Editor’s note for Wednesday, March 24, 2021

My thoughts today:

Official China continues its aggressive dismissal of criticism from abroad of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and other matters. Today’s Foreign Ministry press briefing (English, Chinese) was another tongue-lashing.

The wolf warrior attitude has plenty of fans in China, and canny entrepreneurs are making money by selling T-shirts emblazoned with popular soundbites from senior diplomats. But other companies stand to lose money in the international political storm: today sees an apparent blacklisting of clothing brand H&M’s products from Chinese ecommerce platforms in retaliation for a statement (issued last year!) about Xinjiang.

Standing neutrally on the sidelines is going to become increasingly difficult for countries, companies, universities, and individuals who have any connection to China.

Our word of the day is the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) — often called by its abbreviation 共青团 gòng qīng tuán, or 中国共产主义青年团 zhōngguó gòngchǎnzhǔyì qīngnián tuán in full.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief