Steven W. Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI) and a renowned China expert, will testify before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs today on the subject of the various "Confucius Institutes" being put in place all over the United States. These institutes... represent a significant threat to U.S. national security and an attempt to enhance China's "soft power" globally.

BRICS, grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has set a distinctive example of great powers rising with "soft power," said Boris Martynov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Latin America Institute.

Many Indian analysts accept their country is unlikely to make good the economic and developmental gulf that separates the two regional rivals, but say that India's "soft power" and "cultural influence" is an advantage.

There used to be a saying about the Chinese: “They work while we sleep.” In the field of public diplomacy, it is absolutely spot on...Thankfully, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is determined to expose the Chinese public diplomacy offensive. Hearings on “Public Diplomacy with China” will be held by the Foreign Affairs Committee at 2:30 pm Wednesday.

The Confucius Institute in Armenia was founded three years ago and it had an auditorium of 100 people and that number keeps increasing. Around 50 students were able to continue their education in China due to the institute.

“We are challenged every day by what the Chinese are doing in public diplomacy."... China has “checked the print ‘box’” and has moved into broadcasting and in-person programs at the Confucius Institutes, she said, all adding up to a powerful public diplomacy force – and a huge investment in public diplomacy.

WASHINGTON --- Tara Sonenshine, nominated to serve as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, offered advice this morning to public diplomacy observers: Watch China.

“We are challenged every day by what the Chinese are doing in public diplomacy,” she said.

Unfavourable attention may have prompted China to become more public about its aid policy. Even with the will to boost aid transparency, China still faces a “diplomatic dilemma” in enforcing it: to meet compliance both sides must be willing and able, and recipient countries with weak governments often have poor aid oversight.