An experimental attempt at some online diplomacy in China failed spectacularly last week when the US Embassy in Beijing's online question-and-answer session was abruptly disappeared.

That is the essence of the change in global politics that enables the rise of public diplomacy. The theory is not complicated, but putting public diplomacy to work requires imagination and persistence.

The Irish Embassy in Beijing as well as Consuls General Therese Healy in Shanghai and Peter Ryan in Hong Kong, were working closely with Tourism Ireland to boost Ireland’s interests, Mr Kavanagh said. The Embassy in Beijing is in the process of appointing a press and public diplomacy attaché.

A revolution in consumer sentiment has spread across China. “Made in China” no longer inherently means cheap, inferior, and unfashionable. The respectable Chinese brand has emerged, and some have not only caught up with their more established foreign rivals but have actually started to surpass them in China and beyond.

Joseph Nye has been the preeminent thought leader on the issue of power dynamics and relationships connecting global actors. [...] What is the future of this American century? My guess is that among the range of possible futures, ones in which a new challenger such as Europe, Russia, India, Brazil or China surpasses the United States and precipitates the end of the American centrality to the global balance of power are not impossible, but not very likely.

China is the most welcoming country when it comes to refugees, according to a new survey of citizens’ attitudes published on Thursday, with Germany ranking second and Britain third. In its first ever report to record global acceptance of refugees, Amnesty International surveyed more than 27,000 people across 27 countries and found that 80 percent of respondents would welcome refugees into their city, neighborhoods or homes.

Undeniably, the use of soft power has become an important element of China’s contemporary foreign strategy, and has been embraced in its foreign policy over the last two decades. In this case, although China becomes increasingly optimistic concerning its future growth, there is growing discomfort in some parts of the world regarding the implications of the nation’s rise.