Open Access Journal Article

Public Diplomacy and Chinese OFDI: Empirical Evidence from the Africa

by Xinjian Ye a ,  Zhuolin Wu a ,  Shuocong Gu b  and  Shikuan Zhao c,*
a
School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, Changsha, China
b
Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK
c
School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
REA  2023, 9; 2(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.58567/rea02010004
Received: 19 February 2023 / Accepted: 30 March 2023 / Published Online: 23 April 2023
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Abstract

Public diplomacy is a significant factor in promoting policy communication, people-to-people bonds, and the protection of foreign assets between two nations, but there is little research on the economic worth of public diplomacy. Python was used to crawl the daily search frequency of "China", "African countries", and related terms to construct the heat index of China-Africa public diplomacy during 2011-2019, and a two-way fixed effect model was developed to examine the impact of public diplomacy on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa. The empirical results show that public diplomacy has a considerable favorable effect on China’s OFDI in Africa, and after a series of robustness tests, the basic conclusion still holds. Heterogeneity tests show the investment promotion effect of public diplomacy is more pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa and that the promotion mechanism exhibits the characteristics of poverty alleviation and risk aversion. In addition, the promotion effect of public diplomacy on China’s OFDI becomes greater as time goes on. In terms of impact mechanisms, public diplomacy may promote OFDI by enhancing financing capacity and improving national governance. The research conclusion has policy implications for promoting China-Africa public diplomacy and investment cooperation in the new era.

Keywords: China-Africa relations; Public Diplomacy; Outward foreign direct investment;
Copyright: © 2023 by Ye, Wu, Gu and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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ACS Style
Ye, X.; Wu, Z.; Gu, S.; Zhao, S. Public Diplomacy and Chinese OFDI: Empirical Evidence from the Africa. Review of Economic Assessment, 2023, 2, 9. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea02010004
AMA Style
Ye X, Wu Z, Gu S, Zhao S. Public Diplomacy and Chinese OFDI: Empirical Evidence from the Africa. Review of Economic Assessment; 2023, 2(1):9. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea02010004
Chicago/Turabian Style
Ye, Xinjian; Wu, Zhuolin; Gu, Shuocong; Zhao, Shikuan 2023. "Public Diplomacy and Chinese OFDI: Empirical Evidence from the Africa" Review of Economic Assessment 2, no.1:9. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea02010004
APA style
Ye, X., Wu, Z., Gu, S., & Zhao, S. (2023). Public Diplomacy and Chinese OFDI: Empirical Evidence from the Africa. Review of Economic Assessment, 2(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea02010004

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