Abstract

MESA-BEDOYA, Juan Camilo  and  GONZALEZ-PARIAS, Carlos Hernán. Paradiplomacy: A tool of China's Soft Power. Pap.polit. [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.2, pp.537-563. ISSN 0122-4409.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.papo21-2.phpb.

The current international system presents an ideal interdependent scenario for the international activity of cities and regions, a phenomenon called paradiplomacy, which increasingly occupies a more significant place in the academic context. In this scenario, Chinese cities have interacted with their counterparts in a process that has become more relevant with the reforms promoted by the People’s Republic of China since 1978. Hence, the objective of the article is to demonstrate that different international management activities carried out by Chinese subnational units, makes paradiplomacy useful as a complement to the soft power strategies of China’s foreign policy. The contribution of the article is to show that Chinese cities are actors in the state’s foreign policy and will be increasingly representative, both for their internal dynamics of urban consolidation, economic growth and social development, and for the role the central government has given to them in China’s process of re-emergence as a global power.

Keywords : paradiplomacy; soft power; international relations; foreign policy; PRC.

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