Abatract

In recent years, the social media have developed rapidly and become the main platform of information acquisition and online communication for internet users. U.S. attached great importance to the diplomatic value of social media and developed a series of policies that incorporated social media into its diplomatic activities. U.S. views China as the major target of its diplomatic use of social media. The U.S. Department of State and its diplomatic missions to China launched various information dissemination and public interactive activities, intending to convey information, to monitor and guide public opinions, showing such features as comprehensive coverage, content in Chinese, direct communication with the public, gradual and silent influence. The use of social media in U.S. diplomacy toward China has achieved multiple effects, expanding the channels of China-U.S. exchanges and ways of mutual understanding, providing new opportunities for U.S. to interfere in China's social and political process, and also implying some potential risk of conflict between China and U.S.

Keywords

U.S. Diplomacy, China-U.S. Relations, Internet, Social Media

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