... Filipinos must exercise public diplomacy which would help show “that there’s a bully in the neighborhood who is misbehaving.” A boycott of China-made products, voicing opinions, making speeches and talking in local and international forums about the ongoing issue are components of public diplomacy intended to hit where China will hurt the most...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she is concerned by Chinese aid and investment policies in Africa. "We are...concerned that China's foreign assistance and investment practices in Africa have not always been consistent with generally accepted international norms of transparency and good governance...,” she said.

Vice-President Xi Jinping's recently concluded three-nation tour of Latin America is likely to further enhance China's relations with the region, experts said. Beyond its economic ties with Latin America, China is also interested in promoting its image internationally...China's infrastructure projects in the Caribbean are examples of non-economically motivated relationships in the region.

For years, it was the West that engaged with India. The rest of Asia chose to ignore it - it was a country they did not really understand or want to do business with. Now, because of its rapidly growing economy and increasing opportunities, India is home to sizeable numbers of Asians, especially Koreans and Japanese.

It’s official, at least as far as a Japanese government survey is concerned: Americans see China, rather than Japan, as their most important partner in Asia. The opinion leaders’ view offers even more emphatic confirmation that trade relations are increasingly carrying more weight than political or general ties with the U.S., usually cited as a reason for choosing Japan.

The transatlantic economy accounts for more than half of the world’s trade and investment. The U.S.-German relationship is at the center of this economy. Since 1989, U.S. direct investment in Germany has more than quadrupled and German investment in the United States has grown seven-fold.

Africa – once considered the lab for Chinese companies’ reach outside - is being relegated into a destination with too many risk factors. Safer political destinations and countries closer to home are likely to benefit from the shift. The readjustment has been in the works for some time but the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have made those subtle shifts more pronounced.

U.S. companies' game of catch-up shows the perils of waking up late to the next big frontier market, Africa. The continent's economy is forecast to grow to $2.6 trillion in 2020. While most U.S. companies focused on Asia and Latin America, China was leapfrogging America in Africa.