(Observer News) On February 29, local time, brand finance, an internationally renowned brand value assessment agency, released the "2024 Global Soft Power Index Report." Brand Finance said that the report, based on a survey of more than 170,000 respondents from more than 100 countries, ranked all 193 member states of the United Nations for the first time.
According to the report, the United States and the United Kingdom still rank first and second as the countries with the most influential soft power in the world. China's national soft power index has grown significantly, surpassing Japan and Germany, ranking third in the soft power index for the first time, and making greater progress than any other country. The
report stated that soft power is defined as the ability of a country’s culture, political values, foreign policies, etc. to attract and persuade other countries. China's overall score increased by 6.2 points from last year, from 65.0 to 71.2, ranking first in the world in terms of growth.
China’s soft power ranked third for the first time Report screenshot
The report pointed out that the significant progress in various pillar areas reflects the continued rise of China’s global influence, which is the main driving factor for the improvement of China’s soft power. Among them, in the "Business and Trade" indicator, China ranks third with a score of 8.8, which is mainly due to its outstanding performance in the attributes of "ease of business transactions" and "future development potential".
In the "education and science" indicator, China also ranks third with a score of 7.6. Especially in the "technology and innovation leader" category, China's score showed a significant upward trend, surpassing the United States and ranking second, second only to Japan.
In the report's assessment of national brand value, China still ranks second after the United States. The report stated that when the world economy is faced with the impact of uncertainties such as inflation and geopolitical crises, measuring the value of a country's brand is more important than ever. However, due to the slowdown in global economic growth, the brand value of most countries has declined to a certain extent. The
report noted that China has become the world's largest supplier of commodities, with strong production capacity in electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other fields, and has provided the world with a large number of low-price, high-quality industrial products. Few countries can compete with China in this regard. The
report believes that in a period of global uncertainty and instability, economic strength is increasingly important to a country's soft power. "Strong and stable economy" and "products and brands loved by the world" have become global influences. key driving factors. This trend explains the continued dominance of major economies such as the United States and China, as well as smaller developed economies such as Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. David Haigh, CEO of
brand finance, commented that there are large differences in perceptions of various countries and their actions around the world, which is related to factors such as a lack of communication. Therefore, the World Economic Forum believes that misinformation and disinformation are the "biggest threat" to world peace and stability.
Haig said: “Global hard power spending reached a record $2.2 trillion in 2023 and is expected to continue to grow in 2024. But at the same time, we estimate that total spending on communications by country brands is less than $1 billion. Considering the huge differences in investment, it is not surprising that hard power has always dominated soft power."
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