Editor’s note for Wednesday, September 29, 2021

My thoughts today:

Preventing the next pandemic and planning for other threats to biosecurity were the subjects of a Politburo meeting chaired by Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 today (summary in English, Chinese).

It will be interesting to watch how the government rolls out plans to eliminate zoonotic diseases in the coming year: this will tell us more about where officials believe COVID-19 emerged than any official statements on the matter.

Also in the news today are new government rumblings about algorithms, and the labor shortage that China is facing, which looks set to create yet another obstacle to global recovery, in addition to the supply chain disruptions and economic shocks of the pandemic.

Our word of the day is algorithm (算法 suànfǎ).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief