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Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. Chinese and American trade negotiators are meeting in Beijing this week, with another round of talks scheduled for next week in Washington. Negotiators appear to be closing in on a deal to end the trade war that has been the focal point of tensions between the world’s two largest economies since last summer, but key details have yet to be finalized. That has not stopped some observers from envisioning how a prospective U.S.-China agreement will affect the international trading […]

Narendra Modi has been associated with Hindu nationalism, or the notion that India is for Hindus first and foremost, since long before he became prime minister in 2014. Nevertheless, the manifestations of Hindu nationalism on display during his first term have alarmed his critics. They include controversial proposals to place new restrictions on citizenship as well as “cow protection” gangs, vigilantes who have killed dozens of people as part of a violent campaign against the trade and consumption of cattle. Modi’s government, and Modi himself, have taken pains not to explicitly champion a “Hindu first” agenda, yet the government’s policies […]

When Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the self-declared Libyan National Army, released an audio message announcing his offensive on Libya’s capital, Tripoli, on April 4, he likely expected things to go very differently. Despite being the centerpiece of a United Nations political process that his international backers—primarily France, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt—had essentially hijacked to provide him a diplomatic route to uncontested power in Libya, Haftar used the assault on Tripoli to send a clear message that he rejected even the semblance of diplomacy and power-sharing. After all, it began on the same day that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio […]