China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian used the ministry’s final press briefing before the Spring Festival to send warm New Year greetings and underscore Beijing’s outreach to overseas Chinese. Speaking at the routine briefing on February 13, Lin framed the coming Year of the Horse in culturally resonant terms — “wishing everyone good fortune” — while stressing continued cooperation with journalists in presenting a vivid picture of China to the world.
Lin also outlined a sustained consular campaign that Beijing has run since 2023 under the banner “Warm Spring Festival · Celebrate Chinese New Year.” Now in its fourth year, the initiative marshals embassies and consulates to organise visits, celebrations and cultural programming for diasporic communities, conveying what the ministry describes as the leadership’s care and using the overseas Chinese community as “a bridge” for cultural exchange.
During the holiday period, Lin said, Chinese missions will combine routine welfare visits with a wide array of festive events that the ministry expects will generate a global “China Spring Festival tide.” The goal is to invite not only Chinese nationals but host-country friends to join public celebrations, producing opportunities for people-to-people contacts and local cultural engagement.
On the surface the messaging is benign and familiar: state outreach to nationals abroad during an important holiday. But the programme is also a deliberate instrument of public diplomacy. In the wake of the pandemic and amid heightened geopolitical competition, Beijing has sought to repair and expand soft-power channels, reassuring diaspora communities while projecting an image of normalcy, cultural confidence and international openness.
The initiative will be read differently across capitals. For many overseas Chinese it will be a welcome sign of attention from home; for governments worried about foreign influence, regular contact between missions and diasporic networks could invite scrutiny. Beijing’s language — emphasizing care from the centre and inviting host-country participation — signals a dual aim: strengthening bonds with nationals while shaping foreign publics’ impressions of China.
Expect more of the same in coming years. The continuity of the “Warm Spring Festival” campaign suggests that China’s diplomatic apparatus sees sustained, festival-driven consular outreach as an efficient way to combine welfare work, cultural diplomacy and image management, especially in countries with large Chinese communities. For observers, these activities offer a useful lens on how Beijing balances domestic legitimacy, diaspora relations and international soft power projection.