Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s recent documentary about trade in shark-fins focused on Costa Rica and the pariah state of Taiwan.... While this undoubtedly made for compelling television viewing on the UK’s Channel 4 TV station on Sunday January 16 (soon to be aired in the USA), for analysts of public diplomacy and soft power, the incident demonstrates a number of underlying truths.

Addressing a symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of the Law on Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, Liu said popularizing the standard Chinese language is vital for "carrying out the Chinese culture, enhancing the country's soft power, national unification and unity among all ethnic groups."

The latest chapter in the long story of panda diplomacy was written at Washington’s National Zoo, where the Chinese government agreed to lengthen the “loan” of popular panda pair Mei Xiang and Tian Tian for another five years.

When Barack Obama became US president, one of his top foreign policy priorities was to improve relations with China. Yet on the eve of President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington, US-China relations are worse, rather than better.

China has unveiled a 60-second promotional video on the huge screens in New York City's Times Square to coincide with President Hu Jintao's US visit this week -- a flashy bit of soft diplomacy.

Shi Anbin, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, and Zheng Yannong, deputy director of China International Public Relations Association, talk with the Guangzhou Daily about how China should enact a public relations (PR) strategy to enhance its image in the world.

At the end of this century’s first decade, we can observe how the locus of power has shifted in world politics. The G20 is replacing the G7 as the overseer of the global economy. The need to restructure the U.N. Security Council to be more representative of the international order is profoundly pressing. And emerging powers such as Brazil, India, Turkey, and others are playing very assertive roles in global economic affairs.

From the itinerary and speeches made during the visit, it would seem that Indo-US relations are underpinned by interface over three elements: democracy, economics and security. Obama’s Parliament speech flagged prosperity, security and democracy as three dimensions of an emerging partnership between the two countries, but it would seem that really two of these still lie in the realm of aspiration.