As the dust settles after the 2nd annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, media commentary outside of China has largely focused on President Xi Jinping’s opening statements about “cybersovereignty,” with scholars focusing on the suppressive censorship tactics that this policy is oft seen to represent in China’s domestic cyberspace.

Closer economic ties will top the agenda during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visits to Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia this week. However, Chinese mediation in the feud between Tehran and Riyadh is unlikely, say experts.

As Xi tries to increase China’s soft power, the last thing he wants is to cause the next global crisis or recession. The plot thickens when you consider the evolving nature of China’s role in the global economy.

Beijing has sought to improve its public image through a soft-power strategy meant to show Zimbabweans that the dragon has a soft, charming underbelly. In 2006, China opened a Confucius Institute at the University of Zimbabwe to spearhead the teaching of Mandarin and the propagation of Chinese culture. Students are keen on mastering the language, seeing it as a passport to new horizons on the international job market.

China’s approach to winning friends around the world has long been characterised as cheque-book diplomacy, with big events overseas invariably accompanied by top-dollar deals. But President Xi Jinping’s ongoing visit to Africa seems to point to a shift, with China more concerned about politics than pure economics.

When it comes to public diplomacy, China might be better off loosening up and developing a sense of humor about itself. Gone are the days of Hu Jintao’s “smile diplomacy,” which aimed to convince the world that it had nothing to fear from a rising China. 

The “new Silk Road” is the brainchild of Chinese State President Xi Jinping, who announced it as a major project - the Silk Road Economic Belt – during a state visit to Kazakhstan in mid-2013.

The leaders of China and Taiwan meet Saturday in Singapore for the first time since the two sides clashed in a civil war seven decades ago, in a carefully managed encounter that caps eight years of improved economic ties.