Reopening; Qin Gang in Africa; US-China; UK and Jimmy Lai
Apologies, today’s newsletter is a bit thin, one of those days where things just didn’t quite come together.
Summary of today’s top items:
Xi and the CPC’s Legitimacy damaged? - We are starting to hear a lot of suggestions that the sudden and poorly planned shift from dynamic zero-Covid to dynamic let it rip likely damaged the legitimacy of the Party and Xi. It seems logical that there would be some damage, and the people with whom I interact are quite angry, but how real and impactful might that damage be? As I asked in last week's discussion thread, are the surveys from Harvard and Edelman that PRC officials often cite as evidence of the widespread support for the Party’s governance still valid after the events of the last several months and weeks? I did discuss what I think the impact to Xi might be in last week’s podcast, starting at about 28:00. And if Xi thinks there is meaningful damage, will he and the leadership use friendlier economic policies to try to make people h…