Tibet’s newly elected leader, Lobsang Sangay, assumed office on Monday. The baton of the Tibetan freedom movement has been passed on to the new generation born and raised outside Tibet, and China must recognise Sangay’s considerable efforts towards achieving democracy and justice.

Rebuilding the financial reputation of the United States will be Gary Locke's top priority when he arrives in Beijing on Friday as the US ambassador to China, experts said... And he will certainly engage in public diplomacy, promoting human rights and Western values...

The Victorian government is now establishing a Victoria-Jiangsu Chinese Language Scholarship Program. This program will involve up to 50 Victorian higher education students and young professionals a year, involving intensive Chinese-language study at a Jiangsu-based university.

Second, the project will enable China to combine the three branches of its armed forces to build up oceanic fleets and facilitate its military diplomacy...Most importantly, the project will highlight China's position as a major power and satisfy the Chinese people's emotional needs and nationalistic sentiments...."When the two sides go to the negotiation table, they would count on both their hard power and soft power"

Standard & Poor's downgrade of U.S. debt, along with the political battle over the debt ceiling and a faltering U.S. economy, will siphon away the time President Barack Obama has to deal with foreign policy issues. CFR's James M. Lindsay says that while the United States remains the world's dominant power, the downgrade strengthens the hand of those who argue that it is "in terminal decline."

Some may continue to point to the structural advantages enjoyed by the United States...of its rare combination of hard and soft power; of the fact that it remains the only serious power with true global reach... But in the current climate such facts appear to be cutting little ice with those who now insist that as result of Bush's ill-conceived war on terror, followed by the financial crisis, American decline is now a foregone conclusion.

Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has made his first anti-government comments since his release from detention, using Twitter to hit out at the treatment of colleagues and fellow dissidents and risking a potential return to custody. Mr Ai became the most high profile casualty of China's increasingly authoritarian stance following the Middle East uprisings, after which several prominent Chinese dissidents were detained.

The Indian Embassy has taken to Sina Weibo, the popular Twitter-like microblogging service from China, in an attempt to portray India’s modern image and promote Indian culture and tourism to Chinese youngsters. Since Sina Weibo boasts a hundred million users...it provides a perfect platform for the Indian embassy to remove the earlier misconceptions and present a modern image of India.