Editor’s note for Monday, December 28, 2020

My thoughts today:

I’m keeping my eye on three “firsts” this week:

• One, covered in today’s top story, is that China has sentenced a citizen journalist to jail for reporting on the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.
• Another is that regulators have begun an antitrust investigation into Alibaba, which the Financial Times calls a “one of the first of its kind for the country’s internet sector.” Alibaba’s Ant Group affiliate was also ordered to rectify its business and focus on payments, not banking.
• A third could happen within the next few weeks, if not sooner: China may give formal approval to a COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm. The SCMP says that China’s Center for Drug Evaluation “has begun reviewing an application” for one of Sinopharm’s two vaccine candidates. Sinopharm reportedly submitted that application over a month ago, and the timeline for approval is unclear. Meanwhile, many Chinese cities are expanding emergency access programs to vaccinate more people with experimental shots.

Our word of the day is citizen journalist (公民记者 gōngmín jìzhě).

—Lucas Niewenhuis, Newsletter Editor (lucas@thechinaproject.com)