The sudden blackout of popular U.S. shows is seen as an example of Chinese leaders keeping a tight grip on foreign media to counter the U.S.'s soft power and shore up China's own television industry. Last year, Chinese censors withheld box office receipts while negotiating a rise in tariffs on Western importers. Now, Chinese leaders want to become not only international exporters of finished goods but also dramas and soap operas...

This week, China announced that it was sending 700 military personnel to join the UN's peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, an oil-rich east African state and site of an ongoing civil war. China has contributed to UN peacekeeping missions before, but the unprecedented size of its contribution, and its purpose in sending troops, reveals just how complicated China's foreign outreach has become as the country continues its rise to super-power status.

The government has pledged a £1.5 million grant to the Royal Shakespeare Company, to translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Chinese.  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will give the RSC a further £300,000 to tour through China, in the hopes of boosting tourism and "cultural links".

The State of Kuwait is currently taking part in the third Arabic Arts Festival held in the Chinese capital Beijing, with participants underlining necessity of boosting ties and cultural interactions between the Chinese and Arab nations.  The cultural event has already kicked off, with Kuwait's participation, led by Mohammad Al-Asousi, Deputy Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters.

China's largest steel maker Hebei Iron & Steel Group is planning to set up ahigh-volume joint venture in South Africa.  The first phase of the project with a three-million-ton capacity will start construction in 2015and be put into use in 2017. The second phase with two million tons of capacity will startproduction in 2019. The project is expecting a total annual capacity of five million tons upon completion.

There is a famous saying in the Quran "Seeking knowledge, even as far as China". And the great ancient Chinese thinker Confucius once said: "Studying alone without friends results in a shallow and narrow mind". For thousands of years, the two great civilizations of Arab and Chinese developed through constant exchanges.

Intended to boost China’s “soft power”, the centres take the name of the peace-espousing sage. They tap into growing global demand for Chinese-language teaching. But they are also fuelling anxiety about academic freedom.