The Power of Tradition Confucius Institutes and cultural diplomacy in the Visegrád Four countries

In the past few decades, educational and cultural institutions have become increasingly widespread and popular all over the world. The aim of non-profit public organizations such as Britain‘s British Council, Germany‘s Goethe-Institut, France‘s Alliance Française or Spain‘s Instituto Cervantes is promoting language and culture as well as facilitating teaching and cultural exchanges. Confucius Institute (å­”å­ å­¦é™¢) of the People‘s Republic of China, founded in 2004, is a remarkably fast-growing example for such institutions. As of now, there are more than 700 Confucius Institutes all over six continents. The institutions named after the probably best known Chinese philosopher co-operate with local universities, sharing finances, promoting language courses, training teachers, organizing language exams and contests and hosting cultural and artistic events. The ―trademark name‖ is, unsurprisingly, often associated with China‘s projection of soft power in order to improve the country‘s international image, and, possibly, using diplomatic manipulation. Scrutinized or not, Chinese public diplomacy through Confucius Institutes has been a phenomenal success story so far. China‘s relations with the Visegrad Group countries have lately seen a significant growth within the ties of the so-called 16+1 platform and the One Belt, One Road Initiative, both established in 2013. As Chinese investment approach usually walks hand in hand with soft power projection, it is no different in case of the V4 countries. In this paper I provide a comparative overview of Confucius Institutes in the four Visegrad countries including statistical data, the institutions‘ fields and ways of operation and co-operation as well as the impact of this significant soft power push on the present and future of V4-China relations.