he Guangzhou Asian Games was a great demonstration of China's soft power to the world, said Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday. "The opening ceremony of the Asian Games was very impressive," he said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, adding it tells the world not only China's economic power, but also the nation's culture, discipline and romance.

Now that President Barack Obama has concluded his $200 million per day trip to India (just kidding—that risible far right-wing canard has been thoroughly debunked), it’s a good moment for some initial thoughts about the soft power dimensions of the episode.

That China and the United States are in a race to gain sway over countries possessing vital natural resources, not only in Africa but across the developing world, is hardly news...Yet while the two powers approach the question of influence from different starting points, they are also increasingly overlapping in the way they develop their soft power—particularly in the use of their navies.

Looking at the seemingly inscrutable actions of the men who rule Beijing, Washington often assumes many in the Chinese government to be anti-American, whereas the Chinese public is pro-American. The reality is almost exactly the opposite.

China Xinhua News Network Corporation (CNC)'s English channel has further extended its international reach with the successful launch of satellite broadcasts in North America on Sunday.

As an effort to attract Chinese tourists to the US or improve America's image in China, the pavilion was an epic failure; but as a symbol of Obama's America, it wasn't bad. It's not very surprising that Shanghai Expo 2010, which just ended (coincidentally) on Halloween night, never attracted much interest in the US.

A direct connection to the world’s oldest continuous civilization now exists at UK. The Confucius Institute was inaugurated Saturday before a full crowd at the Singletary Center for the Arts.