Experts from the United States and Britain discussed the development of public diplomacy in China at a seminar hosted in Beijing on Wednesday, stating that they hope China will invest more in developing public diplomacy.

China's global soft power push is being refined through forays into Australia during the Year of Chinese Culture here. Ten writers recently came from China under the new format via the Chinese Writers Association, a government organisation, for a four-day conference with Australian counterparts.

Building bridges is not only work done by engineers. During the bilateral, multinational Natural Fire 11 exercise in Zanzibar, Tanzania, September 11-22, 2011, U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso Lenhart expressed the importance of religious leaders in Africa

Monica Pokorny of Polson was one of 10 young professionals to spend three weeks in China in June as part of a public diplomacy exchange focused on global environmental issues.

Essentially, the heart of our public diplomacy initiative is to engage more effectively beyond the official level contacts. Sort of going beyond the seminar circuit and establishing a people-to-people contact... The mode involves targeting campus interactions, developing contests, which get young people to think creatively beyond collaborations, beyond summit level engagement. It’s a work in progress.

And the 100,000-Strong Initiative is helping to dramatically increase the number of Americans studying in China. We are also working to increase other educational programs – specifically in the area of science and technology, as well as cultural and sports diplomacy

When the first Americans to participate in people-to-people exchanges with Cuba in 7½ years leave Miami on a Marazul charter Thursday afternoon, the central Virginia couple will be aboard. They want to meet the people who go with the music and cigars, said Liane Young.

China and India have set in motion several bilateral cultural initiatives, including a massive people-to-people contact exercise, to get an edge in cooperation in culture which has fallen behind the volume of trade between the two nations