China is attempting to deepen its public diplomacy efforts in India to bridge the trust deficit between the two countries. However, it faces considerable challenges from other established players in the outreach game – Japan and the United States.
On August 12, the Chinese Ambassador to India, Xu Feihong posted a 3-minute-long video on X, formerly Twitter, with captions in Hindi and English.
In the video, a young Chinese diplomat named Li Nan narrated her childhood memories of living in the country – in fluent Hindi.
The ambassador’s social media feed is filled with similar positive posts about India-China relations, and his appreciation for Indian culture while advocating for stronger ties between the two Asian giants.
Much like elsewhere, Chinese diplomats are shedding the wolf warrior diplomacy image in New Delhi, and have joined a crowded competition of public diplomacy, involving heavyweights like Japan and the United States.
However, unlike diplomatic activities of other friendly countries that reflect strong bilateral relationships, the Chinese ambassador’s posts show a disconnect with the reality on the ground. Thousands of Indian and Chinese soldiers on either side have been locked in a faceoff for around four years along the disputed border in the Himalayas.
While both countries have recently agreed to de-escalate at the border, a lack of trust between the two sides remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks. The Chinese diplomatic mission in New Delhi aims to bridge the trust deficit and create the perception of a friendly China that is serious about reaching out to India and Indians.
China’s Charm Offensive in India
The current Chinese ambassador’s appointment was announced in May this year, after an 18-month vacancy period – the longest since 1976. His predecessor Sun Weidong departed in November 2022.
Even before he landed in India, the ambassador-designate spoke to the Chinese state media and vowed to deepen bilateral ties. “I will do my best to deepen understanding and friendship between the two peoples, expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields and improve and advance the bilateral relationship,” he told the state-run broadcaster CGTN.
Since his arrival, Ambassador Xu Feihong has attempted to mount a positive public diplomacy campaign.
The efforts include regular visits to historic sites, trying famous Indian food dishes, donning traditional attire, traveling to multiple cities and praising Indian infrastructure. He also often invokes commonalities between the two cultures, showcasing his mission’s respect for Indian traditions through posts in Hindi.
These messages of peace and friendship coexist with a baggage of historical animosity and recent tensions, making public diplomacy even more difficult.
The unresolved 2,100-mile border between the two countries has been a source of friction for decades. In 2020, the clashes in 2020 in the Himalayas resulted in the death of 20 Indian and at least 4 Chinese soldiers.
It was followed by the deployment of thousands of army personnel on both sides, risking a bigger escalation. The bilateral relations remained tense as both sides continued to meet to achieve consensus over disengagement at the border.
The recent agreement, though a positive step, does not resolve the boundary question but is only aimed at achieving the pre-2020 status quo.
Ambassador Donald Heflin, a former senior US diplomat and Senior Fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, believed that “China's got a lot of ground to make up in India.”
“One of the problems with [Chinese public diplomacy efforts] is that India not only has a huge population, but it has a lot of diverse voices in its media, including local language media,” he told Asia Matters of America.
According to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center, India is among the few middle-income countries that have a higher share of negative views about China.
Apart from the harsh bilateral realities, the Chinese mission also faces increasing public diplomacy competition from closer friends of India, such as Japan and the United States.
Japan, United States Build on Strong Ties
The former Japanese Ambassador to India, Hiroshi Suzuki, who recently completed his tenure in India, became popular on social media through his public-centric approach to diplomacy. In some ways, he redefined outreach efforts, and China’s current activities attempt to follow a similar playbook.
Appointed in November 2022, Suzuki regularly posted short videos of enjoying local street food in multiple cities in India. He became hugely popular, dubbed by some as “India’s culinary ambassador.” His activities, which ranged from savoring Indian dishes to dancing to popular movie songs, were regularly covered by the Indian media.
In June 2023, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi praised one of his posts, with the message - “Keep the videos coming!”
According to a survey commissioned by the Japanese government in 2023, a whopping 97% of respondents in India believed that relations with Japan were either “very friendly or somewhat friendly.”
The US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, follows a mix of traditional approaches with a touch of cultural diplomacy. He regularly highlights the strengthening of US-India bilateral cooperation in various fields and showcases American engagement efforts in the country. Recently, he also took to dancing to fill in the grooving shoes left by the former Japanese ambassador.
However, the outreach does not work all the time. The dancing performance faced considerable flak for being tone-deaf to irritants in the relationship, such as long US visa delays for Indian nationals and the Ambassador’s statements on the recent India-Canada tensions.
Despite these issues, according to Ambassador Donald Heflin, who has recently served in India as Charge d’Affaires, the US efforts are “pretty good” in India.
“We have a pretty vigorous public diplomacy campaign there, going back a long time. And we do it through the traditional media and new media,” he said.
Garcetti often gives interviews to Indian media channels and publications to keep the outreach efforts going.
As the United States and Japan continue to build upon their strong ties through extensive public diplomacy campaigns, China is attempting to find its own space in the contest.
“If I were the Chinese ambassador, I would be thinking, look, China has had a bad image here for decades. Chip away at that. Let them see that Chinese are regular people, chip away at that a little bit year after year after year,” Ambassador Heflin said.
Nayan Seth is a Fall 2024 Young Professional at the East-West Center in Washington. He is a second-year mid-career master’s student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, with a focus on maritime and energy security in the Indo-Pacific region. Before joining the Fletcher School, he worked as a multimedia journalist in India and China.