Editor’s note for Monday, October 5, 2020

My thoughts today:

Despite the deteriorating U.S.-China relationship, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 seems keen to keep at least the appearance of friendliness with Donald Trump for now.

On Saturday, “Xi said that learning President Trump and Melania have tested positive for COVID-19, he and his wife, Péng Lìyuán 彭丽媛, extend sympathy to them and wish them a speedy recovery,” according to Xinhua, and the People’s Daily (in Chinese). The message appears to have been delivered by telegram or by phone.

Nationalist rag Global Times, a newspaper that knows how propaganda is made, was less interested in offering comfort to Trump. Its most recent story on the U.S. president’s condition is titled “Chinese experts doubt rosy report on Trump’s health after his brief ride-by amid COVID treatment.”

Xi seems to be in a less conciliatory mood with the man who once spearheaded the top leader’s anti-corruption campaign from 2012 to 2017, the current vice president, Wáng Qíshān 王岐山. Or perhaps not: Interpreting Chinese Communist Party personnel moves is like tea leaf reading.

But it’s worth noting that the anti-corruption agency Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, which Wang used to direct, has put his former aide Dǒng Hóng 董宏 under investigation (as revealed in this one-line statement in Chinese published on Friday last week).

As Nikkei Asian Review points out: “Dong is not the first close Wang associate to face a probe this year. Rèn Zhìqiáng 任志强, a prominent entrepreneur who is said to have been a friend of Wang’s since junior high school, was sentenced to 18 years in jail on charges such as bribery in late September.” 

Our word of the day is send sympathy by phone or telegram (致慰问电 zhì wèiwèn diàn).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief