Chinese fashionistas and regular folk have been cooing for days over the sky-blue scarf, the handsome handbag and the classic updo of Peng Liyuan, the wife of President Xi Jinping of China, who seemed to shatter a tradition when she stepped out of an Air China plane in Moscow last Friday with her husband, smiling and waving, her outfit matching his. The tradition was that the wives of Communist Party leaders hung about dowdily in the background.

Peng Liyuan's debut on the international stage as China's first lady has put her into the international limelight. Along with her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping, she has just paid a highly successful state visit to Russia.. China needs a high-profile staging of its new top leader and his family to be presented to the world, to empower its state and public diplomacy.

Peng Liyuan, China’s new First Lady, is glamourous, fashionable and one of her nation’s best-known singers, a startling contrast to her dour-looking predecessors. As she accompanies her husband, President Xi Jinping, on his first trip abroad as China’s leader, Peng appears ready to carve out a new role for herself.

The arrival of two giant pandas from China today will likely generate a good deal of fanfare in Toronto, where the bears will be on display at the city zoo starting in mid-May. Excitement is a fairly common reaction to these odd and incredibly rare animals. But why do people seem so obsessed with pandas?

In an earlier post, I detailed the USC Annenberg MPD delegation’s meeting with PD officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Beijing. The outcome of that meeting raised interesting questions about MFA’s role in PD and about the domestic dimension of China’s PD, which we tried to learn more about through our meetings. In this piece, I will provide my own interpretation of what we learned here.

APDS Blogger: Danni Li

Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan visited a Moscow boarding school for orphans and children estranged from their parents on Saturday in a move analysts say delivers a "big push" to Beijing's soft power. "I represent thousands of mothers in China to be here visiting you," Peng said, after watching dance and acrobatics performances by students. Peng, a renowned folk singer and actress, passed on her wishes for the children to lead healthy, happy lives and contribute meaningfully to society.

Jakarta was the final stop of the deputy defense secretary's weeklong trip to Asia, which included visits to defense and government officials in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. Speaking as part of an international panel at the third Jakarta International Defense Dialogue, or JIDD, Carter said the United States is serious about its commitment to the region and detailed elements now in motion of a rebalance called for in the department's 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance.