American Routes, the public radio program produced at Tulane University, is leading a tour of American “roots” music to China, April 30 to May 3. (...) This concert series builds on our prior China tours with Cajun music, gospel, cowboys and jazz. This kind of vernacular cultural diplomacy is both entertaining and edifying. The virtuosity and diversity we bring to ‘Meet-in-Beijing’ is a great statement between nations at an intimate level.

Remember the pivot to Asia? The big signature move of first-term Obama foreign policy? Some called it a “strategic rebalancing.” We were going to reset our priorities, put the conflicts of the Middle East behind us, and devote big efforts to creating and implementing a strategy to deal with the vital strategic moves America needed to make to account for the rise of the world’s fastest-growing region.

Chinese President Xi Jinping appealed to wealthy nations to increase support for developing countries during a summit Wednesday, saying China would offer trade benefits to poor nations having diplomatic ties with Beijing.

While commemorating the 1955 Bandung Conference, China and Japan lay out competing visions for Asia and Africa.(...) While Japan and China’s strategies for Asian-African cooperation sound similar, in practice the potential for the two countries to collaborate is slim. China will pursue engagement with both Asia and Africa through the framework of its “One Belt, One Road” strategy, and Japan is hardly going to link its own outreach programs to a Chinese-led initiative.

China has grown rapidly in influence and ability to act in the international arena. That means it faces bigger, tougher and ever more urgent challenges. Therefore, there is a growing need for more high quality think tanks which can offer solutions to these challenges by mining the wisdom in the broader society.

In periods of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United Kingdom and United States maintained absolute dominance in a unipolar world, which was why they were called "British century" and "American century." Based on this, predictions of a so-called "Chinese century" must meet two preconditions -- a unipolar international configuration and absolute Chinese dominance.

As China becomes closer to reaching its dream of becoming one of the most influential countries in the world, Chinese officials announced at a two-day conference of the International Exchange of Professionals in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, that the country is advocating a platform for its local and overseas talents.