China's Sharp Power: How China Seeks to Influence and Coerce its Neighbours

In my thesis, I will answer question of what is sharp power, how China use sharp power and then on 4 cases illustrate that China has different strategies of influence operations. In Japan, respectively Okinawa, China is focusing on their common history and trying to lure Okinawans away from Japan. In South Korea, China exploit Korean economic dependence during the THAAD dispute to their advantage. In Taiwan, thanks to common cultural ties China wants to change everybody mind about Taiwanese "status-quo". In New Zealand, China utilize overseas Chinese community to spread Chinese propaganda. In the end, I will compare each country situation and find out where China's sharp power was effective and where it wasn't