Chinese Public Diplomacy Activities

This dataset is composed of first-of-its-kind quantitative data—on China’s public diplomacy efforts from two of AidData’s reports, Ties That Bind and Influencing the Narrative—that is available through AidData’s China’s Public Diplomacy Dashboard. In the dashboard, users can create custom data sets, maps and graphs based on the type of public diplomacy, recipient countries and time periods in which they are specifically interested. This static dataset includes metrics for five types of public diplomacy: financial, cultural, elite-to-elite, exchange, and informational. This dataset allows disaggregation of Chinese public diplomacy activities into several constituent measures over time and space in 25 East Asia and Pacific countries for the years 2000-2016.

The dataset download includes a ReadMe, a methodology document, and two separate data files: (1) China’s Public Diplomacy Dashboard Dataset, Version 1.0, which provides country-year aggregates for each public diplomacy measure; and (2) China’s Financial Diplomacy Project Details, which provides a detailed look at the Chinese Official Finance flows that are used in the main analysis for financial diplomacy.

The dataset consists of variables collected from an array of sources and methods, including primary data collection carried out by AidData as well as extending existing measures pioneered by previous research. This research was conducted with generous support from the United States Department of State and in partnership with the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Data sources and citations

Below are the citations for the reports from which the data in this dataset are drawn as well as the attribution for secondary data used in those reports:

Ties That Bind‍

Published by AidData in 2018, this report quantified China’s financial, cultural, exchange, and elite-to-elite diplomacy in East Asia and the Pacific.

Custer, S., Russell, B. DiLorenzo, M., Cheng, M., Ghose, S., Sims, J., Turner, J., and H. Desai. (2018). Ties That Bind: Quantifying China’s public diplomacy and its "good neighbor" effect. Williamsburg, VA: AidData at William & Mary.

Report Data Sources

• Official Finance with Diplomatic Intent (Financial Diplomacy): Relevant projects from the AidData Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset (version 1.0) between 2000-2014. We replicated the data collection methodology to extend the coverage to 2016 throughout all of the EAP.
• Confucius Institutes (Cultural Diplomacy): 2004-2014 global dataset provided by Xiang and Huang (2015). We extended the dataset for 2015-2016 in East Asia and the Pacific using the Hanban website and targeted internet searches.
• Total Official Visits (Elite-to-Elite Diplomacy): China Foreign Affairs Yearbooks from 2000-2015. AidData compiled visits of all levels from the chapter of "China’s Relations with Diplomatic Countries" from each yearbook. 2016 yearbook was not available at the time of data collection for this project.
• Sister Cities (Exchange Diplomacy): We used the data provided by China International Friendship Cities Association, n.d. and supplemented it using targeted web searches for Japan and Malaysia.

Influencing the Narrative‍

Published by AidData in 2019, this report quantified China’s student exchange and informational diplomacy in East Asia and the Pacific.

Custer, S., Prakash, M., Solis, J., Knight, R., and J. Lin. (2019). Influencing the Narrative: How the Chinese government mobilizes students and media to burnish its image. Williamsburg, VA. AidData at William & Mary.

Report Data Sources

• Student Scholarships to Study in China: This is an original AidData compiled dataset created by scraping embassy websites' news sections for announcements of government scholarships.
• Chinese Students Studying in Country: We queried United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's Institute for Statistics database for global tertiary student flows for Chinese origin.
• Students Inbound to China: This is an original AidData compiled dataset made by translating information in Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yearbooks.
• Ambassador Op-Eds: This is an original AidData compiled dataset made by translating information in Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yearbooks.
• Journalist Visits to China: This is an original AidData compiled dataset made by translating information in Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yearbooks and supplementing them with announcements made in the news sections of Chinese embassy websites of EAP countries.
• Media Partnerships: This data was originally created by Emily Feng (2018) for her article in the Financial Times. We validated this data and fixed some errors in the mapping of partnerships to countries.