The Beijing-backed Confucius Institutes, which promote Chinese culture internationally, have been no stranger to controversy since their launch in 2004. Critics have charged they are platforms for Chinese espionage and propaganda—a salacious if still unsubstantiated charge

In the mass media and the blogosphere,both inside and outside China,commentators have been discussing the differences between the cultural segments of the Beijing and London ceremonies as representative of two opposed political systems.

"Promoting cultural communication is an interesting job," says Krause in fluent Chinese. "The Confucius Institute is more like my kid, a 5-year-old who has started kindergarten but doesn't need breastfeeding anymore," he adds.

Aggregate data are not available, but figures from local language centres across the continent suggest that the number of people in Europe enlisted in taking the official Chinese Proficiency Test - or HSK - over the last two years has grown by close to a factor five.

CRI, one of Beijing’s four main state-run media outlets along with the Xinhua news agency, China Central Television (CCTV) and the English-language China Daily newspaper, is now at the centre of an $8 billion expansion, part of China’s plans to boost its “soft power” overseas.

And the winner is... London? You would hope that for a country in recession – which slid deeper into it in the second quarter than many expected – and facing a crisis over the fixing of wholesale interest rates by its banks, the Olympic games that wind up on August 12 will give the UK a much-needed boost. ‘Brand UK’ desperately needs some polishing.

The Chinese people I met while I was studying in the U.S. in the early 2000s gave me the strong impression of being aggressive in pursuing their goals. In many cases, five people shared a one-room studio to save on rent, though things might have changed now that China is the world’s second-largest economy in gross domestic product and trade. Back then, those who talked loudly at restaurants and attempted to buy a 10-dollar chair at half price at garage sales were mostly Chinese.