Could Rodman's visit achieve the same galvanizing effect? This seems implausible, given the record of the North Korean regime, with its continued testing of missiles and nuclear weapons. The most conceivable outcome is that Rodman will suffer be stigmatized even more than other anti-diplomats; after all, he applauded a regime that runs gulags amid widespread mass hunger, calling its leader "awesome".

Former basketball star Yao Ming has called for Chinese sports to get back to basics and not be viewed solely as a way of advancing national honour. The 2.26-metre-tall former Houston Rockets centre, who played in the United States' elite NBA competition for eight seasons and spearheaded a basketball boom in China, said he was feeling some pressure in his new role as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

For more celebrity CPPCC members, CCTV News correspondent Fei Ye sat down with former basketball player Yao Ming, a first time CPPCC member discussing Chinese politics and public diplomacy.

Not too long ago, Brand India was riding high. Now, it is fast losing some of its sheen. The country has been beset with a series of scams and governance issues; foreign investors are plagued by uncertainties in taxation; and recently, the Central Statistical Office has pegged the country’s GDP growth for the current fiscal 2012-2013 at 5% — the lowest since 2002-2003. In fact, last year, credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) released a study titled, “Will India be the first BRIC fallen angel?”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is trying to exert "flexible diplomacy" to ease the hostility between Pyongyang and Washington through a US basketball delegation's visit, two weeks after the country's third nuclear test drew international condemnation, which sparked discussions in the press about the future relationship between China, the US, and North Korea.