China’s Confucius Institute, a controversial arm of the Chinese regime’s public diplomacy apparatus, is coming under pressure in Russia, with prosecutors from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far east of the country calling for the local branch to be closed because it is not properly registered with the authorities.

The website of Lianhe Zaobao has helped Singapore's leading Chinese-language newspaper become an important symbol of the Republic's soft power, a prominent Chinese thinker said last night as the online portal marked its 20th anniversary.

The delegates recognized that there would be many hurdles to traverse for the military and scientists to fully harness the fruits of Arctic diplomacy. In particular, the distrust of China as a non-Arctic nation taking interest in the region needed to be moderated with a recognition of other global powers having presence in areas very distant from their own regional vicinity.

It is China’s heightened interest in South African media, however, which has raised questions about the country’s intentions and objectives which could be viewed as the seeking of “soft power”, or how it can leverage its perception and influence on the continent.

Known as "panda diplomacy," China has long been sending its pandas as gifts to other countries as a sign of friendship. [...] We chart the course of Jia Jia's life in parallel with the extraordinary changes in China over the past four decades.

One state media take veered dangerously close to racism: on July 24, the day Obama arrived in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi, the English language website of state-run outlet Global Times ran a cartoon titled “Homecoming,” portraying the president wearing what appeared to be tribal attire and carrying a spear near a herd of zebra on an open plain.

The choice between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan is the centerpiece of the weeklong meetings in the Malaysian capital. The executive board and later the full IOC membership will also receive status updates on preparations for next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.