Pro-Palestinian protesters face off with police at the University of Chicago.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students come to the U.S. for their higher education, in part to take advantage of a more open political atmosphere. For this reason, the recent campus crackdowns against pro-Palestine protests offer insights into U.S.-China dynamics, but also the challenges facing U.S. universities as they globalize.

A national protest march against the construction of a transoceanic canal in Nicaragua.

Last week, Nicaragua canceled its deal with a Chinese company to build and manage a canal that stretches across Central America, ending a decade-long saga. Despite this development, China’s influence in Nicaragua has never been greater, in large part due to the diplomatic isolation of President Daniel Ortega’s autocratic government.

A fishing vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

China’s distant-water fishing fleet, the world’s largest, is engaging in human rights abuses and systematic illegal fishing on an unprecedented scale. Urgent action is needed now to rein in the Chinese fleet and end these abuses, which have global security and geopolitical ramifications, as well as real human costs.

China's embassy in Berlin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Europe is coming at a rather awkward time. European police and intelligence agencies have recently uncovered an astonishing number of alleged Chinese spies in a tidal wave of counterespionage activity in recent weeks, underscoring the sheer breadth of Beijing’s intelligence operations.