Addressing employment concerns; Stimulus!?; Connected vehicles and EU EV tariffs; CASS purge; Xinjiang cotton; ICBM test

Summary of today’s Essential Eight:

1. Guidelines on Implementing the Employment Priority Strategy to Promote High-Quality and Full Employment - The Central Committee and State Council issued guidelines on September 15 to promote employment that were made public today. The Global Times wrote that “China will implement an employment-first strategy, strengthen employment-first policies, address structural contradictions, deepen institutional reforms and guard against the risk of large-scale unemployment to promote an effective improvement in employment quality and reasonable growth in quantity.” Policymakers are clearly concerned about the employment situation; the document says to take “preventing large-scale unemployment risks as the bottom line”. It also calls for making “high-quality and full employment a priority goal for economic and social development, incorporat[ing] it into national economic and social development plans, and promot[ing] the synergy of fiscal, monetary, industria…