Dreams: The Pursuit of Consensus and the Display of National Power—Chinese Soccer Softpower Narratives

This chapter discusses sport in Chinese public discourse as a means of internal (对内) softpower (软实力), with focus on soccer. While China’s recent arrival onto the global soccer stage has attracted abundant media coverage in the Western world, especially regarding the financial and sport-related aspects of the development, international research on the political meaning of the phenomenon is still scarce. This chapter offers insights into China’s current use of sport for internal political purposes through a language based analysis of China’s official and media narratives on football. It places the discussion within the analytic framework of “internal” (内部) softpower.