China and the United States are not alone in the game of summit diplomacy: The European Union has been hosting summit meetings with African leaders for nearly 10 years, while France and Japan have been at it for even longer; India joined the fray about five years ago. While it would be naïve to conclude that the burgeoning of Chinese engagements across Africa have not influenced the US response...

It is easy to think of defence spending as building tanks, but it is also the optical equipment and computer technology that makes them work and which ends up having a commercial economic benefit. It can also fund innovative, scientific and other research, often at universities, that might not otherwise take place. That being said, there is no shortage of global economic innovation now, outside of defence, in areas such as stem cells, robotics, 3D printing or green technology. 

For the leaders of the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, andSouth Africa), the announcement in July of their agreement to establish a "New Development Bank" (NDB) and a "Contingent Reserve Arrangement" (CRA) was a public-relations coup.

Here lies the vision of China's peaceful rise. It is a concept first put forward in 2003 by Chinese authorities as the country was gradually reinforcing its role in international affairs.  But this concept comes with many layers: Even while China is exporting its products all over the world, Beijing explains that it has no hegemonic ambitions.  Can China be a superpower that is fundamentally unintrusive, and not a threat for its neighbors?

China's international reputation for humanitarian aid is among the worst of the globe's superpowers. As Quartz reports, the new shipment of millions of dollars in medical supplies and workers could be the beginnings of an attempt to reshape that reputation. Only 0.4% of China's foreign aid goes directly to humanitarian causes, rather that infrastructure projects or business efforts that could serve to improve nations' trade with China as much as it could help the nations themselves. In Africa, particularly, China's actions have appeared self-rewarding rather than altruistic.

A new digital restoration of The Goddess, a 1934 silent movie from a golden period of the city's film industry, was recently shown at the Shanghai Film Festival.  It is one of several remasterings that come as Beijing tries to extend its soft power by exporting Chinese culture around the world, and build a stronger movie industry able to compete internationally.

The summit, that brought together 50 heads of state, along with a range of US and African civil society and business leaders, is being seen as Washington's attempt to challenge China's status in Africa. Obama denied that the United States intends to compete with China for influence in Africa, however, he said that the relationship between the United States and China is not a zero-sum game.

Climate change is an area that should ultimately bring the two nations closer together even more than cooperation on energy. If the world’s two largest economies, and two most powerful nations, can’t come together to address this very real threat to human civilization, then what can they achieve together?