Editor’s note for Thursday, January 7, 2021

My thoughts today:

It’s been a slow news day outside of Washington, D.C., but the Chinese foreign ministry and state media are enjoying the chaos in America’s capital: See Chinese media pounce on Pelosi buzzword from the China Media Project on how propaganda organs are swimming in schadenfreude without much attention to the facts.

Trump administration resignations: two Trump appointees with China ties who have decided enough is enough two weeks before their jobs were going to end are Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger, a key architect of Trump’s China policy.

Pompeo’s last gasp? “The United States ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft will visit Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday,” reports Reuters. Scholar of Taiwan issues Jessica Drun commented on Twitter:

Color me unconvinced that this is coming from a place of “showing support for Taiwan” rather than “sticking it to China” and “tying the hands of the next administration.”

“China’s top spy is a working class hero” says Matthew Brazil at Spy Talk in a profile of Chēn Wénqīng 陈文清 who “has risen from street cop to boss of China’s powerful Ministry of State Security. Loyalty paid off.”

Media manipulation in South Africa: “China is in effect manufacturing consent — a term invented by the U.S. social critic Noam Chomsky — by South Africa’s elites, government and big financial institutions’ stranglehold on what is perceived as ‘independent media,’” says Anton M. Pillay on Asia Sentinel.

Our word of the day is “verbal personal attacks that exceed the limit of public figures’ tolerance obligations” (超出公众人物容忍义务范畴之人身攻击性言论 chāochū gōngzhòng rénwù róngrěn yìwù fànchóu zhī rénshēn gōngjí xìng yánlùn). This is the language used by the lawyers of film director Chén Kǎigē 陈凯歌 to threaten internet users critical of his recent performance on a TV show — see our top story today for details.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief