Manoj Kewalramani is an Indian scholar who is currently a China studies fellow at the Takshashila Institution and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Before turning to academia, he was a full time journalist in both India and China. Since 2020, Kewalramani has produced a daily summary of articles in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, which has become a must-read for China-watchers. His research focuses on Chinese politics, foreign policy and approaches to new technologies, and he is the author of Smokeless War: China’s Quest for Global Primacy, a book about the CCP’s communication efforts during the pandemic. The following is a lightly edited transcript of a recent conversation with The Wire.
Manoj Kewalramani. Illustration by Lauren Crow
Q: Why did the daily review of the People’s Daily become a focus of your research, and what are you hoping to learn?
A: I started doing this on a regular basis some ti