Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea on Thursday, the first such trip by a Chinese president in 14 years. Longtime allies China and North Korea fought together in the Korean War and are celebrating 70 years of bilateral ties. But both countries are locked in tense standoffs with the United States, which is likely to loom large over the summit. Billed by Pyongyang as a state visit, the opportunity to host Xi is a diplomatic win for [...]
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. The massive demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill that have rocked Hong Kong in recent days “cannot be what Beijing wanted,” as commentator Yi-Zheng Lian argued this week in The New York Times. The simmering anger in Hong Kong toward the central government poses a major headache for China’s leaders as they attempt to extend control over the territory. Protesters took to the streets again Wednesday and surrounded Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, where they were met by riot police [...]
As U.S. President Donald Trump and other Western leaders gathered in Normandy this week to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Russia to deepen ties with his “best friend,” President Vladimir Putin. The resulting split-screen seemed to present a study in contrasts: a navel-gazing West that has passed the apex of its global influence versus an ambitious and forward-looking China—building bridges, paving roads and enhancing its stature on the world stage. But is either image really accurate? In this week’s editors’ discussion episode of the Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein; [...]
