E. M. RUSAKOV Candidate of Historical Sciences Keywords: China, USA, foreign policy, "soft power", "hard power" Beijing's claim to be the " flag bearer "of a soft power foreign policy strategy is remarkable in many ways. In addition to the purely foreign policy aspects, they also reflect the fact that at this stage of its history, China is very actively borrowing foreign experience, quite successfully adapting it to national specifics. Thus, the Middle Kingdom effectively uses the advantage of "catching up" development, which makes it possible, with a skillful approach, to speed up the stage of modern industrial modernization. This also applies to the concept of "soft power", borrowed from the American political scientist J. Nye. But we must not forget that willy-nilly, if not parallels, then at least associations with the credo of a much more famous "political scientist" - the president of the United States at the beginning of the XX century. Theodore Roosevelt (uncle of the great Franklin D. Roosevelt). Recall his "winged words": "Speak softly, holding a big club in your hands, and you will go far." FROM THEODORE ROOSEVELT... US President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) was an outspoken supporter of aggressive policies, especially colonial ones, who earned a reputation as a hero in the Spanish-American war of the late XIX century. Expansion and militarism remained the main components of his worldview and foreign policy. Suffice it to say that through the efforts of this American leader, the US Navy has doubled 1. However (as is sometimes forgotten), in those days all the leaders of the great powers, and not only the great ones, also did not hide their geopolitical appetites. Roosevelt himself wrote about such ambitions that "the rule of England in India and Egypt, as well as France in Algeria and Russia in Turkestan, means great progress for mankind." 2And strange as it may seem now, in such an atmosphere, his famous credo regarding "soft speeches" with a "big club ... Read more