Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ancestral home town at the start of a three-day visit to China on Thursday as the two Asian giants work to boost economic ties despite decades of mistrust.

Buddhism and yoga will form part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s soft power diplomacy as he visits China today and tries to increase his nation’s influence in the world’s second-largest economy. Modi, who heads a 50-strong delegation, arrived in the ancient city of Xian – the home town of President Xi Jinping – this morning at the start of a three-day trip.

On her China Law and Policy blog, Elizabeth Lynch has written a three-part analysis of the proposed Foreign NGO Law, the second draft of which has recently been read by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Under the revised draft, foreign NGOs will only be allowed to operate in China with explicit permission from a related government agency and the Public Security Bureau. 

Alibaba is hoping to re-create March Madness in November. The Chinese online shopping giant is teaming up with top leagues in the National Collegiate Athletic Association to stream the first regular-season games played in the country online. 

Speaking with Xi, Nazarbayev noted that friendly relations with Kazakhstan’s eastern neighbour was a “priority” for Astana. “We have a plan, and we have outlined specific actions that will take Kazakh-Chinese relations to a new level,” he said.

History will be quick to remind us that China, India, and the Middle East had rich and refined cultures while Europeans were still struggling through the material and intellectual poverty of the Dark Ages and before the existence of the Americas was even known to them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be combining a well-calibrated soft power push with his visit to China, leveraging social media, Bollywood and yoga to reach out to ordinary Chinese citizens.

Interestingly, the ‘Himalayan tragedy’ provided India with a readymade opportunity to score brownie points over its main rival and neighbour China on aid diplomacy and the Narendra Modi administration grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Although China had overtaken India as Nepal’s largest foreign investor in 2014, Beijing failed to catch up with New Delhi’s humanitarian diplomacy on this occasion.