The Chinese teachers are part of the Chinese Guest Teacher Program, which is administered through the College Board and China’s Hanban. The program arranges for visiting teachers from China to teach in U.S. elementary, middle and high schools for one to three years, in order to jump-start or expand school Chinese language and culture programs.

Two members of Congress have released an August 9 letter they sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling on the Obama Administration to strengthen public diplomacy and form a multilateral forum to resolve the Tibet crisis. They specifically call for starting a “contact group” with like-minded governments to have focused meetings on Tibet.

Call it soft power. With Chinese state-owned companies such as China Southern, it is impossible to know where company strategy ends and government policy begins. China Southern may be obscure in Australia now but it is the fourth-largest airline in the world in passengers carried.

Comparing China's public diplomacy to sports activities, where both professionals and public support are critical to success, Zheng addressed a group of top government officials, international affairs experts, and media professionals at the 2012 Charhar public diplomacy conference in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province on Aug. 18.

The "Korean Wave," known as "hallyu," began when the MBC TV soap opera "What is Love?" became a sensation in China after being first broadcast on the state-run CCTV channel in 1996. The Chinese audience response to "Daejanggeum (Jewel in the Palace)," a Korean costume drama starring Lee Young-ae and shown in the country in 2005, was also explosive.

Charhar public diplomacy conference 2012, China's most influential non-governmental public diplomacy conference, kicked off in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, on Aug. 18. Nearly 200 high-ranking government officials, business leaders, diplomats, experts on international relations, media and other related fields, and top media representatives are attending the two-day conference.

A seminar on cross-border dialogue through books and television, part of the two-day Charar Forum on Public diplomacy in Hebei Province, emphasized how cooperation on joint media projects can strengthen bilateral ties.

China has outmaneuvered everybody else in the strategic calculations with respect to cultivating relationships with Africa. In the recently concluded fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on China-Africa strategic partnership, President Hu Jintao pledged a US$20 billion of credit line for African countries in the next three years—double the amount of what China promised to lend Africa at the last joint forum three years ago.