soft power

Israel's Minister of Public Diplomacy, Yuli Edelstein, recorded a special message for Yisrael Sheli’s Online Ambassadors. In the video, the Minister gave a few tips about how to best represent Israel.

Women's rights issues in Taiwan rank fourth in the world and number one in Asia. That's according to a domestic survey based on United Nations methodology. Premier Wu Den-yih attended a national conference for women's issues on Monday. Wu said that these impressive statistics are a result of long-term efforts by the government.

If you are an American academician specializing in Asian affairs, you may have noticed that an organization called the "Confucius Institute" has sprung up on a nearby US college campus.

March 7, 2011

The unexpectedly rapid expansion of China’s Confucius Institutes since their inception in 2004 has prompted many to consider them a soft power success story. But such a quick rise is bound to lead to a certain amount of scrutiny...

Not long ago when Zhang Guomiao wanted to see a film, he'd head for the village square. There, itinerant cinema operators would unfurl a canvas screen, set up some static-filled speakers and show a grainy movie in the open air.

The Taiwan International Orchid Show 2011 opened Friday at the Taiwan Orchid Plantation in the southern city of Tainan. Addressing the opening ceremony, Vice President Vincent Siew said the orchid is one of Taiwan's most important agricultural exports and is also a symbol of the country's soft power.

March 4, 2011

Don Starr says that he remembers thinking after the Confucius Institutes initiative was announced in 2004 that: ‘This is going to have a big impact.’His instincts seem to have been right. When I spoke to the long-time China educator and scholar about the now seven-year-old Chinese soft power programme, he also told me that one of the reasons it can be considered a huge success is its unexpectedly rapid expansion. ‘

Eighteen pages into his opening address at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on Thursday, Jia Qinglin paused to note the importance of promoting China abroad.

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