Mexico City announced Thursday it would open a new tourism route called "The China Experience" to promote Chinese culture and cuisine. The route, offered by the city's leading tour bus operator Turibus, is built around two exhibitions currently on show at prestigious downtown museums, namely "China's National Art Museum Masterpieces" and "The Memory of Hands: The Splendor and Color of Guizhou's Heritage".

While U.S. officials are consulting intensely with their South Korean counterparts, not enough attention is being paid to Beijing’s perspective, even though China would figure heavily into any prospective U.S. action toward the North. By examining Beijing’s role in each of the three main North Korea policy strategies under debate in the United States, the “China factor” emerges as a decisive one, in ways that policymakers need to weigh carefully.

The 21st century, however, belongs to Football 3.0 (the Asian era). Over the last decade, football has been in the midst of a shift eastwards. Countries including Qatar and states of the United Arab Emirates have built extensive sponsorship portfolios in the West, acquired overseas clubs, and successfully bid to host international tournaments. More recently, China has increased the pace of world football’s ‘Asianisation’.

Just as American citizens are on the edge of their seats over the results, so too are international leaders, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose relationships with the United States will be profoundly affected by the election’s outcome. The campaign raises a fundamental question for Chinese officials: Would they prefer the next U.S. president to be predictable or a wildcard? 

Beijing sees sporting prowess as a key soft power weapon and sensitivities over China’s performance at Rio 2016 led Chinese television censors to briefly stymie the BBC World broadcast about the plight of China’s gymnasts. The screen went black, as routinely occurs during stories considered politically inconvenient to the Communist Party. 

On 7 October, President Obama signed an executive order lifting nearly all of the remaining economic sanctions on Myanmar’s government [...]  Despite China’s enduring influence over its neighbour, the United States enjoys several unrecognised advantages over the Asian giant, flowing from its substantial soft power, an asset China has failed to cultivate.