The difference in budgets is not the most disproportionate ratio. That would have to go to the sheer number of Chinese journalists allowed visas to work in the United States compared with the number that U.S. state-sponsored press receive from China.

Like any powerful tool, the Internet can be used for both good and evil, by citizens and governments alike. It is so powerful that the US State Department is actively tapping social media for public diplomacy. Just check out “It’s me, Kristie” – the blog of Kristie Kenney, the former US ambassador to Manila who’s now assigned in Bangkok.

She said that rumors in South Korea that the U.S. was exporting cows infected with mad cow disease spread through SNS, fueling anti-U.S. sentiment and nation-wide protests, and hindering free trade negotiations between the two countries. Esser said in such cases, however, the majority of the online community tends to shout down the extremists, working as a “self-correcting mechanism.”

Ms. Kwan is attending the event as the Public Diplomacy Envoy for the President’s Council on Fitness, Sport and Nutrition.

Last month, the U.S. propaganda industry dodged a bullet. In a naked bid to expose the American public to American diplomacy, two Congressmen—Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Mac Thornberry (R-Texas)—added an amendment to the House’s version of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act to end a longtime ban on the domestic dissemination of public diplomacy information prepared by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

As a nation, we invest in and deploy SEAL teams to do very specialized, very difficult counterterrorism work. We need to adopt the same approach to the people we ask to carry out very specialized and very difficult PD functions.

Going global is an ambition pursued by Chinese film makers for decades. Yet the reality is Chinese movies make their fame on the world stage largely through Kongfu films. At the ongoing 15th Shanghai International Film Festival, Chinese film makers are trying to tell the world they have more to offer.

The United States, while maintaining an excellent exchange program, needs to focus more efforts and resources toward empowering young people from the U.S. to not just experience foreign cultures but to engage in dialogue about pressing global issues.