Editor’s note for Monday, November 29, 2021

My thoughts today:

Some signs of the times from today’s news:

Another 1 billion doses of vaccines to countries in Africa were promised by Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 in a video address to leaders attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) hosted by Senegal today.

The first FOCAC was held in Beijing in 2001. The event has since become a major showcase for China’s commitments to Africa.

Fewer babies, more old people: Diaper companies are reacting to China’s demographic time bomb. The market for adult diapers “could exceed that for babies by 2025 as population ages” reports the Financial Times.

The Xinjiang Papers are back in the news with the publication of new documents by Uyghurtribunal.com that appear to show China’s Uyghur policies were ordered from the very top of China’s government.

“A chilling effect has taken hold on American campuses,” the New York Times reports in the aftermath of the prosecution and acquittal of nanotechnology professor Hú Ānmíng 胡安明 of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

An episode of popular American cartoon The Simpsons that “mocked both Máo Zédōng 毛泽东 and the government’s efforts to suppress memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre” has been self-censored by Disney from its streaming service in Hong Kong.

Upcoming events:

• November 30: Meet the millennial entrepreneurs driving U.S.-China green business.
• December 15: Beyond Shang-Chi: Superheroes, masculinity, and Asian American representation.

Our word of the day is Solomon Islands 所罗门群岛 suǒluómén qúndǎo.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief