The Resistance and Resilience of National Image Building: An Empirical Analysis of Confucius Institute Closures in the USA

National image building (NIB) has become a critical strategy in public diplomacy. Extending the existing sender-focused literature on NIB, this study takes the receiver side into account. Our focus on the Confucius Institute (CI), China's critical NIB effort in the USA, examines how a powerful receiver's resistance affects the sender's image locally. Based on an extensive data set of American CIs, we also pinpoint exactly who in the receiver country motivates the resistance to China's NIB endeavours. The analytic results show that CI closures may indeed have diminished local US media attention to China, but empirical evidence nevertheless proves the resilience of China's NIB-one whose ethos lingers even in places where institutes have been closed down. As to the motivators of NIB resistance, American colleges have called for a certain level of autonomy in regard to deciding the fate of CIs, and the government undoubtedly has influence on the issue, largely through public school decisions.