依据《2025年全球软实力指数》报告，中国已超越英国，稳居全球第二位，较前一年提升一位。
在颇具影响力的品牌评估顾问公司Brand Finance最新发布的《2025年全球软实力指数》报告中，凸显了中国在世界政治和国际关系软实力排名中的显著进步。
该报告主要基于经济和商业的关键指标来拟定。其也衡量与文化和遗产、媒体和传播、教育和科学以及永续性相关的属性。
与通过军事力量和干预、强制外交和经济制裁相关的硬实力相比，这些软实力更具影响力和效力的一面。
报告指出，中国在“营商便利度”和“未来成长潜力”两项指标上连续四年保持全球第一。这与西方主流媒体经常报导、亚洲媒体转载支持的“中国崩溃”、“中国陷入经济危机”的景象截然不同。
同样值得注意的是，中国在“文化与遗产”和“媒体与传播”属性的排名中飙升至第七位。随著中国对外国游客的进一步开放以及电影《哪吒2》和人工智能 (AI) 应用程式“深度求索”的全球影响力，这一趋势正在加强。
后两者的软实力在各自领域发挥了强大影响力，以致经常从事反华报道、忽视或边缘化中国成就的西方主要媒体，如CNN、BBC和《纽约时报》，也纷纷跟进报导，当然是给予负面的评论。
《哪吒2》全球大片
《哪吒2》是中国最新制作的动画电影，将亲情、友谊、忠诚和牺牲的故事情节浓缩在中国神话和科技魔法框架内，吸引了无数的电影观众。预计票房收入将超过20亿美元（约88亿令吉）。这将使其成为全球票房最高的动画电影。
对于影迷来说，尤其是在上映的少数电影院（美国9595家电影院中的300家）观看该片的美国观众，《哪吒2》的吸引力不仅在于勇气和坚韧的普世主题，还在于影片中没有与美国觉醒文化、政治正确和态度相关的信息。
《哪吒2》的电影制作和文化影响，与西方通过殖民征服、宗教扩张和政治主导来展现文化统治是有所不同的。在当今的高科技时代，像《哪吒2》这样的电影展示了如何将技术、述事和文化遗产融合在一起，创造出一种新的电影制作和文化传播模式，这种模式根植于非意识形态的平等和对话，而不是传统的西方模式，即传达白人、基督教和西方意识形态的善良、优越和至上的讯息。
电影观众对神话故事叙述并不陌生。尽管中国和其他非西方的神话和故事有著丰富的历史和普世的主题，可在全球影视界却没有获得充分的发挥。这不仅是由于文化和历史差异所造成的。更重要的是20世纪初以来美国在电影业发展中占据主导地位的结果。
在美国政府的支持下，好莱坞一个多世纪以来一直主导著世界票房，并塑造了欧洲、亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲观众对美国和世界的看法。虽然这种情况一直持续到今天，但《哪吒》及其续集的成功应会鼓励其他国家的文化自信和讲述自己故事的能力。这将改变世界各国的软实力影响力和排名。
深度求索：关键影响
《哪吒2》是紧接著中国人工智能“深度求索”之后另一个令美国震惊的事件，“深度求索”在全球应用程式商店中犹如一颗重磅炸弹，作为取代Chat GPT的下载次数最多的人工智能应用程式，这个中国人工智能模型以其经济高效的低预算开发，对全球科技产业产生了重大影响。
这也导致美国主要科技股暴跌，并凸显了人工智能市场的权力动态变化。许多人现在将中国视为人工智能开发的主要参与者，可以挑战主导市场的西方人工智能应用程式以及微软和谷歌等科技巨头。
对于全球50亿智能手机用户（占世界人口的60%以上）来说，重要的无关其是一款中国应用程序，而是它是免费的。对于使用它的人来说，“深度求索”开创并打开了开源应用程式的大门，可以轻松使用和修改，无需支付费用或版税。
“深度求索”和《哪吒2》并不是中国软实力不断增强的唯一例子。在这之前，华为、比亚迪、TikTok、小红书以及其他完全或主要由中国本土人才开发的创新和产品，其连锁反应正在影响和打破美国和西方对现有世界秩序的统治。这也是为何，支持美国的亚洲国家要封禁“深度求索”。
特朗普美国优先政策 影响全球权力平衡
也许中国影响力的最大资产来自一个意想不到的来源——美国特朗普总统。作为世界上最具影响力的政治人物和新闻制造者，特朗普在其让美国再次伟大使命而展开的外交政策运动，让美国的盟友意识到，他们作为附庸和谄媚者的地位，使得他们的利益在特朗普对美国硬实力与软实力的重新定义过程中，若成为阻碍，便不可避免地被摆上牺牲的祭坛。
这与中国迅速发展的软实力成就以及强调经济发展和区域互联互通以实现共同繁荣的“一带一路”倡议相结合，将导致当前世界秩序迅速重塑为更加公平和包容的多极秩序。
林德宜《特朗普联手《哪吒2》与深度求索强化中国软实力》原文：Trump Joins Ne Zha 2 and Deep Seek To Strengthen China’s Soft Power
The latest report of the Global Soft Power Index for 2025 by influential brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, highlights the remarkable progress of China in the ranking of soft power in world politics and international relations wielded by countries of the world.
This report is based primarily on key indicators in economics and business. It also measures attributes related to culture and heritage, media and communication, education and science and sustainability.
These together are increasing the more influential and effective side of the power coin as compared with the flip side of hard power associated with military power and intervention, coercive diplomacy and economic sanction.
The report notes that China retains first place globally for ‘ease to do business in and with’ and ‘future growth potential’ attributes for the last four years consecutively. This is a picture quite different to the one of ‘China collapsing’ and ‘China in economic crisis’ regularly featured in western mainstream media and reproduced by supporting Asian media.
What is also notable is that China has soared to 7th place in the ranking of ‘culture and heritage’ and ‘media and communication’ attributes. This trend is strengthening with the further opening up of the country to foreign visitors and the global impact of the movie, Ne Zhe2 (NZ2) and the artificial intelligence (AI) app, Deep Seek.
The impact of the latter two soft power successes in their respective fields has been such that western media leaders such as CNN, BBC and New York Times that regularly engage in anti-China reporting, as well as have ignored or marginalized Chinese achievements, have run stories on them but with negative comments.
Ne Zha2 Global Movie Megahit
Ne Zha2 (NZ2), the latest China produced animation film hit with its story line of family, friendship, loyalty and sacrifice encapsulated within a framework of Chinese mythology and techno wizardry has captivated movie audiences wherever shown. It is expected to generate more than US$2 billion in box office takings. This will make it the highest ranking box office animated film in the world.
What's appealing to movie fans, especially American audiences viewing it in the small number of cinemas it is allowed to show - 300 of 9595 movie theatres in the US - are not just the universal themes of courage and resilience but also the absence of messages relating to wokeness, political correctness, and attitude.
Unlike in the West, where cultural dominance has been based on colonial conquest, religious expansion and political dominance, this example of film making and cultural influence is different. In today's high-tech era, films like NZ2 demonstrate how technology, storytelling and cultural heritage can converge to create a new filmmaking and culture dissemination model rooted in non ideological equality and dialogue rather than the legacy western model with its message of white, Christian and ideological goodness, superiority and supremacy.
Movie audiences are no strangers to mythology-based storytelling. However, Chinese and other non-western mythology and story lines have been underexplored in the global entertainment world despite their rich history and universal themes. This is not only due to cultural and historical differences. It is more importantly an outcome of American dominance in the development of the movie industry since the early 20th century.
Hollywood - with US government support - has dominated the world box office for more than a century and shaped how audiences in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America view the US and the world. Whilst this continues today, the success of Ne Zha and its sequel should encourage other countries in their cultural confidence and ability to tell their own stories. This will impact the soft power influence and ranking of the countries of the world.
Deep Seek: Sputnik Moment and Bombshell Impact
NZ2 comes just after Deep Seek which was like a bombshell in app stores around the world. As the most downloaded AI app, replacing Chat GPT, the Chinese AI model has significantly impacted the global tech industry by its cost-effective low budget development.
This has caused major tech stocks to plummet and highlights the shifting power dynamics in the AI market. Many now see China as a major player in AI development that can challenge western AI apps dominating the market and tech giants such as Microsoft and Google.
What’s important to the 5 billion smartphone users in the world - they account for over 60% of the world’s population - is not that it is a Chinese app but that it is free. For those using it, Deep Seek has pioneered and opened the door to an open source app that can be used and modified easily and without the need to pay a fee or royalty.
Deep Seek and NZ2 are not the only examples of China's growing soft power. They follow Huawei, BYD, TikTok, Red Note and other recent China innovations and products developed entirely or mainly with homegrown talent whose ripple effects are affecting and undermining US and western domination of the existing world order. Already sanctions are being applied to Deep Seek including by Asian countries supporting the US.
Trump’s MAGA Impact Global Power Balance
Perhaps the greatest asset to China’s influence comes from an unlikely source - President Donald Trump. As the world’s greatest political influencer and news maker, Trump in his mission to make America great again has embarked on a foreign policy campaign that has made US allies realize that their client and sycophantic status makes it inevitable that their interests are placed on the sacrificial table if they stand in the way of Trump’s redefinition of American hard and soft power.
This combined with China’s burgeoning soft power achievements, and Belt and Road Initiative with its emphasis on economic development and regional connectivity to bring about shared prosperity, will result in the rapid remaking of the current world order to a more equitable and inclusive multipolar one.
公共政策分析学者
