This paper addresses the Chinese policy community’s interpretations of identities,which potentially shape the soft power policies of China. It couples soft power toidentity through a discourse analysis of the language used by the Chinese state inrelation to soft power. It builds on a number of earlier theorizations that associate softpower with identity as a discursive phenomenon. The results highlight the use ofstrategic disrespect in China’s soft power discourse. In the context of global culturalcompetition, and in particular the South-South cooperation framework, it is argued thatthe practitioners of the Chinese discourse present China’s‘Self’as a soft power and theWestern‘Other’as a hard power.