Strategic Narratives of China’s Foreign Policy: Host Diplomacy and National Image Branding

This thesis studies how China has used host diplomacy for national image branding. Mega diplomatic events in China deserve more research attention given their growing concerns and implications. Existing research has focused on summit diplomacy but has failed to explore the host’s perspective. Research on China’s host diplomacy has relied primarily on internal factors, resulting in overstating its effectiveness. Previous studies have disregarded the domestic audiences in host diplomacy. This project analyses three China’s host diplomacy events: (1) Belt and Road Forum, (2) World Internet Conference, and (3) China International Import Expo. The three case studies allow investigation of China’s rationale to use host diplomacy to (re)shape its global brand equity and address domestic social, economic and political challenges in the steps of strategic narratives and nation branding. The thesis combines both theoretical and empirical contributions to the subject via narrative analysis. The data for this project was collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews on-site in 2019. The thesis finds that China adopts system, identity and policy narratives to foreign and Chinese audiences differently, with intended and unintended overlaps. The thesis examines the China brand, showing that it is effective domestically due to its socio-political setting. Its effectiveness varies internationally from producing positive engagement to shaping global public policy. The findings reveal internal and external factors underlying the formation and projection of narratives to maximise the host advantages of favourable timing, location and people, and control of agenda-setting. The project improves identification and conceptual definitions of host diplomacy and its application in strategic narratives and nation branding, building up theoretical linkages with their accompanying rationale in China. Ultimately, these findings address longstanding questions in IR about identity, communication and power, enable a direct contribution to strategic narratives in constructivist IR and assist practitioners in understanding diplomatic events in the framework of host diplomacy. This study demonstrates how China leverages host diplomacy as a strategic tool to construct an alternative world order while positioning itself as a provider of global public goods.