Editor’s note for Wednesday, October 19, 2022

My thoughts today:

The Communist Party’s 20th congress continued in Beijing today, but there’s not really any news. If you have not yet had enough of tea leaf reading, or need a refresher on some of the issues being raised at the big meeting, these are the latest reports:

• A dim future awaits a closed-off China / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
• Xi Jinping is preparing the Communist Party to face new realities / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
• Key issues highlighted in China’s 20th Party Congress / Sixth Tone
• China Party congress offers look at future leaders / AP
• What these buzzwords say about Xi’s China / BBC

Our word of the day is poach employees or poach talent (搶人才 qiǎng réncái). In the Chinese version of the press briefing given by Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu (李家超 Lǐ Jiāchāo), he used this phrase to refer to his plans to attract global talent back to Hong Kong after years of COVID restrictions and increasingly repressive politics.