Lai's inauguration anniversary; Xi in Henan; Official belt tightening; Chip controls

Tuesday, May 20th is the first anniversary of the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai, and he is scheduled to give a speech (發表執政周年談話) at 9:30 AM.

After his inauguration speech last year, in which he referred to the mainland as "China" and again declared that the "People's Republic of China" and the "Republic of China" are not subordinate to each other, among other rhetorical “offenses” from the PRC government’s perspective, the PLA conducted the Joint Sword-2024A exercise. PRC leadership used Lai’s October 10 National Day speech as another pretext to launch the Joint Sword-2024B exercise.

Will Lai’s Tuesday speech trigger another exercise? Does it even matter what he says, or is the pretext already decided?

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Xi in Henan - Xi is on an inspection tour in Luoyang, Henan. He visited an industrial company, a temple and the Longmen Grottoes. The full propaganda package is not yet out, but from the first teaser some of the key themes of his visit are to “accele…