(Bloomberg) -- President Xi Jinping urged China to project more soft power, underscoring his campaign to make the nation more influential globally and challenge the US-led order.
Xi said at a study session of the 24-member Politburo on Monday that officials must “continuously enhance the country’s cultural soft power and the influence of Chinese culture,” state broadcaster China Central Television reported.
Xi also reiterated his goal of making China “a powerhouse in culture” by 2035, according to a separate report from the official Xinhua News Agency.
Xi has made building China’s profile on the world stage a priority of his decade-plus in power, working especially to appeal to developing nations.
In September, he vowed at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing to provide $50 billion in financial support to countries on the continent. That included a pledge to triple China’s credit lines to the continent to $30 billion, despite an economic slowdown at home that’s threatening Beijing’s annual growth goal.
And last week Xi traveled to Russia for a BRICS summit where he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Beijing has pushed to expand and take a leadership role in the bloc, and Xi has called for nations in the Global South to have a greater say in international affairs.
In a speech earlier this year in Beijing, Xi took a veiled swipe at the US, saying the world “should never be allowed to listen to whoever has a strong arm.”
--With assistance from Olivia Tam.
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