On April 20, Xi and Sharif signed agreements to begin building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a network of roads, railway, and pipelines linking western China with Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast. The corridor is part of China's aim to forge "Silk Road" land and sea ties to markets in the Middle East and Europe.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has emerged as a key broker of perceptions between the U.S. and China. He was a member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council delegation that met Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2013 in Beijing and is currently director of the Asia Society Public Policy Institute.On behalf of the Belfer Center at Harvard, he has just completed a seminal report "U.S.-China 21: The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping." Below are the key conclusions of that report. 

Policymakers in the United States, China, and other Asian powers must choose whether to deal forthrightly and sensibly with the changing regional power distribution or avoid the hard decisions that China’s rise poses until the situation grows ever more polarized and dangerous.

One Belt, One Road calls for increased diplomatic coordination, standardized and linked trade facilities, free trade zones and other trade facilitation policies, financial integration promoting the renminbi, and people-to-people cultural education programs throughout nations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Indian and Chinese officials concluded talks in Beijing earlier this month that covered a host of issues, including the establishment of new confidence building methods, joint efforts on humanitarian disasters at sea, as well as four additional points of emergency interaction between border personnel in the Ladakh region, at Track Junction, Panging Tso Lake, Demchock and Chumar.(...)Apart from its economic implications, the OBOR initiative clearly seeks to strengthen China’s regional influence, while aspiring to connect China with Africa and Europe by road, sea and rail. 

North China's Shanxi Province has begun a training program for Afghan hospital administrators and medics. It will train 64 Afghans within the next two years, and 19 of them are already training in the province, its health department said on Saturday.

Controlling a multilateral investment bank will give Beijing greater influence over the Asia-Pacific region that needs a whopping $8 trillion-worth of infrastructure investment until 2020 to keep pace with global technological and demographic changes

Recent diplomatic rows with countries like Brazil are no secret and President Obama is working to repair bilateral relations with the strategically important countries before he leaves the oval office for good.