BA.5 in the mainland; US-China officials talking, some tariffs may go away; Another Xi book; Hong Kong
Summary of today’s Essential Eight:
Outbreaks - Cases are rising again, Shanghai has more cases and more testing, and perhaps most worrisome, Xi’an is going back into something like a lockdown because the city has detected several cases of the BA.5 variant. BA.5 vs. dynamic zero-Covid could be a very protracted struggle.
More infrastructure funds - The old playbook is hard to quit, and the economic situation is still not great, and may get worse again if BA.5 really starts spreading and more lockdowns occur.
US-China officials talking, some tariffs may go away - Multiple media outlets are reporting a variation of the story that the Biden Administration is about to remove some of the Trump-era tariffs. The Biden team has been split on the issue and after months of debate appears to have settled on a compromise that will make few happy. Liu He and Janet Yellen spoke overnight, and Wang Yi and Anthony Blinken will meet later this week at the G-20. I continue to hear chatter the Xi and Bid…