An article in the Global Times Thursday cited the example of the Letpadaung copper mine project, jointly established by China and Myanmar, which has become the target of growing protests. Leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said she will visit the area. She has also insisted that Myanmar should stick to its agreement with Chinese companies.

SOMETIMES China flexes its soft power without really having any idea it has done so. That appears to be what happened on November 27th when the People’s Daily Online, a website of the Communist Party’s English-language mouthpiece, republished an article by the Onion, a satirical version of an American newspaper, declaring North Korea’s Kim Jong Un the “Sexiest Man Alive”.

Two state-owned Chinese film companies are aiming to list shares on Shanghai's stock exchange, as Beijing champions the growth of a homegrown film industry to rival Hollywood... Chinese policy makers see a vibrant film industry as an extension of what is called soft power, giving the nation cultural sway on par with its status as the world's No. 2 economy.

The Confucius Institute at Liberia University, which was jointly established by Changsha University of Science & Technology in China and the Liberian government, through the University of Liberia (UL) nearly 4 years ago , has made some landmark achievements in the area of cultural exchange program.

"China's rise" and the "US decline" have been hotly discussed among politicians and scholars. How does China's rise influence the US? Is the US really in decline? How will the Sino-US relationship develop in the future? Global Times reporter Wang Wen interviewed American political scientist Joseph Nye, former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University on these topics.

Earlier this month we took a look at what Hu Jintao’s political report to the 18th National Congress had to say about cultural policy in China — specifically, the focus on building China as a “socialist cultural power” (社会主义文化强国) to offset perceived Western cultural dominance. A report in today’s People’s Daily summarizes the discussion...

What is the American counter-move? The Obama administration devised a scheme for a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership that would exclude China. This magical sleight of hand is grounded in the imaginations of American policy-makers but not in reality.

A recent poll showed that the majority of the Japanese public are not looking favorably on their neighbors China and South Korea amid Japan's political turmoil and deadlocked diplomacy. Experts warn there may be greater damage to people-to-people ties between the neighbors, as Japan's mid-December general election may further fan the flames of nationalism.