'Other Diplomacy' in Paradiplomacy: Quebec's Cinema and China

In: The Hague journal of diplomacy, Band 11, Heft 4, S. 383-403

Abstract

China has had an important impact on the political mobilization of other forms of diplomacy in the Canadian province of Quebec. Quebec's missionaries and Maoists have used cinema for propaganda purposes aimed at forging political opinions towards China. Quebec's modest non-state actor (nsa) — the Quebec cinema lobby — has developed expertise and links with other institutions or actors — both non-state and state — and has had an impact on international relations. Quebec's cinema is an important lobby participating in a coalition of nsas that triggered and monitors the unesco Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. This article examines how Quebec's cinema lobby has evolved, whether it has tried to influence Canadian government policies towards China and, more broadly, asks what the experience of Quebec filmmakers as non-state diplomatic actors suggests about the ways in which 'other diplomacy' can influence international relations.