Study Times, the theoretical journal of the Communist Party, published an article that attempted to correct “misconceptions” that Chinese scholars and government officials have about soft power. The article said that 90 percent of the publications related to culture (in China) have used the term "soft power." However, many people have described the term purely from the academic perspective and have missed its ideological meaning. The author pointed out that this misconception has had a negative impact on the development of China’s soft power; if it is not corrected, it could affect the direction of the development of Chinese style socialist culture.
The article asserted that the United States wants to dissolve the belief, confidence, and trust of Chinese Communist officials with a butter knife (of soft power) in order to change the Chinese Communist leaders’ Marxist beliefs … and eventually make them completely accept Western values and cultural thought. The 6th Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Congress proposed to develop a powerful nation with a socialist culture. The key is to develop the socialist core value system so as to fight against the infiltration of the western hostile forces and prevent a repeat of the tragedy that took place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe .
Source: Study times, April 16, 2012 http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2012/04/16/16/16_36.htm