The Confucius Institute in Armenia was founded three years ago and it had an auditorium of 100 people and that number keeps increasing. Around 50 students were able to continue their education in China due to the institute.

“We are challenged every day by what the Chinese are doing in public diplomacy."... China has “checked the print ‘box’” and has moved into broadcasting and in-person programs at the Confucius Institutes, she said, all adding up to a powerful public diplomacy force – and a huge investment in public diplomacy.

China is planning to open more Confucius Institutes to teach traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) overseas in order to promote this age-old medical science, deemed the essence of Chinese culture, said Vice Minister of Health Wang Guoqiang...The Confucius Institutes are non-profit public institutions for promoting Chinese language and culture in foreign countries.

The cultural institutions of most countries are autonomous, unconnected with any local educational facility. But China’s Confucius Institutes are different, leading to criticism from some teachers, education authorities and parts of the media.

...Dickinson State College in North Dakota became the most recent university to turn down a Confucius Institute — a cultural outpost of the Chinese government that already has 350 branches on campuses around the world, from Paris Diderot University to Penn State University, and from Argentina to Zimbabwe.

Mandarin language assistants, entering New Zealand under the free trade agreement with China, have arrived to help the Beijing-backed Confucius Institute spread the word in Mandarin. The University of Auckland-based institute has set a target of having 50,000 Kiwis learning the language annually.

At a time when the rest of the world marvels at — or perhaps dreads — China’s rise, Beijing perceives a serious weakness in its own armour: the lack of soft power. For all its economic woes, the West still possesses ample soft power as evidenced by its cultural domination.