The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has made us acutely aware that China's overseas interests are facing severe challenges, and the international public opinion environment has increasingly become a key factor influencing the development and security of these interests. On May 31, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during the 13th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, "We must strengthen top-level design and research layout and establish a strategic communication system with distinctive Chinese characteristics." It is imperative to improve China's external public opinion environment and empower the development and security of our overseas interests through international communication.

Under the strategic guidance of the "Overall National Security Concept," this book redefined the contemporary connotations of China's overseas interests and analyzed the achievements and challenges faced by these interests within the international public opinion environment. Based on extensive preliminary research experience and field visits, this book systematically discusses "how international communication empowers overseas interests" from three levels. Firstly, it proposes five perspectives for international communication to empower the development and security of China's overseas interests from the micro-process level. Secondly, it explores three dimensions of international communication empowering the development and security of China's overseas interests from the meso-structural level. Finally, it constructs a new pattern for international communication to empower the development and security of China's overseas interests from the macro-mechanistic level.

This book argues that empowering overseas interests through international communication requires policy makers, researchers, and practitioners in the field of international communication to shift away from the traditional top-down approach of "government first, followed by the private sector" and establish a new path of international communication characterized by "mutual communication between top and bottom, comprehensive communication across all domains, and interconnected hearts among people." Ultimately, a pattern of international communication empowerment should be formed, featuring national empowerment, city-level trust-building, and corporate profit-creation. By safeguarding "hard development" with "soft power" and balancing "local experience" with a "global perspective," China can enhance its international voice, stimulate global consensus on the "community of a shared future for mankind," and foster a more favorable international environment.