Recently, Beijing has launched what Joshua Kurlantzick deems a “charm offensive”- China’s rising soft power. In the quest for closer relations and natural resources, China has begun to transform the world balance of power.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi has deactivated its account on a popular Vietnamese website that's full of suspected pirated music and Hollywood movies, the State Department said Wednesday. The embassy had used its social media account with ZingMe to promote American values, including respect for intellectual property rights. But its presence had raised questions about digital piracy on the site and led to a review.

“Creating an LGBT-welcoming workplace is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing,” Clinton said. “And part of that is because the nature of diplomacy has changed and we should and need to keep up. Today, we expect our diplomats to build relationships not just with their counterparts in foreign governments...”

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine will travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey November 27-December 1, 2012. In Sarajevo, Under Secretary Sonenshine will meet with LGBT community activists, discuss women’s empowerment with NGO leaders, and talk about U.S. foreign policy with media representatives. The Under Secretary will also meet with Youth Leadership Program students who recently returned from four weeks in the United States.

Choreographer Trey McIntyre found his recent experience with cultural exchange a subtle, complex affair--something that will surprise no one familiar with his imaginative, offbeat approach to dance making. He and his troupe went on a worldwide tour for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs earlier this year.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday morning pushed for an increase in coordination between government agencies focused on development and foreign aid, saying “If we don’t better coordinate and integrate what we’re doing, we won’t get the biggest impact.”

More than 200 Russian-speaking young Jews who are living in Western Europe gathered in the Netherlands for a Jewish Agency conference about Israel. Participants in last week's four-day conference, which the Jewish Agency co-organized with Israel's Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, participated in workshops on “fighting the de-legitimization of Israel.”

"China's rise" and the "US decline" have been hotly discussed among politicians and scholars. How does China's rise influence the US? Is the US really in decline? How will the Sino-US relationship develop in the future? Global Times reporter Wang Wen interviewed American political scientist Joseph Nye, former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University on these topics.