China's most celebrated operatic export Tian Hao Jiang's "I Sing Beijing" is a summer program bringing some 20 promising young professionals from the U.S., Europe and South America to China to learn to sing in Mandarin, a program that will culminate with a gala concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on August 18.

China’s new and first aircraft carrier isn’t fully operational yet...Why would a truly peaceful-rising country need an aircraft carrier? Joseph S. Nye, Jr., the former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government rightly credits the “peaceful rising” advertising to current China President Hu Jintao, who stylistically preferred what might be called a foreign-relations approach of “soft power.”

It's inevitable that the economic problems have put a dent in our soft power," he says. "In material terms, it's almost a non-story. The math in the Standard & Poor's downgrade was incorrect.

For uninformed visitors, the sight and sound of foreigners belting it out in Chinese might seem bizarre. But Glenn is part of an unprecedented program called I Sing Beijing that has brought to China 20 young Western performers from the United States, Europe and Central and South America to learn to sing opera in Mandarin. More than 200 people auditioned in Los Angeles, Denver and New York.

What should be included in China's public diplomacy? Can China's public diplomacy produce results? What kind of effect will it have on the average person? The answers to these questions have become increasingly important in today's public opinion-led world.

On the economy, 62 percent of respondents agreed that China’s growing economy was good, while 25 percent disagreed, and 37 percent agreed that a growing US economy was good, while 53 percent disagreed. Somewhat similar results were recorded by a 2008 survey on soft power conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCOGA).

The Hoyas will spend five days in the capital of the world’s most populous nation and another five days in Shanghai on a trip intended to advance Georgetown’s profile internationally with athletic, educational and cultural exchange.

In the face of China’s growing dominance in international politics and its assertion of sovereignty over Taiwan, Taipei has resorted to what it calls “cultural diplomacy” to further the island’s interests abroad...