China's foreign policy in recent decades has emphasized international prestige and credibility as desirable values, striving to
achieve these through the strategy of "peaceful development." However, the Western world, particularly the United States and
Japan as transregional and regional powers, view this strategy with suspicion, perceiving it as a threat. In contrast, Chinese
officials regard this process as natural, emphasizing China’s inherent role and position in Asia and beyond.
In this context, the key role of social power as a foreign policy tool emerges in normalizing China’s peaceful development
strategy. Here, China seeks to complement its hard power with social power to frame its policies as both favorable and normal.
More importantly, it aims to portray its policies as natural. The main question of this article is: what is the role of social power in
China's foreign policy?
The hypothesis of this article, developed through an analytical-descriptive method, is that China, by emphasizing the role of
social power in its foreign policy and utilizing its tools—Confucian thought, public diplomacy, and economic
institutions—creates opportunities to introduce alternative norms and desirable standards in foreign policy. This enables China to
normalize its "peaceful rise" and "peaceful development" strategies in the realm of foreign policy.