GBD (global commercial district) Center for Public Diplomacy and Culture Exchange (hereinafter referred to as the Center), a Chinese non-governmental public diplomacy organization in Beijing, has agreed on principle of cooperation for bilateral cultural exchange with Cuban Ministry of Culture. As a result, a program where Cuban art group pays a visit to Beijing and Chinese art group to Havana to perform, will soon be promoted.

Following U.S. President Barack Obama’s trailblazing visit to Cuba, a free concert by the Rolling Stones in Havana might seem like a relatively minor event. Obama revived relations with Cuba after more than a half-century of deep hostility. The septuagenarian Stones just played some very loud music. And yet, symbolically, the concert was not minor at all.

"Sport is the conquest of the revolution," reads the sign looming over the outfield of Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano, the island's main stadium and hallowed ground for Cuban baseball fans [...] The bare-bones stadium is the setting of one President Barack Obama's most anticipated events during his historic visit: taking in a baseball game between the Cuban National Team and the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.

Nowhere is the contrast between Benedict XVI and Francis more tangible than in the degree to which the papacy seems to have recovered its diplomatic and geopolitical swagger. The normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba in December 2014 came about in part thanks to Francis, who wrote private letters to President Obama and Cuban president Raúl Castro that reportedly helped break the ice between the two leaders.