This paper examines China’s public diplomacy components and content in general, discussing some of the main vectors of China’s public diplomacy, cultural, and political influence by the way of “soft power”. 

African countries must not overstate the extent of Chinese investment on the continent as China is investing very little [...] At the recently-held African Media Leaders Forum in South Africa last week, UN Economic Commission for Africa Executive Secretary Carlos Lopez said African leaders had to confront the reality that Chinese investment in Africa was not enough for the “mineral sacrifices” it was warranting.

Now, Chinese students are by far the most visible international presence at many universities across the United States, and their numbers continue to grow. This year, the number of Chinese student studying stateside was 304,040, a 10.8 percent increase over the 2013-14 academic year, according to a just-released report by the non-profit Institute for International Education (IIE).

"China needs to develop and demonstrate more ‘soft power’ in order to persuade the world to hold its assets and its currency," Jen wrote. That is "measured by a general sense of admiration and trust from global investors, is more difficult to build and demonstrate."

The fact that India and China are willing to have cooperative exchanges as part of soft or cultural diplomacy may seem accommodative and a positive effort to bridge differences. Between the lines, however, the Government’s efforts to push Buddhism by tracing commonality of roots indicate a subtle and smart move to steal a march over China, which is increasingly positing itself as the sole disseminator of Buddhist faith in the far-east and southeast Asia.

When it comes to public diplomacy, China might be better off loosening up and developing a sense of humor about itself. Gone are the days of Hu Jintao’s “smile diplomacy,” which aimed to convince the world that it had nothing to fear from a rising China.