Throughout China’s history, elements of hybrid warfare have often been crucial components of its conflicts with its neighbors. [...] The contemporary analogy would be “diplomatic warfare”; neutralizing unfriendly states through public diplomacy, support for local insurgencies and pressure in international organizations. 

Liyuan's public persona has not disappointed in providing a spark of personality to China's image abroad. The high-profile spouse, widely regarded as the most visible since since Jiang Qing, the late wife of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, has played a significant role in diplomacy.

Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States [...] comes as the Xi administration is engaged in an ongoing crackdown on human rights activism and the freedom of speech, and as the state legislature has recently passed or proposed several laws aimed at minimizing dissent and reinforcing Party ideology. 

She is only 10, but Dai Jingya has already come face to face with more heads of state than most people will in their lifetimes. She has rubbed shoulders with Chinese President Xi Jinping four times, and greeted the leaders of Singapore, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Denmark. Dai is one of a group of children culled from Beijing schools to welcome the constant stream of foreign dignitaries coming to the capital to pay their respects, alongside People's Liberation Army soldiers and a host of top Chinese officials.

Alice Roosevelt's 1905 journey to Japan, Korea and China is documented in rare photographs held by the Freer and Sackler Galleries....The timing of this voyage made certain that amid an 83-member diplomatic delegation including seven senators and 23 congressmen, headed by Secretary of War, future president and chief justice William Howard Taft, Alice would be a brighter star than ever. 

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.