Opinion
The Future of Soft Power in the Bilateral Dialogue Between Russia and China
China and Russia are not merely deploying parallel soft power practices and instruments, but are gradually converging toward a hybrid configuration that may be described as “strategic soft power.” This emerging form of combined influence integrates infrastructure, media, key resources connectivity, and institutional platforms into a unified geopolitical architecture. Analysis of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the Ukraine conflict, Russia’s RT, China’s CGTN, the TV BRICS media network, Arctic cooperation, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative demonstrates how soft power has become inseparable from material connectivity and crisis-driven geopolitical alignment, writes Hua Han, Co-Founder & Secretary General of the Beijing Club for International Dialogue.