Chinese leaders spend considerable time and energy in assuring the international community that they have no reason to be afraid of China’s “peaceful rise”... Many countries, however, equate China’s growing economic might with greater political influence and are less accepting of the benign image that Beijing now wants to portray to the world.

The China Film Group functions as the Chinese government’s guardian of a film market that recently become the world’s second-largest in box-office receipts behind the United States. On a broad array of business dealings — censorship, distribution and co-productions — it is the conduit for foreign moviemakers hoping to make or distribute films in China.

The event was hosted by China's Confucius Institute in Morocco. It's the second time the Chinese bridge competition has taken place here. On Saturday 26 contestants from across the country took part -- and their ages ranged from 14 to 62 years old Tkassit Abdullah. The theme of composition this year is "China and I".

...state media groups push aggressively into overseas territories, buying or opening radio stations and television channels as Beijing develops its "soft power" policy. ... these foreign ventures are often not huge revenue generators, continuing the decades-long tradition in which party mouthpieces consume government funds in return for projecting a positive image of China and its rulers.

Cultural exchanges between China and Russia have reached an unprecedented height in recent years," said Yang Song, Europe and Asia division chief of the Liaison Office of the Ministry of Culture...."A series of intercultural events have greatly helped promote mutual understanding, and bring Chinese and Russians closer.

I have spent some time as of late picking through the now infamous train wreck that was the American pavilion at Shanghai. Cynthia Schneider offers her opinion on what went wrong here. Here’s my take:

Taiwan, a small island the size of Belgium with a population of some 23 million, is the mother of all status quo powers. If ever there was a country more interested in preserving the conditions of the here and now, it is this one.

FOR a lesson in the use of ‘soft power’, turn to Beijing. China has made culture and people-to-people contacts an essential cornerstone of its global diplomacy. The key focus so far has been on countries in the neighbourhood, with China working hard to defuse perceptions that it seeks to dominate the rest of Asia. The rest of the world is now also getting a taste of China’s cultural diplomacy.