He pledged assistance in projects such as setting up one or two agricultural technology centers within the next three years, sending 100 medical workers to the region, training 100 postgraduate students and providing 1,000 scholarships for students. Zhu Zhiqun, a professor of political science and international relations at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, said Xi's Caribbean and Latin American tour is a continuation of China's new diplomacy that began in the early 1990s, which also aims to promote China's soft power.

From Beijing’s vantage point, such foreign concerns reflect misconceptions over its intentions as a rising power. And Xi appears to recognize that this is exacerbated by a broader deficit in China’s global soft power (that is, the ability to persuade other countries and foreign publics through attraction and co-option rather than coercion, use of force, or payment).To be sure, Beijing has invested many billions of pounds in recent years on foreign charm offensives, and has achieved some significant successes (remember the 2008 Olympics for instance).

Mr Blair's elite audience also watched a video message from Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist co-founder of Microsoft. Neither man appears to have been aware that the event, last November, was a "soft power" exercise approved at top levels in the PLA.

“This centre would promote Trinidad and Tobago’s creative industries through cultural exchanges, training seminars and cultural exhibitions in China. The Centre could also feature highly in Trinidad and Tobago’s public diplomacy initiatives in Asia. During our discussions we also suggested that China and Trinidad and Tobago could co-host an annual Caribbean Music Festival in Beijing, which could become a signature event for promoting Asian/Caribbean Cultural Exchanges.”

In a 2008 report titled Repack­aging Confucius: PRC Public Policy and the Rise of Soft Power, by the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stock­holm the C.I. was described as “an image management project, the purpose of which is to promote the greatness of Chinese culture while at the same time counterattacking public opinion which maintains the presence of a ‘China threat’ in the international community.”

The idea was that China's south-west region, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India's Northeast and eastern region, might explore prospects for working together, using emerging new transport linkages as a platform for stronger trade, socio-cultural and people-to-people exchanges. Academics and scholars were invited to discuss this concept, and sensitise their governments, business entities and social organisations to the possibilities.

The 2006 Beijing action plan provided the first attempt to create institutional-level collaboration through the establishment of Confucius Institutes, although these are also largely organised at the intergovernmental level as part of China’s global ‘soft power’.

Cyber security is set to be discussed for the first time at a meeting of NATO defence ministers next week.The Pentagon chief said Washington would press Beijing using both public diplomacy and private talks.