Throughout Beijing, images of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and other protagonists in the latest Transformers film stare from bus station billboards, shopfront windows and even a statue near Tiananmen Square. As US film studios look further afield for profits, the Hollywood sign now looms over China.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday showcased his guitar-playing talent, holding a lunchtime jam session during talks with officials in Beijing.  “Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong urged him to do so following a lunch at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, that concluded 5th Annual U.S.-China People-to-People Exchange,” reads the YouTube description of clips from Kerry’s concert.

Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials. They appeared to be targeting the files on tens of thousands of employees who have applied for top-secret security clearances. The hackers gained access to some of the databases of the Office of Personnel Management before the federal authorities detected the threat and blocked them from the network, according to the officials. 

Over the past decade or so, something disturbing has been happening in the Chinese community media in this country. The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda bureau has been buying up radio stations and newspapers across the country and channelling the voice of Beijing into them from editorial offices in China. Increasingly, topics on which press discussion is forbidden in China have vanished also from the Chinese language media in our own country.

Leaders of the five largest emerging economies will meet July 13-16 to finalize their first joint project: a new international development bank. The countries, known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia,India, China, and South Africa) have spent many years trying to find a common goal. Together they have more than 40 percent of the world’s population. And they share an interest in challenging many of the norms set by the West. Yet each nation is quite different in governance and ambition.

As a Chinese folk art festival closed in Washington on Sunday, burgeoning cultural exchanges between China and the United States has been deemed a more active and pivotal role in promoting bilateral ties.