People’s Leader 人民领袖 ; Diplomacy in the New Era; “CCP Inc.” in Europe; Taiwan
Summary of today’s Essential Eight:
People’s Leader 人民领袖 - Several officials have referred to Xi as People’s Leader 人民领袖 over the last few days. Regular readers know I have been a bit obsessed with the ebb and flow of usage of this title since we first started hearing it after the 2017 19th Party Congress. In July Ming Pao wrote that Xi will be officially named as "People's Leader 人民领袖" and the propaganda formula around that title will be "One Leader/Lingxiu is essential", as I discussed in detail in the July 12 newsletter. Mao Zedong was called “伟大领袖 Great Leader” and Hua Guofeng was briefly called “英明领袖 Wise Leader”, but I do not believe any leader since Hua has gotten the “lingxiu” title. Having it officially enshrined would be another indicator of Xi’s power, and another elevation towards parity with or even surpassing Mao Zedong in the CPC pantheon.
COVID - Bloomberg excited markets briefly with a report that “Bureaucrats are looking at cutting the quarantine period to two days in …