This book provides a comprehensive overview of China's use of "soft power" and assesses the impact this is having on the world and on the process of international relations. "This book [may] well serve to provide readers with a better understanding of China's recent diplomatic initiatives, and how China is seeking to balance between hard and soft power, between assertive and reassuring external behavior." Taehwan Kim, Director of the Public Diplomacy Department at the Korea Foundation; Global Asia (www.globalasia.org)"Supplemented by 7 figures and 12 tables, this volume provides an updated analysis of China's diplomatic initiatives to improve its soft power, and will likely become a valuable source of information for a wide readership, ranging from scholars and students in courses on China politics to analysts and policymakers."Alexander Korolev, National University of SingaporeJournal of Chinese Political Science/Association of Chinese Political Studies 2015, 211-212.