Taiwan; NDRC presser; Xi Thought on Self-revolution of the Party; PRC-Philippines; Nuclear weapons
Summary of today’s top items:
Taiwan - A Pew poll on how people in Taiwan think about China, PLA ramping up activity around Taiwan, and more US Congressional delegations planning to visit.
NDRC press conference - A senior NDRC official spoke at a press conference Thursday. Among his comments he emphasized the need to "comprehensively and prudently assess the effects of policies, and cautiously implement contractionary and restrictive measures". That is an outcome of the December Central Economic Work Conference. The most recent example of a policy whose effect was not fully appreciated was the draft online gaming regulations that crashed game stocks the Friday before Christmas. One test of whether that draft was prepared without full input, and how responsive the system is to the effects of new policies, is whether or not the final version changes. We should know in the next several weeks, as the period for comments I believe ends very soon.