Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian is a journalist covering China from Washington. She was previously an assistant editor and contributing reporter at Foreign Policy.
A woman cheers for celebrating upcoming new year during a New Year's Eve countdown event in front of Beijing's National Stadium, Known as the Bird's Nest in Beijing on December 31,2014. Beijing is bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, with a decision on the winning city to be made in July 2015. AFP PHOTO / WANG ZHAO (Photo credit should read WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 19: Alibaba Group signage is posted outside the New York Stock Exchange prior to the company's initial price offering (IPO) on September 19, 2014 in New York City. The New York Times reported yesterday that Alibaba had raised $21.8 Billion in their initial public offering so far. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Kashmiri demonstrators hold up a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a demonstration against Israeli military operations in Gaza, in downtown Srinagar on July 18, 2014. The death toll in Gaza hit 265 as Israel pressed a ground offensive on the 11th day of an assault aimed at stamping out rocket fire, medics said. AFP PHOTO/Tauseef MUSTAFA (Photo credit should read TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)
Newly graduated Chinese students gather for a convocation ceremony at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei in east China's Anhui province on June 20, 2012. A record 6.8 million Chinese students, most of them born in 1990, are graduating from Chinese colleges this summer, as increasing number of graduates find it tough to get the right job because there are not enough openings for graduates in the major cities. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/GettyImages)
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou salutes during a ceremony at Tsoying navy base in southern Kaohsiung on March 31, 2015. Ma presided over a ceremony that saw Taiwan's biggest missile boat and a locally built logistic support vessel be put to service. AFP PHOTO / Sam Yeh (Photo credit should read SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)
A child looks at his reflection in a window in Beijing on November 17, 2013. On November 15 China's Communist rulers announced an easing of the country's controversial one-child policy as part of a raft of sweeping pledges including the abolition of its "re-education" labour camps and loosening controls on the economy. AFP PHOTO / Ed Jones (Photo credit should read Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
(FILES) This file photo taken on October 24, 2007 shows members of the Chinese Navy, a division of the People's Liberatiuon Army (PLA), shouting while marching during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. China is extending its military advantage over Taiwan and increasingly looking beyond, building up a force with power to strike in Asia as far afield as the US territory of Guam, the Pentagon said on August 16, 2010. AFP PHOTO / FILES / Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 08: Actor Paul Rudd attends the European Premiere of Marvel's "Ant-Man" at the Odeon Leicester Square on July 8, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
HANOVER, GERMANY - APRIL 08: Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) speak to the media after touring the Hannover Messe 2013 industrial trade fair on April 8, 2013 in Hanover, Germany. Merkel and Putin toured the fair, which is the world's largest industry trade fair and has partnered this year with Russia. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The portrait of China's Youyou Tu and an illustration describing her work are displayed on a screen during a press conference of the Nobel Committee to announce the winners of the 2015 Nobel Medicine Prize on October 5, 2015 at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Irish-born William Campbell, Satoshi Omura of Japan and China's Youyou Tu won the Nobel Medicine Prize for their discoveries of treatments against parasites, the jury said. AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
