China’s overall economic and strategic interests now seem to go hand in hand with a willingness to engage with Europe culturally.This move beyond economics and normal diplomacy towards ‘a meeting of minds and souls’ is taking place at a time when China itself has entered a new phase of internal growth, one which has made the question of culture and soft power a core strategic priority for the country’s future growth and prosperity.

Most of the focus on China’s soft power has emphasised infrastructure projects spearheaded by Beijing as a way to forge good relations with countries it deemed to be of strategic importance. But China has come to recognise the intangible benefits of a well-burnished public image abroad – goodwill and influence roads and railways alone cannot buy.

Internationalization of higher education is becoming a new mantra for the Polish government. In June, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education signed an agreement with the UAE to attract more of their students. Poland already has similar agreements with Oman, Malaysia, and China. [...] The point is that there are lots of reasons to internationalize and the rankings are one small part. 

With stops in 15 countries, the event serves as a promotion of all things British to the nouveau riche of some of the emerging markets most heavily targeted by the luxury industry. The event was born out of a diplomatic mission to Abu Dhabi carried out by Olver, a former Adjutant of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in the British army. 

Beijing's scholars and foreign policy mandarins are experimenting on the "power/knowledge" model to win the hearts and minds of African thinkers and wielders of power in governments and regional groupings. [...] China's new power/knowledge approach to African affairs is part of its emerging African strategy. 

Over 400 people including African diplomats to China, former Chinese ambassadors to African countries, representatives of the members of the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC, and experts from Chinese Research Institutes on Africa, university teachers and students, and representatives of African students in China, attended the event.

The idea was emphasized during the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum "Sharing the Future," held for the first time in Shanghai, east of the country, and in the presence of about 300 businessmen and tourist agencies of the city, the most populated one of this nation.

On September 10, 2015, the launching ceremony of the book "CHINA-AFRICA 500: Facts About China, Africa and Relations Between the Two"and the Chinese Bridge ― Sino-African Friendship Knowledge Competition was held in Peking University. [...] This event is co-sponsored by the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Peking University, China Public Diplomacy Association and the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban).