A Theoretical Exploration and Practical Application of China’s Sports Diplomacy from the Perspective of International Political Psychology

Sports diplomacy, one of the five strategic tasks in the leading sports nation, stands as a crucial avenue to make sports a hallmark of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This study adopts the methodological guidance of international political psychology to dissect the role of sports diplomacy on peace promotion. The study posits that sports diplomacy significantly influences the resolution of “diplomatic trust dilemmas” among nations, fostering understanding and consensus through the shaping of internal perceptions. Sports diplomacy is categorized into official and non-official interactions, both complementing the functions of traditional diplomacy with different effects and objectives. An analysis of China's sports diplomacy using related theories of international political psychology reveals challenges, including confined thinking in non-official interactions, a lack of globally renowned sports public goods, weakened international discourse power in sports, inadequate talent for multi-track sports diplomacy,and insufficient think tank development for sports diplomacy. To address these issues, practical pathways are proposed, such as refining the rehearsal and evaluation mechanism for sports diplomacy, ensuring the indirectness of non-official sports interactions,establishing a “strong sports, weak diplomacy” sports diplomacy model, constructing output-input bidirectional pathways for sports diplomacy, and formulating specialized guidelines for sports diplomacy.