While U.S. officials are consulting intensely with their South Korean counterparts, not enough attention is being paid to Beijing’s perspective, even though China would figure heavily into any prospective U.S. action toward the North. By examining Beijing’s role in each of the three main North Korea policy strategies under debate in the United States, the “China factor” emerges as a decisive one, in ways that policymakers need to weigh carefully.

Just as American citizens are on the edge of their seats over the results, so too are international leaders, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose relationships with the United States will be profoundly affected by the election’s outcome. The campaign raises a fundamental question for Chinese officials: Would they prefer the next U.S. president to be predictable or a wildcard? 

Beijing sees sporting prowess as a key soft power weapon and sensitivities over China’s performance at Rio 2016 led Chinese television censors to briefly stymie the BBC World broadcast about the plight of China’s gymnasts. The screen went black, as routinely occurs during stories considered politically inconvenient to the Communist Party. 

On 7 October, President Obama signed an executive order lifting nearly all of the remaining economic sanctions on Myanmar’s government [...]  Despite China’s enduring influence over its neighbour, the United States enjoys several unrecognised advantages over the Asian giant, flowing from its substantial soft power, an asset China has failed to cultivate.

Despite souring public sentiment about their domestic economy and some concern about Japan’s declining role on the world stage, the Japanese are outward looking. They believe that involvement in the global economy is good for the country and that Japan should help other nations, particularly developing ones, deal with their problems.

India’s Festival of Lights — is celebrated by Hindus worldwide, and often by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, too. The holiday is increasingly popular in the United States, where the traditional diya (clay lamp) symbolizing the triumph of good over evil is seen from coast to coast.