Who Does China Want to Impress Most?
By J. J. Ghosh | 27 Feb, 2026

China’s quest for soft power begins with winning over its own citizens.

No shortage of ink has been spilled over 2026 Olympic gold medalist Eileen Gu’s decision to compete on the Chinese National team rather than for the United States.

Gu, whose mother is Chinese and father is American, was born in San Francisco and identifies as Asian American.  Her decision to compete with China is nothing new.  She has done so since 2019.

Olympian Eileen Gu

On the surface, there seems to be little mystery about why she might have chosen to compete for China.  Training to become the most decorated freestyle skater in Olympic history, a feat she accomplished just this month, is certainly not cheap.  And according to records, China has invested over $14 million into training Gu and fellow Chinese American olympic athlete Zhu Yi, who was also born in the United States.

While Gu’s US critics have been scathing, it’s tough not to point to their hypocrisy of failing to scrutinize, say the US golfers who chose to compete in Saudi Arabia’s LIV gold league rather than the American PGA tour.  Such star golfers and Dustin Johnson have literally made tens of millions of dollars by their decision to join the Saudi League.  There appears to be no mystery to their motives, either. 

For better or worse, most people have their price. It is simply not hard to fathom that one would be motivated by money in sports.

This image sparked widespread debate over whether the Malayan sun bear in China's Hangzhou Zoo was actually a human in a costume

But if Gu’s motives seem clear, it’s China’s that I’m interested in.

Yes, every country cares about winning olympic gold.  But in the case of China, I believe that they are chasing something deeper.

National Pride

Olympic glory is so coveted that nations have gone to extreme lengths to achieve it, even violating both the rules and spirit of the Olympic games.  Russia’s various doping scandals, for example, have resulted in the revocation of 51 medals.

China itself has been penalized for lying about the age of its gymnasts, passing 14 year olds off as 16 to meet requirements.

Asking why one would go to such lengths admittedly seems like a dumb question.  Who wouldn’t want to prove that they’re the best in the world?

But the more salient question is: who exactly they are trying to prove it to?

The new Chinamaxxing trend is taking TikTok by storm

I would argue that China's pursuit of glory isn't just chest-thump for the rest of the world, but is, just as importantly, for its own citizens.

This could be true for any nation at any time.  But in the case of China, it is especially true for this particular moment.

China is a communist republic.  Its system of governance requires a high level of compliance from its citizens.  And what better way to achieve it than national pride?

Put another way, it is part of China's quest for soft power.

Soft Power

The term "soft power” was coined by political scientist and former Clinton-appointee Joseph Nye in the late 1980s.  He defines it as “the ability to get others to do what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payment.”

Nye was stunned when Chinese President Hu Jintao used the term in a 2007 speech, stating that China had to invest more in its soft power.  What followed was a one on one dinner between Nye and a Chinese foreign minister who was eager for guidance on how China might increase its soft power.

Needless to say it’s not simply a theory that this is something China has been chasing for 20 years. It’s fact.

Another fact is that China is contending to usurp the US as the world’s top economic power.  And it may very well achieve that in the not-so-distant future.  But it's currently facing some serious struggles. 

After years of growing at warp speed, it's now facing speed bumps that include slowed consumer spending, trade tensions, and an aging population that puts its labor force at risk.

There’s no doubt that it needs to deal with each of these issues now in order to succeed in the long run.  But it must also convince their citizens that it has everything under control, whether or not that’s actually true.

Cyberpunk Cities

The "cyberpunk" city of Chongqing, China

Social media is of course a great way to present yourself in whatever light you wish.  Every day most of us get on Instagram or TikTok and try to make ourselves seem much happier and more successful than we actually are.

That’s no different for world powers.  China has specifically received widespread acclaim for some of its major cities. 

As CNN notes, “videos showing vertiginous skylines from Chinese metropolises like Chongqing and Shanghai have gone viral for depicting a futuristic vision of urban life.”

Chongqing was once just a modest port city.  It now hosts 2.5 million tourists per year.

Countless articles have been written about the futuristic city, nearly every one using the word cyberpunk to describe it .

Notably, the term cyberpunk refers to cities that benefit from peak technology despite its citizens typically living under oppression.  As movies like Blade Runner or shows like Andor will tell you, technological advances do not equal happiness.

In other words, these cities may very well be a facade.  Regardless of whether or not their residents are in fact worthy of the envy that millions of internet users hold towards them, the optics are as CNN’s headlines proclaim “a softpower boost for Beijing”

But the benefits are two-fold: while millions flock to the city, residents all over China understand that they have something the rest of the world wants.

It’s like how I, as an American, needn’t live in New York to take pride in the fact that four million tourists visit the Statue of Liberty every year.  In a communist republic like China, of course, that sense of pride is on steroids.

Culture

I’m thinking back to one of the more hilarious news stories in recent memory.  In 2023 the viral image of a Chinese bear caused the internet to question whether the Hangzhou zoo animal was actually a human in a costume.

The zoo fervently denied it, even releasing a statement from the perspective of the bear declaring that “Some people think I look too human when I stand up.  It seems you really don’t understand me.”

While it does seem like this was a real bear that happened to be photographed at the perfect moment, what made this story particularly funny to me at the time was the sheer believability that China might do something like that. 

China truly does appear to leave no stone unturned when it comes to chest-thumping, whether that’s winning olympic gold or claiming territories that few nations would be impressed by.

Using sleight of hand to convince citizens that they have a coveted Malayan sun bear in their zoo is very much within the realm of possibility. 

Information Control

A key to China’s ability to influence the opinions of their own citizens has long been through controlling the spread of information.

The Chinese government is known to have the most extensive digital censorship apparatus in the world.  Known as “The Great Firewall,” China blocks foreign websites like Facebook, Instagram and even Google, and censors certain words, facts, or phrases.

It’s been noted that China’s goal here is not simply to censor individuals but to instill a culture of self-censorship among its citizens.  Getting the Chinese population to believe certain things from the outset is significantly more efficient than having to consistently push them in a certain direction.

And then on the other side of the coin is China’s quest for influence outside of its own borders, particularly via a certain popular social media app.

TikTok in many ways epitomizes soft power.  It’s cool, popular, and used in every corner of the world.

Look no further than TikTok’s popular new “Chinamaxxing trend” also known as “becoming Chinese.”

The new craze has many Americans posting videos of themselves partaking in Chinese traditions like drinking hot water, replacing shoes with slippers in the household, and adding lemon and ginger to their drinks.

Some might see these videos as satire or even cultural appropriation. Others might appreciate that the bottom line is ultimately a greater appreciation of Chinese traditions.

This new trend is also far from the only way that China has succeeded on the global pop culture scene, lately.  Labubu dolls have taken the world by storm.  Not to mention globally popular Chinese video games like "Black Myth: WuKong" and the blockbuster film "Nhe Zha 2."

TikTok’s influence has not been lost on the US government, which recently passed bipartisan legislation to force the sale of TikTok’s US version to American investors.

With little evidence, the US government cited national security concerns as the rationale.  But maybe it was always about power. 

That is, the spread of China’s soft power. 

Bottom Line

The coming decades' wars are less likely to be waged in the battlefields than in the tech sphere and in the public eye.  While traditional military power that has defined previous generations still matters, it is far from the be all and end all. 

China seems to understand this.

As the US media continues to debate Eileen Gu’s decision to compete for China, it is hard to imagine that China’s population of 1.4 billion is reacting in any way other than celebration. 

Whatever it cost China to lure her to their team, few can argue that it wasn’t a sound investment.