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, for decade after decade, China’s mantra has been, “Let’s go to work” rather than “Let’s go to war”. China has not dropped a single hostile bomb anywhere for decades, as it has lifted over 800 million people out of abject poverty. It has grown to dominate global manufacturing in a manner never seen before in world history, covering, for example, shipbuilding, all kinds of vehicles, all aspects of green tech, the widest range of household and recreational items, plus medical necessities and innovations. (see: https://michaelwest.com.au/china-or-america-who-is-the-warmonger/)
Then there is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) effect.
Douglas Flint, former HSBC chairman, declared that the BRI was “one of the biggest, if not the biggest, facilitators” of the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, adding that it had had an “incredibly positive” impact on regional and world development. (see: https://fridayeveryday.com/untold-tale-how-the-chinese-diaspora-paved-the-way-for-bri/)
Leading Singaporean commentator Kishore Mahbubani explained how: “The BRI is bringing real benefits to the Global South. It is striking that the fast train between Jakarta and Bandung (with speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour) was launched in the very week that Britain (a member of the G7) announced it did not have funds to proceed with the fast train between Birmingham and Manchester. Future historians will mark this as a clear indicator of how times have changed in our world.” (see: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/595383)
The significant, comparative rise in Chinese soft power looks set to continue. Professor Tang has lucidly explained why: “Ultimately, technological supremacy is not measured by how many raw language models a nation can produce in a laboratory. It is measured by how effectively those innovations improve human life in the real world. By aggressively focusing on technology for good, whether through accessible EVs, practical AI, or labor-saving humanoids, China is building a brand that wins the hearts and minds of the world.”
Richard Cullen has written about Hong Kong and the transformation of China for over 30 years. He was previously a professor of law at Hong Kong University, City University and Monash University in Australia.