Behind the world’s big countries in the race for cultural soft power, Chinese people have appeared more “pragmatic” when choosing cultural diplomacy, communications, and economic sponsorship and cooperation as the three main influential channels to attract and fasten ties with East Asian countries that had been under China’s cultural and politial influence throughout history, especially those sharing the same language, script, religion, institution and political ideology. China hopes that the influential channels will turn its cultural soft power into a “mesmerizing weapon” in the new battle for “conquering and dominating people’s heart” in East Asia. However, contrary to such expectations, in recent years, China’s cultural soft power has been faced with skepticism, and even strong opposition from East Asian countries. Thus, in order to reach more in-depth assessment of the limitations of China’s cultural soft power, this paper will look into and analyze the public perceptions of East Asian nations based on data collected by international organizations in recent years, particularly during periods when China manifested a firm hand over its neighbouring countries in East Asia.