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”.

In this day and age, when Britain sometimes struggles to justify its status as a permernant member of the United Nations Security Council or as a "major player on the world stage", the medal table may prove to be a more accurate measure of the international standing than the size, for example, of the GDP or the armed forces.

A newly published study by the American Security Project (ASP), “The New Public Diplomacy Imperative,” highlights public diplomacy (PD) as a crucial element of our national security strategy and details the many obstacles for U.S. public diplomacy to reach its potential.

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates was a tireless advocate for better cooperation between our development, diplomatic and defense operations. This recognition really began to take shape in the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9/11, where the President recognized that...we need all of our foreign policy tools working together in what is known as the smart power approach.

Gastrodiplomacy is becoming a defined field of international communications and engagement in its own right, and my friend Paul Rockower has written a lot about this on his own blog (the links are on the left hand side of this page). Exploring China is not only a contribution to China's gastrodiplomacy, but also demonstrates Chinese soft power in action.

This article was translated and edited from an article by Chinese blogger Yang Hengjun (杨恒均), originally posted on the Tianda Institute website. It discusses the role of fast food entities like McDonald's and KFC in China, as well as Chinese restaurants abroad, and how they spreads the culture and values of their respective countries.