Trust me, the economy is doing just fine!

My thoughts today:

There have been no surprises at Communist Party’s 20th congress, which began yesterday: Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 is — of course — the big boss, and his speech indicated no change whatsoever from current policies, including COVID zero.

Xi didn’t talk much about China’s economy, despite it being in the worst shape in living memory for people in their 30s and 40s. In fact, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission actually claimed that the economy “rebounded significantly” in the third quarter, but today the National Bureau of Statistics announced, with a laconic calendar update, that it would delay the release of its usual tranche of third quarter numbers. No explanation or new release date was given.

Meanwhile, in the British city of Manchester, a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was pulled onto Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester and beaten up, apparently by consular staff.

The last time something like this happened was on August 29, 1967, when China was gripped by the fever of the Cultural Revolution, and diplomatic staff at the country’s embassy in London got into a fist and club fight with British police officers. (For more on the London street fight, listen to this Sinica Podcast, see this video via Reuters, or browse this blog post with media clippings).

Our words of the day are: The economy rebounded significantly in the third quarter (三季度经济明显回升 ān jìdù jīngjì míngxiǎn huíshēng) and report delayed (报告延期 bàogào yánqí).