CEWC; Reactions to chip controls; Studying Xi Thought on Culture

Summary of today’s top items:

1. CEWC to meet next week - Bloomberg reports that the Central Economic Conference will convene December 11-12. That is not “early”, as some rumors had suggested, but right about when it usually meets. If precedent holds there should be a Politburo meeting in the days before the meeting to discuss the agenda. Last year’s CEWC readout included a call to sing the bright prospects of the PRC economy, but over the last few days a speech by Gao Shanwen, chief economist at SDIC Securities, that is not so bright has gone viral. The speech is still online, perhaps because in spite of all the issues Gao points out — 47 million urban unemployed over the last three years, GDP over the last three years overestimated by 10% — he concludes that “current challenges are not growing pains but cyclical pressures, and the next step is taking measures to solve these problems”.

2. PRC restricts shipments of some critical minerals to the US - On Tuesday the Ministry of Commerce…