Acting under directives from the central government, China's propaganda department is co-ordinating a global effort to step up its soft power outreach commensurate with its economic and political stature in the world, spending $US6.8 billion ($9.1 billion) a year to run and expand the international reach of official state-run media including Xinhua, CCTV, China Radio International and the China Daily.

The China Internet Information Centre and the Southern Media Corporation has announced the 1st Golden Bauhinia International New Media Film Festival (GBINMFF) at the China National Convention Centre in Beijing. According to PRNewswire, GBINMFF aims to promote innovation in terms of content, production, delivery and distribution from "All Ages, All Cultures & All Media" amid the Internet era; and to establish a healthy eco-system for new media sectors to cultivate new talents and premium productions.

In a Johannesburg concert venue that usually hosts pop stars, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had the crowd on their feet. Modi is in South Africa as part of a tour of southern and east Africa aimed at strengthening diplomatic and economic ties. [...] This human connection is the foundation in Modi’s plans to create a stronger presence in Africa, as the country tries to match China. India’s trade with Africa has grown from $1 billion in 1995, to $35 billion in 2008, rising to roughly $70 billion last year.

Despite its advocacy for Beijing's controversial and important position in the disputed South China Sea, the Institute for China-American Studies (ICAS) -- the only Chinese think tank based in Washington DC -- has been unable to rise from obscurity. Google their initials and they come up on the third page, behind the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the International Council of Air Shows, and the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, a tribe in Alaska. It has all of 43 Twitter followers.

The 2016 East Global Citizenship Development Seminar (GCDS) organized by the International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences (AIESEC) was recently held in Shanghai. With the purpose of helping 131 international volunteers from 32 different countries along with 54 Chinese students from mainland universities prepare for six weeks of cultural exchange in China, the seminar allowed the volunteers an opportunity to learn about and respect different cultures and lifestyles.

The Chinese government has spent billions in recent years to subsidize artistic enterprises, with an eye toward wielding "soft power" beyond its borders. It hasn't been notably successful. But China's video game industry -- as of last year, the world's biggest -- is on the verge of becoming one of its most valuable cultural exports. It just might succeed where so much Chinese entertainment has failed in the past.

Speaking at the plaque-unveiling ceremony, representative of Portuguese science and technology and higher education minister Joao Queiroz said he believed the new institute would not only make a remarkable contribution to the dissemination of the Chinese language and culture, but would also further deepen the cooperation between Portugal and China.