Editor’s note for Thursday, January 13, 2022

A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.

editor's note for Access newsletter

My thoughts today:

โ€œChina’s economic plan these days reads like a massive security plan,โ€ tweeted Lingling Wei of the Wall Street Journal:

Food security. Energy security. Raw materials security. Supply chain security. Data and tech security. Behind the security obsession is a fundamentally changed relationship with the U.S.

You can read her article on the subject here.

No chatter about money for babies! That seems to be the Chinese governmentโ€™s message yesterday in banning Rรฉn Zรฉpรญng ไปปๆณฝๅนณ, one of Chinaโ€™s highest-paid and best-known economists, from posting on social media. The move came after he suggested Chinaโ€™s central bank print 2 trillion yuan ($314 billion) to encourage childbirth.

One of Renโ€™s previous jobs was economist at severely troubled real estate firm Evergrande, so perhaps the government has a point.

Our word of the day is circuit breaker (or fuse: ็†”ๆ–ญ rรณngduร n), the name of the Chinese aviation rule that limits airlinesโ€™ international routesโ€™ when their planes arrive with COVID positive passengers โ€” see todayโ€™s top story for details.

โ€”Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief