During the Ming dynasty, [...] More than six centuries later, Xi Jinping, China’s president, launched a new maritime strategy explicitly drawing on Zheng’s legacy: the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road is one part of a larger project, the One Belt, One Road (OBOR), which aims to connect China with Europe by land and sea. 

A pair of Chinese giant pandas that arrived here last month as part of a joint research project were officially unveiled to the public on April 21 at the country’s largest amusement park south of Seoul. After some 50 days of allowing the animals to get used to their new environment, Samsung Everland in Yongin, about 50 kilometers south of Seoul, held an opening ceremony for “Panda World” and showed the pandas to the public.

While the field in Metro Vancouver is already crowded with proposed Chinese art museums and facilities [...] “This is a cultural bridge between China and Canada,” Ye said. “First, it’s a place where Canadians can get the most authentic, top-level cultural exhibits from China today. Second, it gives Chinese-Canadians — no matter how many generations they’ve been here — to have a visual and tangible link to what their ancestral culture has to offer.”

China’s diplomacy seems largely about sending other countries pandas. Luckily, it seems like every country really wants pandas. Spider diplomacy, for instance, would not work, though undoubtedly is being considered by North Korea. These two pandas arrived in Malaysia and now Malaysia loves China even more.

In recent months, Taiwan has been taking steps via public diplomacy and public relations to bolster its argument that Taiping is naturally capable of habitation and is thus an island. Last month, it invited the international media to visit the island, where goats roam and fresh well water is available. 

China today faces a multitude of security challenges in its neighborhood, with the South China Sea leading the issues that will test China’s global strategy of peaceful development. What are the salient features of the security situation in China’s neighborhood?

Even as China increases its footprint in Cameroon through its language institutes and companies, locals are divided on how these facilities are impacting their lives. While youth welcome them as cultural bridges and windows of opportunity for jobs [...] What is most worrying is a growing feeling that these language schools may make local youth lose their moorings, confidence, belief and identity 

Last October, President Xi visited the National Football Museum during his state visit to the UK. Moore recounted the cultural exchange: “I gave to the President as a gift from the National Football Museum a copy of the hand- written laws from 1863, and he gave me a gift of a replica Cuju ball.”