A consequence of China’s rise as a global economic superpower has been the nation’s quest for resources, influence and riches in Africa, extracting minerals and food, building highways and schools, and selling cheap cellphones and pharmaceuticals. In July, President Hu Jintao pledged that China would lend $20 billion to African governments for agriculture and infrastructure.

The Strategic Summit will explore how new communications strategies are advancing commercial, cultural and nation branding for China. With engaging keynote speakers, case studies and interactive discussions, the Strategic Summit will build on a format used at the popular and highly-rated National Summit on Strategic Communications organized annually in Washington DC.

Leading Chinese and Scottish business figures are to deliver a series of lectures in a bid to encourage more trade and economic activity between the two countries. The talks are being organized by the University of Edinburgh's Confutius Institute for Scotland.

The Guangzhou Acrobatic Ballet will perform at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo on September 6 as part of the cultural exchange between China and the Dominican Republic.

Some Chinese experts believe their gardening practices, steeped in Eastern culture and philosophy, will not work in the West, but Jon Burley, associate professor in the School of Planning, Design, and Construction at Michigan State University, cannot see why not, because the quintessential Chinese garden is actually very versatile, he says.

When the activists from Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China landed on the Diaoyu Islands recently, TV cameras shot bird's-eye views from helicopters. Two journalists from Phoenix TV were among those arrested and later released by Japanese police, all in front of the cameras.

Germany and China have been cultivating a brisk exchange, and since last year, have held joint government consultations. The current meeting takes place in the midst of major personnel changes in Beijing.

Strategic mutual trust and national feelings between China and Japan have been strained, and think tanks from both nations on Wednesday called for a crisis management mechanism to cool down the heated bilateral spats.