Bethany Allen is a journalist covering China from Taipei. She is the author of Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World. She was previously an assistant editor and contributing reporter at Foreign Policy.
A Yemeni boy comforts an injured boy at a hospital in Sanaa after he was injured when two suicide bombers hit a Shiite mosque in the Yemeni capital in quick succession on September 2, 2015 in an attack reminiscent of previous bombings by the Islamic State group, sources told AFP. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the twin bombing in a statement posted on Twitter. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAIS (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 26: The U.S. State Department is shown January 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Four senior management team members at the State Department resigned January 25, adding to an exodus of career senior foreign service officers who have recently resigned their positions. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
A flag of the autonomous Kurdistan region flies as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position to monitor the area from their front line post in Bashiqa, a town 13 kilometres north-east of Mosul on August 16, 2014. Kurdish troops backed by US warplanes launched a bid to recapture Mosul dam, Iraq's largest, from Islamic State jihadists, a senior Kurdish military official said. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)
Afghan politician and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani (C) talks as his two vice-presidential candidates, former warlord Abdul Rahid Dostum (L), and former justice minister, Sarwar Danish (R), look on during registration for the forthcoming presidential elections at the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in Kabul on October 6, 2013. Afghanistan's presidential election race sparked a last-minute rush of candidates as nominations closed for next April's poll, with former finance minister Ashraf Ghani among the leading names to register. AFP PHOTO/ Massoud HOSSAINI (Photo credit should read MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - MAY 08: An employee walks outside the World Bank headquarters May 8, 2007 in Washington, DC. Recent reports indicate that the global financial institution may soon resolve controversies surrounding its President Paul Wolfowitz. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The Chinese and North Korean flags attached to a railing as trucks carrying Chinese-made goods cross into North Korea on the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge at the Chinese border town of Dandong on December 18, 2013. China has lost its key North Korean interlocutor with the purging of Kim Jong-Un's uncle, but analysts say the young leader's tightening grip on power may be welcomed by Beijing, which prizes stability in its wayward nuclear-armed ally. Jang Song-Thaek was the second-most powerful member of North Korea's regime and an important link between Pyongyang and Beijing before his dramatic ouster last week, accused of being a corrupt, drug-using womaniser. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)
TOPSHOT - Protestors prepare to post postcards written and addressed to terminally-ill Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo (pictured on cards) outside the General Post Office in Hong Kong on July 5, 2017.
The Chinese hospital caring for cancer-stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has decided to invite US, German and other foreign experts to treat him in China following international pressure to let him go abroad. / AFP PHOTO / Anthony WALLACE (Photo credit should read ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images)
BERLIN, GERMANY - MARCH 02: German President Joachim Gauck (wearing white helmet) listens to a worker during a visit by Gauck to the Siemens gas turbine factory on March 2, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Gauck will be stepping down as German president later this month. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
TEHRAN, IRAN - JUNE 8: Iranian soccer fans gather for the Asian FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain at the Azadi Stadium on June 8, 2005 in Tehran, Iran. Iran won 1-0 and qualified for next year's World Cup in Germany. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty images)
TAORMINA, ITALY - MAY 26: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily on May 26, 2017 in Taormina, Italy. Leaders of the G7 group of nations, which includes the Unted States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy, as well as the European Union, are meeting at Taormina from May 26-27. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson (L) attend at the ceremony of the signing of an agreement between state-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft and ExxonMobil in the Black Sea port of Tuapse on June 15, 2012. AFP PHOTO/ RIA-NOVOSTI/POOL/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV (Photo credit should read MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images)
