Let me begin by describing a scenario to you.

It’s Wednesday night in Costa Rica, about 8.30pm, and people in Costa Rica, as people do in most countries, are watching prime-time television. On this particular night, Costa Rica takes on their neighbors Venezuela in a soccer match and, due to the mass popularity of soccer in Costa Rica, it is drawing a large audience. Costa Rica scores, and after endless replays and analysis of a truly average goal, the action cuts to a "and here’s the reaction in China" sequence of pictures.

On the same day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give a major speech on protecting freedom of information, especially in cyberspace, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report criticizing the U.S. government for failing to confront the Chinese government's Internet censorship policies.

Brazil has profited handsomely over the past decade from its economic relationship with China. Exports to the People's Republic have shot up nearly 20-fold since 2000, and last year alone, Brazil enjoyed a bilateral trade surplus of $5.2 billion, largely thanks to China's seemingly insatiable appetite for iron ore and soybeans.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee released its report on the imbalance of public diplomacy activities between China and the United States...Commissioned by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the Ranking Member of the Committee, the report is a unique and necessary review of Chinese Government engagement in America

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) will publish another major report on public diplomacy shortly. Written by Paul Foldi, senior professional staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this report focuses on Chinese public diplomacy with the inevitable comparison to U.S. efforts. I was given a sneak peak at the report.

The 2011 Taipei International Book Exhibition is now underway at the Taipei World Trade Center. President Ma Ying-jeou spoke at the opening ceremony on Wednesday. He said that Taiwan's "publishing power" is not only an important form of soft power for the Republic of China, which is the official name of Taiwan.

Despite headline-grabbing reports of repression of China’s nascent civil society, there are unmistakable signs in China of the emergence of new organizations and the willingness of government to work with them.