Since at least the late 2000s, I have been observing – sometimes organizing, and sometimes participating in – diverse forums featuring different combinations of politicos, policy decision-makers, academics, and applied practitioners, which have broached the relationship between “culture” and “security,” sometimes in overlapping but often in notably different ways. At times, the purpose is to ascertain how new cultural developments might disrupt established security goals.

The worst of the anti-Japanese protests that have swept China in recent days may be over. The financial fallout for the world’s second- and third-biggest economies may be just beginning. Japanese-owned factories, restaurants, mini-marts and clothing retailers across China closed en masse Tuesday as protests continued in nearly 100 cities, sparked by a dispute over control of uninhabited islands near Taiwan.

Chinese state television hailed Mo Yan as "the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature" following the announcement Thursday of the 2012 award... As part of its quest for soft power, Beijing has been obsessed for years about winning Nobel prizes, which in its view too often go to dissidents and emigres.

The number of students from China studying at universities across the United States has increased dramatically. According to some statistics, the number of undergraduate students from China in the U.S. has doubled in the last two years. Economists say the trend is due, in large part, to a growing middle class in China. VOA's Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles county, with one of the largest Chinese student populations in the U.S. - totaling more than 4000 students.

As part of its quest for soft power, Beijing has been obsessed for years about winning Nobel prizes, which in its view too often go to dissidents and emigres. Chinese authorities were especially stung by the peace prize awards to the Dalai Lama and most recently in 2010 to the dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison term for subversion of state authority.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday established the Department of International Economic Affairs to serve economic diplomacy, which is increasingly important in China's diplomatic blueprint. The move shows that Beijing has recognized its increasing power in the economic field and is moving forward to make better use of it, Chinese experts said.

Japan and China are mounting global diplomatic campaigns in hopes of strengthening their competing claims to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, with Tokyo recently reversing course on its policy of avoiding vigorous counterarguments to the Chinese claims.

On a sunny morning in late September, the great Chinese artist Ai Weiwei sat in the courtyard of his studio in Beijing, lamenting his continued harassment by his country’s authorities. Last year, when they’d detained him for almost three months, they had also taken his passport.