The news that Cambridge representatives held a series of one-to-one meetings with Wen Ruchun, the daughter of the former Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao, raises profound and disturbing questions about the integrity of British academia and the reach of China's soft-power machine.

With the widespread filtering, even blocking, of both traditional media Internet sites and social media sites by the Chinese government , Chinese-Americans have been finding other ways to keep tabs on the pro-democracy demonstrations taking place in Hong Kong.

On Oct. 1, the Toronto District School Board became the latest high-profile North American educational institution to sever ties with the Confucius Institutes, a Chinese government-funded language and culture program. 

While the Chinese government perceives Americanideological influence as a potential strategic threat, the increase of US "soft power" leverage is merely an effect, and not an intentional policy, Robert Daly, Director of the Wilson Center Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, has told RIA Novosti.

China may not be threatening the United States militarily, but it is certainly engaging U.S. companies in a costly cyber war, FBI director James Comey told 60 Minutes on Sunday, and no major business is immune.

Cultural exchange and cooperation is an important part of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership. It plays an irreplaceable role in enhancing mutual understanding between people and in promoting the value of our relationship. At the 14th China-EU Summit in 2011, our leaders pointed out that cultural exchange is one of the three pillars of China- EU relations. 

Finance and development ministers from around the world next week will warn of considerable downside risks to the global economy, and call for an effort to protect the world's poor, according to the draft of a communique they plan to issue after a meeting on Saturday.

In the last decade, the European Union has made China a priority of its international strategy. China's fast economic development and its growing importance in the global economy and politics put the country in the focus of the EU's interest. Differently to the US, though, Europe has intensified its educational links with China relatively recently.