This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations, with joint events and initiatives in education, research, youth and culture - both in China and in the EU. A central part of EU-China relations are personal contacts. That is why the EU-China high level people-to-people dialogue, launched in 2012, is so important. It brings people together, allowing us to discuss common challenges and to deepen mutual understanding and friendship, while fully respecting our differences.

It is for the first time since its formation in 2011 that the Tibetan women football team in exile is travelling abroad. They would be meeting their Chinese counterpart during the trip. The Tibetan footballers have been invited to attend the Discover Football, the International women's football & cultural festival, in Berlin from June 27 to July 6. Other teams to take part in the festival include Brazil, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Tanzania, South Africa, and China. This year's theme of the festival is 'Beyond Borders.'

Today it is known as the Karakoram Highway, a twisting road carved high into the mountains along which trucks inch their way south through China and into Pakistan. You can trace the origins of this dizzying pass back to the Han dynasty, when it formed part of a trading route stretching 4,000 miles. Merchants would ferry valuable Chinese silk to markets as far west as Italy, collecting ideas from the world’s great cultures and depositing them as they went.

China is using soft power through the form of foreign aid to help the world, despite criticism from the West that its approach lacks transparency.

There is no better proof of this than the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, the latest strategies under Beijing's foreign aid policy.

Can sports be the key to strengthen diplomatic ties between sovereign states? According to Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong, the so-called "basketball diplomacy" may very well be the solution for increased mutual understanding and friendship between Chinese and American citizens.

Like music and art, sports transcend various boundaries, and the Chinese Vice Premier believes it plays a significant role in people-to-people exchanges, particularly China-U.S. ties.

The American Heart Association and China Tuesday formalized a partnership to educate the Chinese about cardiovascular disease and train people in CPR as ways to reduce deaths in the country. The agreement provides for exchanges of researchers, doctors and public health specialists to work alongside counterparts in the U.S. and China. It also provides for teams of scientists to work together to advance scientific knowledge of cardiovascular health.