Advocating a more pragmatic approach, he wanted India to maintain cordial relations with the countries that would invest in India and help the country meet challenges such as food security, which was assuming a very grave magnitude.

At the end of its four-day annual policy meeting, China’s ruling Communist Party approved a programme to make its ideology more popular at home and boost China’s soft power abroad.

China’s Confucius Institutes around the world are about spreading appreciation for Chinese culture and language, not news about political fault lines in China. Since the Confucius Institute project started seven years ago, some 300 have opened around the globe – 21 in Africa.

China continues its 'soft power' diplomatic efforts to expand its influence around the globe with the establishment of ever-more Confucius institutes at universities around the world and, recently, the spread of an offshoot aimed at schools called the Confucius Classroom scheme.

As China's economy and exchanges with the world see rapid growth, there has been a sharp increase in the demand for Chinese learning...Committed to providing Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide, the Confucius Institute goes all out in meeting the demands of foreign learners and contributing to the development of multiculturalism.

The Confucius Institute at UCA has been bringing the Chinese language to Arkansas for several years. Yet, it's the first year the Pulaski County Special School District has partnered with the institute. Now, more than 100 students are enrolled in classes and growing.

In these times, it's apt to project a Chinese global narrative through increasingly sophisticated media, and while China is promoting Mandarin in more than 300 Confucius Institutes all over the world, it is also increasingly attracting more foreign students to its universities.

In the face of China’s growing dominance in international politics and its assertion of sovereignty over Taiwan, Taipei has resorted to what it calls “cultural diplomacy” to further the island’s interests abroad...