Third Plenum; Economic data; Reactions to Trump assassination attempt; PRC-Russia
Summary of today’s top items:
Third Plenum opens - The Plenum opened Monday with Xi delivering a work report and “expounding” on the draft decision “on further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization”. Last March Xinhua released a long article on Xi the Reformer. Today Xinhua reissued that article, as well as a Chinese version for the first time. The propaganda system is setting high expectations for the outcomes from this Plenum. We should get the communique sometime Thursday but may have to wait several days for the full decision and Xi’s explainer of it.
Xi on self-confidence and self-reliance - The lead essay in the July 15 Qiushi is a series of 26 quotations from Xi on the topics from January 2013 to March 2024. It is unlikely the choice of these for the first day of the Third Plenum is a coincidence, nor should it be a surprise that self-confidence and self-reliance will remain major themes at this Plenum.
Economic data - Over the last several days the…