China has initiated a "going out" policy that is aimed at taking the country's publishing industry to the next level, at home and abroad. Along with the Confucius Institute, which is opening schools across the globe, Chinese books are already proving a big draw overseas.

Within a short span of time, the Pakistan-China Institute has emerged as an institution that has credibility in both countries and employed an innovative approach to promote a bilateral bond that is today pivotal to the future stability, security and prosperity of Pakistan and China.

Chinese president-in-waiting Xi Jinping will spend most of his two-day California trip highlighting two things: films and basketball. Clayton Dube, associate director of the US-China Institute at USC, says China wants to mimic US “soft power” - its ability to influence world culture. “Soft power is what the US has in abundance and what Xi wants to know more about."

Beijing’s image is complicated at best in Africa, where it is building major infrastructure projects and boosting local economies, but is also accused of overlooking human rights abuses in its quest for natural resources. China’s foreign investments are a dynamic source of support to America’s economy, but the massive U.S.-China trade deficit is a point of tension.

The Chinese military clearly recognized that the U.S. was able to gain substantial goodwill from its effective response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami with its aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships ferrying supplies, medical teams and rescue crews ashore, according to Chinese and Western commentators.

During the session, leaders of the Party approved a decision on deepening reform of the cultural system and promoting the development of the cultural industry in a bid to build a country with soft power.

...as a part of larger scheme of building up China’s “soft power.”... Xi’s trip to Iowa is evidently designed to do just that, projecting an image not of a Communist dictator, but a caring leader of a modern nation who cherishes his friendship with Americans, in the hopes of garnering some American goodwill.

CCTV Africa's mission will be to present the good truth of China \[...] and to show the good experiences of its economic development."...until recently, the country did not wish to export its culture, but in 2008 things changed. The following year President Hu Jintao used the concept of soft power for the very first time, connecting it to the diffusion of Chinese culture and influence around the world.