Call it soft power. With Chinese state-owned companies such as China Southern, it is impossible to know where company strategy ends and government policy begins. China Southern may be obscure in Australia now but it is the fourth-largest airline in the world in passengers carried.

At the same time, American influence in the world is bolstered largely through its "soft" power, and science and technology is an essential force of this influence, according to the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project poll.

Hong Kong's love of Japanese cuisine will help ease tensions over Tokyo's arrest of activists who left from its harbor and landed on one of the disputed Senkaku Islands, fisheries minister Akira Gunji said Thursday at a major food fair in the city. Gunji said the relationship between Hong Kong and Japan will flourish as long as the culinary binds between them stay strong.

At a time when most Western broadcasting and newspaper companies are retrenching, China’s state-run news media giants are rapidly expanding in Africa and across the developing world. They are hoping to bolster China’s image and influence around the globe, particularly in regions rich in the natural resources needed to fuel China’s powerhouse industries and help feed its immense population.

"Egypt, the gift of the Nile” is a phrase coined by the Greek historian Herodotus 3,000 years ago in his book about Egypt. His description continues to be true today, as Egypt is the only place in the world where a river cuts across a thousand miles of desert, creating a civilization along with it.

Reciprocity is the first principle of diplomacy, and India has walked the extra mile to befriend neighbours, as underscored by its record on land and water disputes. Yet today, India lives in the world’s most-troubled neighbourhood. India’s generosity on land issues has been well documented.

The 24th country I visited as part of my cultural diplomacy tour was South Africa, where I gave lectures for six days from July 30 at the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg. It was my first lecture on the African continent.

America's top diplomat, the president's closest ally on foreign policy formulation and execution, and the most influential cabinet member in the Obama administration Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton strongly believes that the ethnic Diasporas using the American soil to promote human rights, democracy and good governance in their former homelands have lot of credibility.