The escalating tension is not only increasing the chances of conflict, it is also leading to a hemorrhage of any "soft power" that China previously possessed in the region. Regardless of the intentions of the U.S., it would be wise for Chinese officials to preserve and, if possible, rebuild any form of "soft power" that it can in the Asia Pacific region.

“Symbolic Meanings: Calligraphy and Paintings by Calligrapher Liang Hong” and “Cross- Cultural Communication with Ethnic Groups Costumes from China” are shows sponsored by the Confucius Institute at Penn State and presented by the Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre County.

On August 10, 1878, along the shore of a hazy blue lake in southwestern New York state, a Methodist Bishop and his flock of summer retreat parishioners kicked off a book club with big ambitions. Their four year course of independent reading aimed to raise education levels all across small town and rural America. More than 8,400 people enrolled that first year, returning to their homes to start over 10,000 local “circles” by 1900.

The Chinese Summer Bridge camp was launched in the summer of 2007 just a few months before the Confucius Institute at the University of Memphis (CIUM) officially opened. Since the program's inception thousands of American high school students have been invited to participate in the summer camp in China.

China and the United States are dialing down their rhetorical broadsides over greater U.S. military and economic influence in Asia ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Beijing Tuesday...Cui said China is ready to work with other countries, but “it will not mean that China will have to change its foreign aid policy.”

Entertainment marketing firm Cimarron hired three summer interns with Chinese backgrounds to comb social media sites and offer cultural insights as it expands overseas...Cimarron, which creates movie trailers as well as ad campaigns for such films as "The Dark Knight Rises," hopes the students will eventually help the company with its expansion into China.

So what is public diplomacy all about? The basic idea is that in order to achieve a wide range of goals—­from economics to military—you need to get support of ordinary people. Whether the goal is to convince foreign publics that the rise of China poses no threat to the international system, or to persuade the so-called “Arab street” to shed its anti-Western beliefs, public diplomacy is called upon to work its miracles.

The 29th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering will host butteri, cowboys from Italy, who have their own unique poetry, music, gear and traditional techniques, but still have much in common with their counterparts in the American West and cattle cultures across the globe.