For nearly two hundred years the measure of a nation’s progress has been its capacity to Westernize. Today, to a great extent, China has shifted this narrative. In the last three decades, China has lifted over 500 million of its people out of poverty according to the World Bank. The scale and speed of China’s growth are unprecedented. The world has never seen anything like the rise of China according to Martin Jacques, author of bestseller ‘When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.’

China will adopt a more proactive policy to engage in international affairs and be a responsible nation that promotes peace and stability by enhancing cooperation and bringing benefits to its neighbors and other nations. Those were the comments of experts and scholars on China's foreign policy direction after the conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed it paid $85,000 towards the All Whites' trip to China for a friendly football match. The decision to put taxpayers' money towards a sporting trip was slammed by former foreign affairs minister Winston Peters, who said he was "astonished" MFAT was dabbling in sport.

It is by now well-known that the process of globalization, beginning in the 1960s and picking up pace rapidly in the late 20th century, quickly changed the context for international affairs. Globalization produced increased contact among the peoples of the world, a rapid expansion of interdependence among nations, and an explosion of new actors in international affairs.

Taking advantage of activity surrounding the Chinese American Film Festival (Oct. 25-Nov. 30) and American Film Market (Oct. 31-Nov. 7), Asia Society Southern California staged its third U.S.-China Film Summit at UCLA Covel Commons, with three panels of U.S. and Chinese film entrepreneurs in co-production, globalization of talent and investments.

Real ambassadors for China over coming decades will be the Chinese people, says scholar. China foreign policy expert Zhao Minghao believes the current world order is in a "plastic" moment. The research fellow at the China Center for Contemporary World Studies, the Communist Party of China think tank, argues many of today's international institutions emerged in the aftermath of World War II and now need to be reshaped.

In “China Stands Still at the Crossroads”, CMP Director Qian Gang shared his thoughts on the issue of political reform as it was reflected in President Hu Jintao’s political report to the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. But what does Hu’s report have to say about culture (including media), which has had a bigger political profile in China ever since the term “cultural soft power” made its debut in the 2007 political report?

Times are changing and so are the Chinatowns across the world. Starting off as ordinary trading outposts that attempted to satisfy to the culinary needs of overseas Chinese communities, these towns have evolved to become major soft power assets and representative symbols of the modern and resurgent China.