Editor’s Note for Tuesday, March 8, 2022

My thoughts today:

China continues to offer support for Russia, if not a full-throated endorsement of its invasion of Ukraine. There aren’t any signs that Beijing is moderating that position, as you can see from the variety of Ukraine-related links you can find in today’s newsletter.

Meanwhile, China’s annual legislative and messaging gathering known as the Two Sessions continues this week. One of the few things to have emerged so far that has been noted by many commentators is the announcement that an economic growth of around 5.5% would be targeted this year. That is the lowest target since 1991, but still confident, in a world best by COVID, a war, and sanctions.

Is Beijing planning to spend its way to that target? Maybe: “China’s central bank will hand over more than $158 billion in profits to the finance ministry, a move that will help the government boost fiscal spending to stimulate the economy this year,” reports Caixin.

If you want more news from the Two Sessions, you might want to follow Substacks by two journalists at state media organization Xinhua: Pekingnology and Ginger River.

Event: Media literacy amidst the fog of war: What news consumers can learn from Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) real-time debunking of Russian and Ukrainian disinformation and misinformation, a Zoom webinar about OSINT Twitter Spaces discussions on March 15 at 12 PM EST, featuring veteran China journalist Jocelyn Ford and colleagues from the Media Education Lab.

The China Project is hiring an event manager for our conferences and other live and virtual gatherings. If you or anyone you know is interested, please apply.

Our word of the day is International Women’s Day (国际妇女节 guójìfùnǚjié ). The celebration is sometimes called 3-8 Women’s Festival (三八妇女节 sānbāfùnǚjié).