Editor’s Note for Thursday, June 9, 2022
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
My thoughts today:
Preparations for the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress in the autumn are beginning in earnest, with a reshuffle of the men — and they are all men — who lead propaganda and state media outfits (see links in today’s News Briefing section below).
Many in the Chinese business community are telling me that they see big changes ahead, that Lǐ Kèqiáng 李克强 is on the rise and here to save private enterprise. Some media reports are talking of factional disputes about the country’s direction and the economy.
Color me skeptical: I think Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 is still large and in charge, surrounded by sycophants and — I assume — some excellent doctors who are advising him not to take the risk of traveling outside of China’s COVID-zero bubble.
In case you don’t know about them, here is a quick plug for two other newsletters we send:
- ChinaEdge goes out at the end of every working day in China, and brings you the latest business and technology news from Chinese sources.
- The China Vibe is a weekly roundup of the best society and culture reporting about China from our writers and around the internet.
Our word of the day is China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway (中吉乌铁路 zhōng jí wū tiělù).
—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
