The new Washington operation will be a hub of CCTV's global news-gathering operations to compete with international broadcasters such as CNN, the BBC and al-Jazeera. To use news reporting and cultural programming, China aims to advance its “soft power,” or cultural influence, making it commensurate with the nation’s growing economic might.

“The basketball games are incidental [to] this,” said Cooley. “It’s the cultural exchange.” In each of the previous cities, the Nanyang Model High team stayed with host families. Along with private training sessions and games, the team has mixed in plenty of sightseeing, including Niagara Falls, Smithsonian museums, and D.C. monuments.

...Celebration of US-China Friendship...in Atlanta, Georgia. The show, co-sponsored by the Chinese Consulate General in Houston and the city of Atlanta, "is a wonderful example of the cultural and people-to-people exchanges necessary to build closer ties between the Chinese and American people," Carter said.

China is the home of pandas and kung fu, yet it took Hollywood to make the smash-hit animated movie Kung Fu Panda, the sequel of which was China's most popular film in 2011. Through massive investment, and countless censors, the Communist Party aims to boost China's "soft power," or cultural influence, abroad.

Washington and Beijing are now battling over soft power. Hillary Clinton’s visit in December to Myanmar, which China views as being within its orbit of influence, is a fascinating footnote. As China tries to extend its sway in Asia, the U.S. must realize that its own regional ambitions need some polishing, too.

Confucius institutes are part of a global campaign, funded by Beijing, to promote Chinese language and culture. However, the involvement of the Chinese one-party state, and its soft power ambitions, have generated some opposition. The siting of these centres in universities and public schools also makes them contentious.

Shanghai is sparing no effort to develop itself as a center for international finance, economic activity, trade and logistics in China. According to the latest report, The International Image of Shanghai, among its four goals, the position of Shanghai as an international financial center was best known by foreigners.

The Chinese government is encouraging domestic publishers of foreign-language periodicals to target the overseas market as part of the country's strategy to boost its media presence abroad, a major step to build China into a big player in the world media and publication market and make the cultural sector a pillar industry in the country.