In politics, words matter. [...] But with a growing number of national governments using Twitter to communicate, a head of state can signal a major policy shift in a mere 140 characters. President-elect Donald Trump's use of Twitter has been a case study in how a short message by an influential figure can potentially change the global landscape.

Connecting China and Western Europe, Poland has been tapped as a key link in the Chinese government's "Belt and Road" initiative. Chinese President Xi Jinping made a stop in Poland back in June, overseeing the signing of around 40 different trade and partnership agreements.

In the past decade, trade exchange between China and Latin America grew 20-fold to reach 236.5 billion US dollars in 2015, according to the Chinese government, which has free-trade agreements with several regional countries, such as Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. 

In 2016, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India continued to enlarge its foreign policy options and generally pursue the goal of raising the country's international profile. Over the year India exhibited more self-confidence in dealing with challenges, showed more assertiveness in defending its interests, and displayed far more flexibility in exploring compromises on issues of global concern.

Fans who attended Wham!'s 1985 concert in Beijing have been recalling the historic show following the death of George Michael on Sunday. Michael -- together with his music partner Andrew Ridgeley -- became the first western pop act to perform in China after 18-months of successful negotiations between the Chinese government and Wham's agent, Simon Napier-Bell.

After a year dominated by controversy over China’s soft power forays into Australian politics, experts are warning the emerging superpower is using Australian media to exert political influence with implications for press freedom. A recent report argues this “major blind spot in Australia’s… understanding of Chinese-language media” could become “a trigger for social disharmony”.”

Two thousand years ago, merchants and caravans began moving between east and west along the Silk Road, trading goods, philosophy and technology. Now a modern Silk Road, rekindling trade and achieving common prosperity, is in the making. The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping, has gained traction in the last three years, scholars and officials said.

Examining the trends, it has to be mentioned that the tourist demand structure has been visibly changed. Destination tourism organizations, domestic and foreign tourism enterprises of China and Sri Lanka both need to better understand the new trends and new features of China outbound tourism market in 2017.