Although the Chinese government has invested heavily in promoting the spread of Chinese culture overseas, some art groups do not agree with the funding behavior. They say the best way to successfully introduce China's cultural products into mainstream Western society is through commercial channels.

Through such platforms as overseas visits by Chinese leaders, receiving visits to China by foreign leaders, the Beijing Olympic Games and Shanghai World Expo, we engaged in dynamic public and cultural diplomacy...and showed to the rest of the world a China that is culturally-advanced, democratic, open and making continuous progress.

"Deepening cultural exchanges with foreign countries, and promoting Chinese and foreign cultures to learn from each other" has been listed as one of the major tasks of the Chinese government in 2012, says the government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the opening ceremony of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

At the New York Film Festival, three instant classics of engagé cinema -- one from Egypt and two from Iran (including BFF Oscar-winner A Separation) -- quite stunningly took on the weight of history. From the confines of house arrest, through a divorce drama, to the living, breathing expanse of the literal Arab street, engagé cinema is most hearteningly alive and well.

Putin perceives Russia as being the target of constant and mostly unfriendly pressure – from military challenges such as NATO enlargement to the imposition of social changes through media campaigns and other “soft power” elements...Success is only possible if based on use of power and this must be real 'hard' power.

To be successful and competitive in the long run, the private sector must manage global issues with numerous geographic and geopolitical challenges with creativity and dexterity, re-defining traditional notions of global engagement and public diplomacy along the way. A hybrid form of Smart Power on steroids.

On her graduation day at the prestigious Kennedy School at Harvard, Yang Jia’s dean called her “China’s soft power”. A decade later, Yang, 49, has probably become more than that — in a country which has the largest population of the disabled in the world, visually impaired Yang is now its symbol of hope.

Pew’s argument suffers from an implicit fallacy, not unusual in public diplomacy discourse. The primary purpose of humanitarian relief is not public diplomacy...We have a tendency to measure the international popularity rating of many U.S. government activities that may influence foreign publics, whereas their real purpose is something entirely different.