China is expected to overtake the US as the world's largest economy a few years before 2030, while the US will remain the top player in the following two decades thanks to its dominant role in international politics, its technological prowess and its soft power that attracts outsiders, said the latest report released on Monday by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC).

“We have carried out extensive public diplomacy activities as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges to encourage deeper understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and people of other countries.”

In 2002, Blackwell founded a company called Killerspin, based in Chicago. The idea came to him when he was asked to help host a table tennis exhibition in Chicago in the early 2000s, an event meant to celebrate the anniversary of the good-natured exchange of table tennis players between the U.S. and China later known, of course, as Ping Pong Diplomacy.

China is not squeamish about putting a price and index on its culture. In a quirky development last month, China launched its first cultural industry index at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange... The OCT Index, which as of now hasn’t generated much notice, does signal a shifting trend - China’s determination to change its growth model.

In 2004 Chinese-American rapper Jin released a song titled Learn Chinese. The hit song, which peaked up to 29 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales, prophesied that "Ya'll gonna learn Chinese."

Senior Chinese and Russian officials on Wednesday agreed here to work together and take effective measures to push forward people-to-people and cultural exchange programs between the two countries.

Few had probably even heard of the country Kazakhstan until the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. At the time, the satiric film starring Sacha Baron Cohen was roundly denounced by Kazakhstan for its unflattering portrayal of the country, still coming out of the shadows of the former Soviet Union.