...the project shows the scale and ambition behind China's push to revitalize red tourism. For years, the industry has been dominated by sleepy tours of leaders' homes and historical sites. That's changing. Red tourism is a big business. Between 2004 and '10, a total of 1.35 billion people have gone on red tours...However, the red-tourism market depends heavily on government-sponsored group tours

DreamWorks Animation has become the second Hollywood studio to enter into a distribution agreement with China's top online video site, Youku.com. Youku said Monday that it had signed a deal with the Glendale-based animation studio to distribute the "Kung Fu Panda" movies in China, marking the first time that DreamWorks releases have been made available in that country through the Internet.

The emergence of Weibo promotes public interaction to an unprecedented level and enables limitless discussions on topics like the bullet train crash and the scandal surrounding the Red Cross Society of China. Weibo serves as a watershed mark for China's media environment.

Chinese regulators have shut down 6,600 websites in their efforts to clamp down on “illegal public relations deals” that employ similar tactics for commercial gain. Telecommunications authorities shut the websites down as part of a campaign against bad public relations practices launched in April by the State Internet Information Office and several other government agencies.

With the twin crises of the American budget deficit and the European public borrowing emergency, China has ample worries. China is nonetheless active in bilateral relations with EU member states, and this involves commercial diplomacy, high-level visits and public diplomacy. The last increasingly revolves around the notion of “helping friends,” whether these are nations in need of investment or simply cash.

Taiwan has been a relatively quiet player in the tense dispute about territorial claims in the South China Sea. That could change with an unusual initiative that Taipei says is a peaceful approach to asserting its sovereignty in a body of water where China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims. The plan involves tourists, rare turtles and a remote atoll.

An American-funded clinic to train birthing assistants is saving lives in one of China’s most isolated regions. The Surmang Foundation’s clinic, set in a Buddhist monastery, is also pioneering a system of rural health care for the ultrapoor that some experts say could be a model for the rest of the country.

Mr. Aquino’s visit highlights China’s successful use of soft power to build relationships based on inducements and gestures of goodwill rather than aggression and interference in domestic affairs. China’s success is evident in turning Southeast Asia into a peaceful and prosperous backyard that allows it to concentrate on modernizing its economy.