Editor’s note for Wednesday, December 8, 2021

My thoughts today:

Australia, Britain, and Canada have joined the U.S. in saying there will be a “diplomatic boycott” of the Winter Olympic Games set for Beijing in 2022.

In practice, this just means that the government officials who almost certainly would not have attended the games because of COVID-19 restrictions will still not attend the Games. The ruling Communist Party is nonetheless angry, but has assured the world that those foreign government officials who are boycotting the Games had never been invited anyway!

Our word of the day is profound changes unseen in a century (百年未有之大变局 bǎinián wèiyǒu zhī dàbiànjú), one of Chairman Xi’s favorite phrases, which you can read about here.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief