China's Cultural Soft Power offers the most comprehensive study to date of the rise and fall of Confucius Institutes in the United States. Drawing on extensive interviews, documentary evidence, and the benefit of historical hindsight, Shao-cheng Sun presents a nuanced, empirically rich analysis of China's cultural diplomacy, the controversies surrounding the Confucius Institutes, and their eventual demise amid escalating bilateral tensions. Timely, balanced, and thoroughly researched, this book is an indispensable reference for scholars of contemporary China, global higher education, public diplomacy, and U.S.-China relations.

Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Professor of History and Executive Director of the Global Asia Institute, Pace University, USA

Shao-cheng Sun has given us the most comprehensive and balanced study to date of Confucius Institutes in the US. He has carefully tracked the rise and fall of CIs and clarified Chinese aims and official US efforts to derail them. Through insights from extensive interviews of CI personnel at a number of US institutions, Sun provides an excellent case study of the collision between Chinese soft power and US strategic priorities.

Mel Gurtov, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Portland State University, USA

Clear, thorough, precise, balanced, and persuasive. This definitive work on the rise and fall of China's Confucius Institutes in the United States, describes CIs as part of a broader strategy of ideological outreach to build soft power-to transform China's image “from an aggressive dragon to a friendly panda.” Sun's analysis highlights CIs within the tradition of the communist party-state's propaganda efforts; surveys CIs' direction, by-laws, organization, and personnel selection; describes eight representative CIs; discusses the controversies surrounding CIs, leading to their eventual closures or reorganizations; and evaluates why CIs failed to enhance China's influence and prestige.

Shale Horowitz, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA