China’s main goals in South America are economic, but it also hopes to win public and political support.  Thus, an economic push by China is also a soft power push, as Beijing uses its funding (both public and private) to win goodwill in developing countries.

A new international development bank and multi-billion emergency lending pool will be setup by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The move comes at a summit meeting of BRICS leaders in Brazil.

Pew Global Research released the results of its “Balance of Power” survey, and it contains a lot of interesting data about what the world thinks about China. On the whole, impressions of China are positive.

The growing bloodshed in Iraq and Syria is being watched as keenly in China as anywhere else in the world. Indeed, the greater Middle East is becoming an ever greater focus of Chinese foreign policy.

The paper derided Julie Bishop as a "complete fool" using a term that defies neat translation but could be construed even more harshly. The personal attack raised eyebrows in the diplomatic corps in Australia and abroad, where Ms Bishop is widely considered to be the most competent Australian foreign affairs minister since Gareth Evans.

As new revelations about America’s electronic surveillance efforts continue to emerge, a new Pew Research Center survey finds widespread opposition around the world to U.S. eavesdropping. Still, America’s overall image remains mostly positive.