Xi to skip BRICS Summit?; September 3 military parade; UK on China; DeepSeek

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Xi meets Singapore PM Wong - Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong is in China this week for meetings with top officials including Xi, Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, and to attend the “Summer Davos” in Tianjin.

2. Plans for the 80th anniversary of victory in Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War - There will be multiple events to commemorate the anniversary of the end of the war, with the highlight a September 3rd military parade and speech by Xi Jinping at Tiananmen Square. According to Xinhua:

This military parade will not only showcase traditional main battle forces, but also feature new-domain forces with new combat capabilities.

All equipment on display this time will be domestically produced battle equipment already in service. In addition to displaying the new generation of traditional weapons and equipment, some new combat forces such as unmanned intelligence, underwater warfare, network and electronic attack and defense, and hypersonic warfare equipment will also be featured in the parade, reflecting the Chinese military's strong ability to evolve according to science and technology advancements and to win future wars.

China will also “release a new list of national-level anti-Japanese war memorial facilities and sites and a new list of renowned heroes, martyrs, and heroic groups from the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression”.

Putin is planning to attend, and then I believe he will stay for the SCO Summit afterward. Will US President Trump want to go, and see a larger military parade than the one he just threw?

3. Xi to skip the BRICS summit next month? - The South China Morning Post reports that Li Qiang will travel to Brazil for the July 6-7 BRICS Summit in Rio. If correct this would be the first time Xi has missed a summit. The SCMP article says PRC officials “told the Brazilian government that Xi had a scheduling conflict” but also mentions speculation of PRC concerns over the state dinner Brazilian President Lula is throwing for Indian Prime Minister Modi. At the Tuesday press conference the Foreign Ministry dodged the question “is Chinese leader going to attend the BRICS Summit in Rio on July 6 and 7? from a Brazilian outlet.

4. Response to Lai’s speech - People's Daily commentator "钟一平 Zhong Yiping" responded to Lai's speech in a June 24th commentary - “Lai Ching-te's distortion of history and facts will inevitably lead to his own destruction 赖清德篡改历史、歪曲事实，必将自取灭亡”. “‘Zhong Yiping’ is a pen name used for Taiwan-related commentary. I guess we will get at least one of these commentaries for each of the remaining nine speeches Lai has planned.

The commentary opens with:

Recently, Lai Ching-te launched the first speech of his so-called “Ten Lectures on National Unity,” in which he aggressively propagated separatist “Taiwan independence” rhetoric and hyped up an upgraded version of the “two states theory.” His speech was riddled with factual errors, historical fallacies, and twisted arguments. It was a blatant “Taiwan independence” manifesto inciting cross-Strait confrontation, marked by strong provocation and serious harm. Once again, it revealed Lai Ching-te’s ignorance and fanaticism, and fully exposed his incorrigible nature as a staunch “Taiwan independence” advocate and his despicable persona. He has proven himself to be a ‘troublemaker,’ a ‘source of danger,’ and a ‘provoker of war.’

I have included a translation of the full commentary in this section.

5. UK National Security Strategy and China Audit

The UK government had promised to publish a “China Audit”, but it was folded into the broader National Security Strategy that was released today. Here are the key China bits:

Between this and Foreign Secretary Lammy’s statement today, it all sounds a bit underwhelming.

6. More on DeepSeek’s embedded bias - Alex Colville at Lingua Sinica has another fascinating look at DeepSeek and how claims that censorship and embedded political bias can be removed in local instances may not hold water. A lot of countries, companies and users won’t care, as it is a good model and it is free, but they should understand what they are getting.

I am hosting a Sinocism Live on Wednesday at 12 PM ET with Niko Partners to discuss the China video game market.

Correction: I fell for an Amazon imposter Monday and posted a link to a fake Cheng Lei book. This is the correct link: Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom. It is only available in Australia at this point.