...Dickinson State College in North Dakota became the most recent university to turn down a Confucius Institute — a cultural outpost of the Chinese government that already has 350 branches on campuses around the world, from Paris Diderot University to Penn State University, and from Argentina to Zimbabwe.

This Government has put painstaking effort into rebuilding Ireland's reputational capital in Europe, in the USA and the emerging global powerhouse that is China. There are some indications that this effort is bearing fruit, notably in the confirmation by leading international companies that Ireland continues to be as much a magnet for inward investment as it was a decade ago.

While discussing with political advisors in the field of foreign exchanges, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, said the CPPCC should actively promote public diplomacy in a bid to improve support and favor for China in the international community.

Chinese firms investing overseas should focus more on public diplomacy..."They lack in-depth and comprehensive knowledge of the international market, practices and rules, and they are not skilled at conducting public diplomacy with the local communities," said Zhao.

Soft-power, the Middle East and the leadership change have all been hot topics in recent months. This is especially the case in light of China's growing economic clout as its involvement grows in terms of financing a bailout package for debt-stricken Europe.

There's so much political irony to go around in this story. First, there's a construction company wholly owned by the Chinese government -- which generally has an attitude toward mosque construction in the People's Republic that ranges from somewhat uneasy to downright hostile...

The February issue of PDiN Monitor focuses on The Future of Public Diplomacy and will introduce a new structure for CPD's regular analysis of public diplomacy in the news. Beginning this month, CPD will graph overall trends in public diplomacy news aggregated daily in PDiN.

...Should America's hard power and divide-and-rule approach triumph, Africa may descend into one large theatre of war with many actors, chapters and a tragic ending. Should China's soft power and win-win economic approach triumph, this may end up becoming a truly African Century.