A consequence of China’s rise as a global economic superpower has been the nation’s quest for resources, influence and riches in Africa, extracting minerals and food, building highways and schools, and selling cheap cellphones and pharmaceuticals. In July, President Hu Jintao pledged that China would lend $20 billion to African governments for agriculture and infrastructure.

The Strategic Summit will explore how new communications strategies are advancing commercial, cultural and nation branding for China. With engaging keynote speakers, case studies and interactive discussions, the Strategic Summit will build on a format used at the popular and highly-rated National Summit on Strategic Communications organized annually in Washington DC.

Leading Chinese and Scottish business figures are to deliver a series of lectures in a bid to encourage more trade and economic activity between the two countries. The talks are being organized by the University of Edinburgh's Confutius Institute for Scotland.

Japanese naval and air force commanders suspended trips to South Korea which had been scheduled to start on Monday as part of a military exchange program, the South's defense ministry said.

So what is public diplomacy all about? The basic idea is that in order to achieve a wide range of goals—­from economics to military—you need to get support of ordinary people. Whether the goal is to convince foreign publics that the rise of China poses no threat to the international system, or to persuade the so-called “Arab street” to shed its anti-Western beliefs, public diplomacy is called upon to work its miracles.

The 29th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering will host butteri, cowboys from Italy, who have their own unique poetry, music, gear and traditional techniques, but still have much in common with their counterparts in the American West and cattle cultures across the globe.

The one-month festival, under the slogan 'Thinking, embodiment, modernisation', aims to attract youngsters and promote culture through stage shows and musical events. A large number of Bahrain intellectuals, musicians, writers and thinkers will take part in the opening ceremony at Block No 338 in Adliya at 7pm.

The Guangzhou Acrobatic Ballet will perform at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo on September 6 as part of the cultural exchange between China and the Dominican Republic.