With hosting and qualifying for the World Cup finals listed as long-term goals, the authorities plan to substantially increase the number of young people playing football, with the number of special “soccer schools” raised to 20,000 after five years and to 50,000 in a decade.

The Ambassador to Germany is a career diplomat who has had vast experience of representing the country in various countries of the world; including China. He is considered an authority on Chinese soft power and its role in the emergence of that economy as a global superpower.

Opera, therefore, is one of Italy's key avenues of soft power. It has spread around the world, and leading singers come from everywhere, great performances are sung from New York to Beijing. But opera's soul is still in Italy.

After January 2015’s  presidential polls—otherwise known as the Rainbow Revolution—that ousted “friend of China” Rajapaksa, Beijing’s influence over Colombo was said to be gradually receding from the sandy shores of the island traditionally seen as within India’s periphery of influence.

Sino-ROK normalization has brought enormous economic and trade benefits to both countries, but over two decades of ever-closer “partnership” between Beijing and Seoul, South Korea has never gained the level of strategic support from Beijing that it has desired as leverage in dealing with North Korea. 

It’s great publicity for the zoo, but it’s also great publicity for China, where these pandas come from, “on loan.” But how often do you read about how much the U.S. is paying for this Chinese public diplomacy bonanza?