Mao Zedong was said to have been moved to tears when he watched an early performance of "The White-Haired Girl," an opera created to meet his call for rousing revolutionary art. And under President Xi Jinping, a revival is on the road, reinvented once more to appeal to a Communist Party leader's stringently ideological tastes.

Last week it came to light that Beijing’s state-run China Radio International secretly owns 60% of a U.S. company, G&E Studio, which leases stations and airtime in Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco, among other cities. Beijing uses similar subterfuges in Europe and Australia. 

The development of various ethnic communities in Kunming, capital city of China's Southwestern Yunnan province, has tremendously strengthened the unity and harmonious co-existence of ethnic groups. Kunming is home to 52 ethnic groups, including Yi, Hui, Dai, Bai, Miao and so on. 

The leaders of China and Taiwan meet Saturday in Singapore for the first time since the two sides clashed in a civil war seven decades ago, in a carefully managed encounter that caps eight years of improved economic ties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, who wooed Nepalis on his two visits last year, during which he promoted his “neighborhood first” diplomacy, is now an object of scorn. Some people have burned effigies of him, and a #BackoffIndia hashtag was recently trending on Twitter. While Nepal’s allies, including China, welcomed the new Constitution, India merely “noted” it.

Revelations that the Chinese government secretly controls a network of overseas radio stations are a further indicator that Beijing is actively taking its propaganda to a global audience[...] The report, which has sparked calls for a federal investigation, emerges as President Xi Jinping's administration expands its deployment of "soft power," a form of influence that goes well beyond the business of government, analysts said.

The forum will bring together over 90 politicians and experts from more than 20 countries, and they will discuss the themes of city construction and management, education, civilization, senior care and exchanges among young people.