The oldest Chinatown in the world is not in New York or San Francisco or even Yokohama. It is in Manila, a fact that comes up often when Beijing talks about its longstanding connection to the islands that lie about 600 miles to the southeast. Similarly, China boasts of its three Confucius Institutes in the Philippines where Filipinos can learn Mandarin and appreciate the many facets of Chinese culture.

China’s Communist Party has branched out into the development of online games in a bid to inculcate its ideology upon the nation’s young people.

Crater Lake National Park may soon have a sister park in southeast China's Fujian Province. Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman and Carolyn Hill, executive director of the Crater Lake National Park Trust, are working with Chinese officials as well as the Oregon Legislature and others to create a sister-park agreement between Oregon's only national park and the Mount Wuyi World Heritage and Cultural Site in Fujian Province.

Ten new movie screens open each day in China as the popularity of cinema soars in the country, but the appeal of Chinese films has failed to maintain the pace.

Japan's economy is suffering. While Japan's political parties are struggling to come up with policies to save the country, territorial disputes and the "China threat" theory ignite public sentiment. There is no doubt that newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make use of these issues.

It would seem, from this quick thumbnail sketch, that Chinese soft power has been extraordinarily successful in the Philippines as in the rest of Asia. But that’s only part of the story. China, after all, has not restricted itself solely to the exercise of soft power to increase its influence in the region.

Table tennis has helped connect China and the United States since 1971, when the US team's visit to Beijing sparked a thaw in relations. The sport is poised to play a similar role again, as Dubai announced on Monday it will sponsor the Chinese national team as part of an effort to promote exchange and growth between the two nations."This will be the first time the Chinese national table tennis team has cooperated with a foreign partner."

Clear progress has been made in China-Africa relations over the past decade or so, driven by economic cooperation. Similarly, the mutual support and friendly relations that China has had with African countries for over half a century are now evolving into “all-round strategic partnerships.” “China-Africa relations” became the world’s most popular phrase seemingly overnight from about 2006, drawing concern from across the globe.