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China's High-Speed Railway Diplomacy (HSRD) as a Tool for Improving Soft Power
Xiu, Lanyu ; Doboš, Bohumil (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
The following thesis conducted a case study to investigate the opinion of exper ts working on the Bombay-Ahmadabad HSR and Ankara-Istanbul HSR on how China uses HSRD and BRI to develop and utilize its soft power and whether that opinion ma tches the official Chinese point of view. The official Chinese view about BRI is that it seeks to deliver win-win outcomes, development, and improvement of lives for partici pating countries. In addition, it 'has no geopolitical motives, seeks no exclusionary bl ocs, and imposes no business deals on others … addresses people's desire for a better l ife … and shared benefits.' Ramo (2007)'s operationalization of the term global image was used to assess the respondents' opinions. The results showed that there is low dependability of the overa ll BRI among the respondents. A majority of the respondents (60%) claimed that BRI and HSRD are successful but were not impressed by the delivered value and quality o f BRI. 70% of the respondents believed that the Bombay-Ahmadabad HSR would ach ieve its objective and that it had a high level of technology. In terms of financial, socia l and political impact, the responses showed proportions of 40%, 37%, 44% respectiv ely gave a positive answer. Overall, it can be concluded that in terms of image the Bo mbay-Ahmadab gave...
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