No-one has been more skeptical about Chinese soft power than Joseph Nye, the man who first coined the phrase twenty years ago. In particular, Nye has criticized Beijing’s efforts to acquire soft power through centralized schemes, like the spread of Confucius Institutes or the establishment at the end of last year of the China Public Diplomacy Association. Despite “spending billions of dollars to increase its soft power … China has had a limited return on its investment,” he recently argued.

lle Obama has already made support of the 100,000 Strong Initiative, which aims to send more American students to China, a core part of her international agenda. "Studying in countries like China isn't only about your prospects in the global marketplace," she said in 2011. "It's also about whether you can come together, and work together with them to make our world stronger."

Asked whether it was effective to deal with the issue by publicly naming China, Hagel said he thought both public diplomacy and private engagement were necessary. Public statements are necessary to let people know what is going on, he said, but it doesn't solve problems.

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.”