Israeli politicians joined criticism of Apple on Thursday over a new phone application of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious early-20th-century anti-Semitic forgery, recently made available on its iTunes store. Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein called on the electronics giant to ban the app, arguing it perpetuated the canard of a Jewish international conspiracy to take over the world.

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.

Notably, respondents to the survey tended to fault the U.S. most often for its foreign policy, in which a “hard power” approach is often emphasized. Dr. Margaret C. Lee, professor of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, suggests that the U.S. could begin to reform its image in Africa and elsewhere by emphasizing soft power that achieves results for Africans.

China has pushed Confucius Institutes — subsidized Chinese language schools — and expanded some of its domestic media in hopes of exerting more influence over global culture. Despite pouring billions of dollars into these and other programs, they haven’t really worked...If China really wants to boost its soft power, it should be making video games.

Simply put, China deploys soft power in Africa very prudently. China projects soft power by building visible infrastructure projects on the continent. From the ‘Uhuru’ Tanzam Railway project to the Indian Ocean to the African Union’s new gleaming skyscraper headquarters complex. China is making real and noticeable differences in the lives of Africans all over Africa.

China has been wooing foreign universities and foreign students in a bid to internationalise its universities and as part of a ‘soft power’ policy to project itself internationally...“There is a clear national policy in China of ‘soft power’ using education," said Yang Rui, an assistant professor in Hong Kong University’s faculty of education.

As the United States embarks on a strategic “rebalance” toward Asia, Washington and its allies in the region must do a better job making the case for policies that require broad public support. This is especially true in fiscally constrained times, when the threat of sequestration may require the United States to rely more heavily on its friends and allies in the region.

The UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey was speaking to delegates from nearly 40 countries yesterday who had gathered in Edinburgh for the world’s first International Cultural Summit. Praising the work done at London 2012, he said the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies “told the world about the importance of creativity”.