Editor’s note for May 18, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Dear reader:
China news is all over the world and all over the place today.
It’s the first day of a two-day gathering of Central Asian leaders in Xi’an, chaired by Xí Jìnpíng 习近平, who is proudly talking up “Chinese-style modernization” to his fellow strongmen.
Meanwhile, the American state of Montana is learning the worst paranoid habits of the Chinese Communist Party, with the governor today signing into law a ban on TikTok.
In Shanghai, the Chinese-owned agri-giant Syngenta — which sells many genetically-modified seeds — is moving forward with its stalled IPO. Our top story today examines the Chinese government’s changing policies on GMOs and their connection to food security: scroll down for a summary or click through for all the details.
Below we also feature news of Beijing’s apparently-failing attempts to sway Taiwanese voters with economic coercion, and the rise and fall of an eccentric internet celebrity who became a favorite of China’s LGBT community.
Our Word of the Day is: Genetically modified organisms or GMO (转基因生物 zhuǎnjīyīn shēngwù).
