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.

China has awarded Venezuela 5 billion dollars for unspecified “development plans,” President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, approximately three months after an official visit to China. According to published reports, the loan is part of a 10 billion deal to be completed in the following months.

How might a Republican White House engage Asia?(...)At a Council on Foreign Relations symposium on U.S. Rebalance to Asia held earlier this week, Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, cautioned against the “politics of China” in the 2016 presidential campaign. Republican candidates might consider three elements in appropriating the rebalance within a Republican foreign policy rubric.

First and foremost, the Maritime Silk Road is designed to pacify neighboring countries threatened by China’s aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea. Curiously, China has attempted to both aggravate tensions among its Southeast Asian neighbors and soothe them at the same time, contrary to its normal pattern of swinging back and forth between aggressive brinksmanship and diplomatic rapprochement (such as in China’s relationship with Taiwan or its cutting off and then reestablishing of military-to-military ties with the United States).