This book examines the Chinese Communist Party's attempts to improve China's image around the world, thereby increasing its "soft power." This soft, attractive form of power is crucial if China is to avoid provoking an international backlash against its growing military and economic might. "Provides astute analyses of the Chinese government's efforts to employ soft power as a component of national strategy, alongside coercive actions that undermine the efficacy of these efforts." Professor June Teufel Dreyer, University of Miami "This is the book on the issue of China and soft power that scholars in the field have been waiting for - and one specialists in other areas can benefit from greatly as well. Particularly appealing is how truly global and robustly interdisciplinary it is. The editors did a great job of lining up contributors from four continents and many fields and subfields of the humanities and social sciences, and then shaping the chapters into a nicely coherent set of works that speak to rather than past one another." Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom, co-author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know