An opinion poll, jointly conducted by China Daily and the Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group, provides a mirror to reflect upon the trajectory of public opinion in China in regard to the relationship between China and the United States last year.

President Hu Jintao will travel to the United States for his third official visit as China’s leader this week. It may be his last before he hands over power to his apparently designated successor, Vice President Xi Jinping, in 2012.

Chinese President Hu Jintao this week will lay out his vision for U.S.-Chinese relations based on strategic mutual trust, state-run media reports, amid recent hints of Washington's frustrations with Beijing.

Follow the pandas: they remain a good guide to where China’s biggest foreign policy interests lie. Since “panda diplomacy” began in the 1950s with an overture to the Soviet Union, gifts of cuddly-looking bears with cutesy names have helped point to the big themes in Beijing’s strategic positioning.

CPD University Fellow and Associate Professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, Jay Wang's new book, Soft Power in China: Public Diplomacy through Communication, has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of their Global Public Diplomacy series.

The one thing that the world learned early on from the ISS experience is that space is a great forum for diplomacy. One time arch-rivals now work side by side on a daily basis.

There has been an officially sanctioned revival of Confucius in recent years, as authorities have turned to his teachings to reach out to the international community to strengthen China's "soft power" and counter an invasion of Western culture.

China wants to use both inbound and outbound tourism to help promote its international image, which has been battered by endless product and food safety scandals and ethnic unrest.