For the Chinese scholars at Eastern Mennonite University this semester, witnessing the difference between Chinese and American educational systems has been enlightening. [...] Eight are sponsored through Mennonite Partners in China (MPC), an exchange program that has been thriving in various formats since the early 1980s. The other two are on scholarship from the China Scholarship Council, a competitive, state-funded scholarship fund for research and study abroad.

Narendra Modi takes on Xi Jinping in a soft-power battle in America. “ANYTHING Xi can do, I can do better,” seemed to be the mantra of Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, as he toured America in late September, hot on the heels of China’s president, Xi Jinping.

Security experts often disagree when ranking America’s security challenges, but most believe that the top three are violent Islamic extremism, Russia and China. These adversaries or potential adversaries have radically different capabilities and goals, but share one characteristic: All seem to be beating the United States on what can be called “the battlefield of perception.” 

In 1999, the first Starbucks café opened in China. The Seattle-based coffee chain, the world's largest, now operates a network of 1,500 shops across China, which is now its second-most-important market after the US [...] But Starbucks is facing competition. 

Turning first to the question of whether the public is actually interested in climate change, Google web searches show that the countries searching most frequently on the topic tend to be those most affected by changing climatic conditions [...] This suggests that being affected by the phenomena increases public interest: it is not wealthy countries idly researching a topic they hear on the news, it is affected populations trying to understand more about what they are experiencing.