China's Public Relations: A Journey of Integration into the World

World public relations has a history of over a hundred years, and China's public relations has also gone through 30 years alongside reform and opening-up. Looking back, public relations, as an emerging industry and independent discipline, has clearly demonstrated its role in advancing human civilization. Reviewing China's 30 years of reform and opening-up, the introduction and rooting of modern public relations have helped China integrate into the world faster and better.

Today, no one doubts that China's development must integrate with the world. However, how a peacefully rising China integrates into the world is a major issue. To solve this problem, we have attempted to give public relations a unique role in China's development: whether it is China's massive aid to Indonesia after the tsunami, or hosting the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation with over forty heads of state; whether it is establishing the spokesperson system to explain China to the world, or advancing the difficult Six-Party Talks... These all demonstrate the unique role of Chinese public relations in China's journey to the world.

Of course, the results of these efforts are not always satisfactory, and sometimes even counterproductive: from the 'Made in China' crisis to the Darfur issue in Sudan; from the '3.14' riot in Lhasa, Tibet to the disruptions of the Olympic torch relay overseas... One crisis after another, one incident after another, have troubled us. But this precisely shows that China's ability and level of integrating into the world through public relations still need improvement, and we must bravely face new challenges. In fact, it was in the face of such national crises that we implemented unprecedented 'crisis PR', which enabled us to successfully host the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing in the golden autumn.

A wise nation inevitably has unique thoughts; a contemplative country inevitably has unique discoveries; an open China inevitably has an open mind... China often carries out its 'geographical discoveries' in public relations amidst these paradoxes. But I think perhaps it is precisely because of this that, while we see 'the class enemy's undying intention to harm us', we must also learn 'how a rising power dialogues with the world', using good public relations practices to communicate with the world and resolve crises. In this sense, the hugely successful 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, despite encountering so many 'growing pains' before its opening, was indeed an unparalleled coming-of-age ceremony for China! And behind this ceremony, our public relations concepts and practices also achieved a great leap and elevation, which should be a significant asset left to us by the Olympics.

I remember two years ago, I proposed a relatively novel academic concept. I believed that 'with the emergence and development of the theory of soft power, an opportunity to construct a new public relations theory has appeared before us, and at the same time, a true era of grand public relations may have arrived.' I also thought that the emergence of the 'soft power' theory not only signals perspectives from other disciplines, but its core concept is essentially the essence of public relations. Building a new public relations theory with 'soft power' at its core should be a unique perspective, and even public relations could become a more comprehensive and profound disciplinary interpretation and support for the 'soft power' theory. Of course, it may be premature to reconstruct public relations theory using 'soft power' theory now; perhaps it is only one branch of public relations theory. However, integrating 'soft power' theory into public relations research is a necessity for social development. We have reason to believe that with the introduction of 'soft power' theory, the trend of expanding new ideas, new theories, and new frameworks in public relations research has fully emerged.

Although China's public relations has helped China integrate into the world faster and better, we should also recognize that there are still many problems in the development of public relations. For example, facing the famous saying 'public relations first seeks self-improvement', we deeply feel that the path we have taken often deviates; facing the saying 'public relations is ultimately the product of democratic institutions', we deeply feel that the road ahead is extremely difficult... In this sense, public relations can be called a form of human civilization.