Editor’s note for Tuesday, November 16, 2021

My thoughts today:

China scholars are poring over the Communist Party’s third historical resolution which was finally released today. In the coming weeks, there will be plenty of analysis about the meaning of certain words and phrases and their relative weight in this much-hyped document.

But honestly, and at the risk of repeating myself, there’s not really anything more to say than that the document shows a Party that is completely under the control of Xí Jìnpíng 习近平, and a country that will be guided by him as long as he lives. If you’d like to go deeper, as the newsletter business likes to put it, these are the source documents:

The historical resolution
Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century
中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议

Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the historical resolution
Xi’s explanation of resolution on major achievements and historical experience of CPC over past century
习近平：关于《中共中央关于党的百年奋斗重大成就和历史经验的决议》的说明

Chris Buckley, one of the closest observers of elite Chinese politics, in the New York Times:
Revising China’s history, to glorify Xi Jinping.

Our word of the day is hold a video meeting (举行视频会晤 jǔxíng shìpín huìwù), which is how Xinhua News Agency described the Xi-Biden teleconference that took place last night.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief