Awful flooding in and around Beijing; MSS on counter-espionage; More signals of real estate support; Wang Yi invited to visit US
Our power is back, and as bad as things were in parts of DC they look like nothing compared to some of the awful scenes from the flooding in Beijing, Tianjin and parts of Hebei.
Summary of today’s top items:
Terrible flooding in and around Beijing - Beijing and its surrounding areas have received a massive amount of rain over the last few days, leading to terrible flooding and at least 20 deaths so far. Will Li Qiang interrupt the usual Beidaihe break to visit affected areas, as a Premier usually does in the wake of large natural disasters?
MSS opens WeChat account, calls for mobilization of entire society in counter-espionage work - The Ministry of State Security has opened a WeChat account. Its first post is “Counter-espionage requires the mobilization of the entire society! 反间防谍需要全社会动员!”, which I have translated and included at the end of this section. The post concludes with “creatively carry out various forms of national security enemy situation [敌情] education and rule of law prop…