Last week, People’s Daily ran a commentary that called for the state to build up publishing houses into companies with international brands so their books can help spread “socialist core values.” And some officials ache for a mainland Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

According to the analysts and diplomats at the table, China's influence is based on cooperation, development and mutual interests. China's 'soft power' (a term that is not popular in Beijing) is its ability to let countries develop at their own rate.

China is considering to set up a special fund to finance arts creation and cultural performances in the latest move to buoy the development of the country's "soft power," a cultural official said Sunday.

The much touted soft power of India has once again taken a beating, with even bbc reporting the incident and the Internet buzzing with discussions regarding the cancelled show. Indian musicians and promoters are afraid that this might scare away global artists from coming to India.

China is propelling cultural industry as pillar of its national economy by holding a grand summit of the National Festival here in Chinese People’s Political and Consultative Auditorium, said an official on Saturday.

Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of State Council Information Office (SCIO), led a panel discussion of public diplomacy...To help foreign countries improve the understanding of China, the Chinese government is making great efforts to enhance its public diplomacy skills...

If ever there were a country that was once ripe for soft-power diplomacy, it was modern Iran. Yet the west misread Ahmadinejad and then misread such dissenters as Mohammad Khatami and parliament's speaker, Mehdi Karroubi.

EEAS is actually a major innovation in the field of diplomacy as the first supranational diplomatic service of its kind...In this sense, rather than being an offshoot of just one EU institution, the EEAS is set to become the embodiment of common EU foreign policy...