Name: Einar Tangen, Economic and Political Affairs Commentator,CCTV

Title: A China Moment: Creating an Effective Communications Strategy in a Multi-Polar World

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative is not a mechanical vehicle that the government can wind up and turn on. To implement it, Beijing will engage many countries, each with its own set of political, economic and cultural systems and histories. Soft power, rather than hard power, will be the key to China's success. While there are ample pragmatic reasons for these countries to join the initiative, unless China creates a compelling case which reaches the ordinary people at home and abroad, it could face difficulties in the future.

Having just finished the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, where Beijing laid out an ambitious political agenda emphasizing consensus, China needs to lay out the case internationally, as well as at home, for the Belt and Road Initiative, as one of the economic pillars of the new multi-polar order. Based on pragmatic trade and development principals, the Belt and Road Initiative will use infrastructure and new industry development, as the center points of its economic plan. All of these make perfect sense to those of us in political and policy circles, but communicating this to all levels of these societies will be difficult given their political, economic and cultural differences. Creating a well-thought, long-term public relations campaign will be essential.

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