China has initiated a "going out" policy that is aimed at taking the country's publishing industry to the next level, at home and abroad. Along with the Confucius Institute, which is opening schools across the globe, Chinese books are already proving a big draw overseas.

Chinese president-in-waiting Xi Jinping will spend most of his two-day California trip highlighting two things: films and basketball. Clayton Dube, associate director of the US-China Institute at USC, says China wants to mimic US “soft power” - its ability to influence world culture. “Soft power is what the US has in abundance and what Xi wants to know more about."

Essayist and cultural critic Lung Ying-tai, who took over as the new Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) minister yesterday, said she believes a nation’s strength is determined by its “soft power” and that culture begins in the most remote places.

Blocs of large superpowers are no longer the movers and shakers, but rather "those who've got the 'soft power' and influence around the world -- these are the important people, and here we are standing in the midst of that," he said during an interview at the Vatican press office.

The IT industry has taken to the global stage India's ‘soft power' and made India as a knowledge power. “Indians are looked upon by global companies for leadership. You have kindled among millions of young Indians the power of using knowledge as a passport to the future...."

The Chinese military clearly recognized that the U.S. was able to gain substantial goodwill from its effective response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami with its aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships ferrying supplies, medical teams and rescue crews ashore, according to Chinese and Western commentators.

During the session, leaders of the Party approved a decision on deepening reform of the cultural system and promoting the development of the cultural industry in a bid to build a country with soft power.

...as a part of larger scheme of building up China’s “soft power.”... Xi’s trip to Iowa is evidently designed to do just that, projecting an image not of a Communist dictator, but a caring leader of a modern nation who cherishes his friendship with Americans, in the hopes of garnering some American goodwill.