China has generated great wealth that has yielded an impressive military machine over the past 40 years, but Beijing continues to struggle as it seeks to turn those assets into global influence. Chinese leadership has recognized that it must win the hearts and minds of the public around the world, rather than merely intimidate them, to accomplish that objective.

Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World, by Joshua Kurlantzick.560 pagesOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Nonfiction.

Joshua Kurlantzick, a journalist who has written extensively on the region and a regular contributor to The Japan Times, has kept a close eye on Chinese efforts to do that, first in “Charm Offensive,” his 2007 analysis of China’s soft power, and in “Beijing’s Global Media Offensive,” published last December.