...carefully consider who was offering to pay for it. The money would come from the Hanban, an arm of the Chinese government...That’s the same government...that jailed Nobel-prize winner Liu Xiaobo for 11 years...and the same government that employs 50,000 citizens to scour the Internet in search of dissent.

Public diplomacy has become an important mechanism for Beijing to promote bilateral relations. China has already established 130 Confucius Institutes in 20 European countries and signed educational partnership agreements with all 27 member states of the EU.

Vice-President Xi Jinping's recently concluded three-nation tour of Latin America is likely to further enhance China's relations with the region, experts said. Beyond its economic ties with Latin America, China is also interested in promoting its image internationally...China's infrastructure projects in the Caribbean are examples of non-economically motivated relationships in the region.

There are 82 Confucius Institutes and 39 Confucius Classrooms in 31 countries and regions in Asia. Despite great achievements, Confucius Institutes still face serious challenges. For example, there is the question of how to help Chinese volunteer teachers better adapt to the foreign environment, especially the living environment in developing countries.

It is crucial Taiwan promotes its cultural relevance within the global community as a means of boosting the nation’s international visibility. As part of this push, the country is planning to engage in linguistic diplomacy through the Taiwan Academies initiative.

Late last year, a senior official from the Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing announced that there were now over 40 million foreign learners worldwide studying Chinese.

If you are an American academician specializing in Asian affairs, you may have noticed that an organization called the "Confucius Institute" has sprung up on a nearby US college campus.

The unexpectedly rapid expansion of China’s Confucius Institutes since their inception in 2004 has prompted many to consider them a soft power success story. But such a quick rise is bound to lead to a certain amount of scrutiny...