On Jan. 19th, the USC MPD Beijing Delegation attended a roundtable themed “The Present Situation and Prospects of China’s Public Diplomacy” sponsored by the Charhar Institute, a leading public diplomacy and international relations think tank in China.

A new publication has thrown further light on the impressive success of the UAE Pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai. "Our results also indicate that with sensory stimulation and dramatic resonance, the UAE Pavilion was the most successful in presenting its national image at the Shanghai EXPO." This is a direct quotation from the closing remarks of a book published by the University of Southern California Centre on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

Few had probably even heard of the country Kazakhstan until the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. At the time, the satiric film starring Sacha Baron Cohen was roundly denounced by Kazakhstan for its unflattering portrayal of the country, still coming out of the shadows of the former Soviet Union.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chia-lung said yesterday in Shanghai that Taiwan and China should focus on exchanges in the area of soft power development and city governance experiences, without involving sensitive political issues.

Over the past decade, China's economic and military might has grown impressively. This has frightened its neighbors into looking for allies to balance China's increase in hard power. But if a country can also increase its soft power of attraction, its neighbors feel less need to balance its power.