July 1, 2023, Shanghai - CEIBS Distinguished Professor Dominique de Villepin and Vice President and Dean Frank Bournois came together on the Shanghai campus today for an insightful dialogue to discuss how nations of every size and region must concentrate on the necessity of building cultural bridges between both their friends and their occasional rivals.

During the offline talk, both professors agreed that China in particular is at an important crossroads in its economic and political development and can benefit more than most of its contemporaries from embracing the soft power of cultural influence.

They also agreed that the coming years will be crucial in shaping the long-term future of China’s economy and its relationships with key trade partners and allies, not to mention its rivals. If China wants to settle into its role as a source of international leadership, then building cultural bridges will be as important as forging economic ones.

Confrontation and mistrust – The US/China rivalry

Prof. de Villepin quickly established how technology is a dominant source of power in today’s world, as it provides not only economic benefits to its owners, but also strategic and political advantages.

He explained how the ongoing (and deepening) rivalry between the US and China highlights this crucial importance of technology in the new global economy, where better ideas and smarter solutions are the new lifeblood of a nation’s economic growth.

“As both the US and China struggle for technological dominance, their mistrust of one another grows in turn, further deepening the ideological divide between liberal democracy and autocracy,” Prof. de Villepin said.

Despite this, neither side can ignore the stark fact that they need each other.

As much as the US relies on China as an export market, China relies on the US for tech transfer and access to advanced components that drive its homegrown innovation engine.

The professors agreed that what is needed to heal the rift between the US and China, between opposing forms of government, is the construction of cultural bridges that appeal to our common ideals, our shared global aspirations and the better side of human nature.

Cooperation in the face of disaster – forging a fairer global economy

Professors de Villepin and Bournois turned to the creation of the new global economy, and how it presents an opportunity to inspire cooperation and a greater sense of equality between all nations.

Given the urgency attached to addressing the existential threats of climate change, failed states and more, finding common ground (and common cause) is essential to speeding up our global response to climate change while ensuring that the burden of this struggle falls evenly across every nation.

Prof. de Villepin unpacked the second biggest challenge for this new economy: the redistribution of the fruits of globalisation.

“Today, many of us have the feeling that globalisation only works well for the richest companies and countries. In the long term, a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth is a prerequisite for avoiding conflict, tensions and crises of every kind,” he said.

He added that creating the environment for fairer wealth distribution requires new international institutions capable of fresh thinking – a factor seen in the rapid development of organisations such as the BRICS Bank and financial organs dedicated to sustainable international development.

The third and most complex challenged facing the new global economy, according to Prof. de Villepin, is regulation. The lack of unified regulations, or the uneven enforcement of them, is responsible for disorder in the world today.

“Therefore, effective regulation in the era of AI and unparalleled global interconnectivity cannot be handled by a single nation alone. It must be a collective, cooperative process undertaken with common good in mind,” he added.

Building cultural bridges is the ultimate form of soft power

In concluding the dialogue, the professors gave a brief overview of how and why cultural bridges will be so important in the coming years.

Unlike the use of military force (which only hardens opposition against the aggressor), using cultural influence softens the target audience, making them more amenable to the goals and aspirations of the influencer.

Prof. de Villepin drew on the example of the United States, and how the world has been seduced by the cultural ideals of ‘The American Dream’ for over 100 years, with billions of people across successive generations dreaming of adopting an American lifestyle, drinking Coca-Cola, wearing Wrangler jeans and watching Hollywood’s latest creations.

This cultural dominance has bought the US more political, economic and even military influence than a formal empire won by force of arms ever could. It has made the US the master of soft power, the unspoken leader of all liberal democracies and won it allies and willing partners all over the world for its global projects.

“This is the power of the cultural bridge,” he noted.

To imitate this success, other nations must concentrate on building similar bridges of their own, on an unprecedented scale. China, a relative newcomer to the world of soft power, is beginning to consider the question of how best to export its culture to the world and secure the benefits of cultural influence as a result.

“Forming, clarifying and exporting ‘The Chinese Dream’ – a lifestyle that billions of people can yearn to imitate in the same way as the American Dream – will become increasingly important to the process of shaping the Chinese economy in the years to come,” Prof. de Villepin concluded.