Editor’s note for Wednesday, February 3, 2021

My thoughts today: 

A new survey of German companies in China shows they are doubling down rather than pulling out:

• 96% have no plans to leave in the next year
• 72% are planning new investments
• 77% expect the Chinese market to outperform other markets 

Evidence of systematic rape of Uyghur women in detention camps from the BBC, and a leaked police database described by The Intercept provide further compelling evidence of  ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang. See also our piece below on China’s Xinjiang messaging in Africa. 

“Why are there no biographies of Xí Jìnpíng 习近平?” asks scholar Jeffrey Wasserstrom in the Atlantic: The “lack of biographies also has broader implications, notably for countries that deal with Xi and China (which is to say, all of them).”

Veteran China reporter Mike Forsythe, who has done extensive work on Xi and his family has a part of the answer: “One reason there hasn’t been a good biography of Xi Jinping is the enormous personal cost. The CCP jealously guards his official story. Attempts to do in-country research on his youth or his decade in Fujian is dangerous for you, anyone working for you, and anyone you interview.”

Our word of the day is Wu-Tang Clan (武当帮 wǔ dāng bāng), the hip hop band whose logo — or rather a parody version — is behind a ridiculous Chinese social media flare up involving a Canadian diplomat: Reuters has the story, this website has the T-shirt. 

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief