When Dr Manmohan Singh lands in Addis Ababa, the marked difference between India's "soft power" and China's headlong rush into becoming the continent's go-to country for infrastructure is certain to excite debate again

The United States told China on Monday that improvements in human rights and economic reforms would serve Beijing's own interests and promised it was not seeking to contain the Asian power's rise.

The slaying of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is expected to prompt the United States and China to review strategies to shore up their influence in Asia.

In 1961, a clutch of Chinese intellectuals gathered in Beijing to reminisce about a bearded poet from Bengal. They called Rabindranath Tagore a symbol of Hindi-Chini friendship and released ten translated tomes of his writing to mark his 100th birth anniversary.

U.S. President Barack Obama views China as a potential partner for an eventual human mission to Mars that would be difficult for any single nation to undertake, a senior White House official told lawmakers.

China’s quest for “soft power” in recent years is a direct consequence of its dramatic economic transformation over the last several decades. It is now an all-too-familiar story of how China is vigorously pursuing image-building efforts, from the global expansion of its media properties to the rapid growth of the Confucius Institutes. This has become particularly poignant at a time when, in stark contrast, the U.S. public diplomacy enterprise is facing shrinking budgets.

China’s quest for “soft power” in recent years is a direct consequence of its dramatic economic transformation over the last several decades. It is now an all-too-familiar story of how China is vigorously pursuing image-building efforts, from the global expansion of its media properties to the rapid growth of the Confucius Institutes.

Osama bin Laden was a powerful man, although he used it for vicious ends. He had hard power, the power of explosives and kamikaze strikes, but he also had soft power, the ability to turn young people into ruthless suicide bombers. The most fearful part of Bin Laden's strength is not his unpredictable way to launch terrorist attack, but the charisma that united anti-US forces from all over the world.