Beijing has unveiled a basket of initiatives to deepen economic, cultural and social exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, following a high-profile meeting last week between President Xi Jinping and Wu Poh-hsiung, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang.

A second issue to address is that, traditionally, there has been too little emphasis from China on public diplomacy efforts to reach out directly to foreign publics. Instead, Beijing has often placed emphasis, especially in Africa and the Middle East, on improving working relationships with strategically important governments through assistance programs that may not always serve the interest of local peoples. This is now changing. China has rapidly developed public diplomacy skills and policies. But more change is urgently needed if hearts and minds are to be won across the world.

Majorities in most of 39 countries surveyed have an unfavorable opinion of Iran, and most say Tehran does not respect the personal freedoms of its people. Meanwhile, any nuclear ambitions harbored by the Iranian government continue to draw strong opposition from Western countries, as well as neighboring states in the Middle East.

From Beijing’s vantage point, such foreign concerns reflect misconceptions over its intentions as a rising power. And Xi appears to recognize that this is exacerbated by a broader deficit in China’s global soft power (that is, the ability to persuade other countries and foreign publics through attraction and co-option rather than coercion, use of force, or payment).To be sure, Beijing has invested many billions of pounds in recent years on foreign charm offensives, and has achieved some significant successes (remember the 2008 Olympics for instance).

And in 2011, when the corrupt, lazy, violent Greek meme was at full throttle, a Greek-South African marketing strategist named Peter Economides sought to improve the nation's damaged self-esteem through a campaign called Yinetai, which means "It is possible."

The new world order succeeding the one built on post-WWII realities will be, to a much greater extent, a “soft power” confrontation of countries and blocs. Currently, Russia remains absent on the “soft power” scene and will need to formulate a policy in this sphere, especially in preparation for the major, upcoming, international events and institutional presidencies it will be holding.

If in Latin America, the ordinary citizens were able to communicate their vicissitudes directly to the chief of state, and if the office of the president became the true public defender, empowered to correct misdoings, denounce violations of the law and survey the actions of the state, we would see how the necessary reconciliation between society and state would gradually occur.