Belt and Road Forum concludes; Xi meets Putin; Q3 GDP; Reactions to updated semiconductor controls

I will be holding an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” event on Substack Notes this Thursday from 1-2PM ET. You can sign up for it here.

Summary of today’s Essential Eight:

1. Day 2 of the Belt and Road Forum - Xi’s speech was the highlight. In it he laid out a grander vision for the BRI, declared that the PRC “will remove all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector”, announced that the PRC “will continue to host the BRF and establish a secretariat for the Forum”, and took some oblique shots at the US and its allies, such as “viewing others' development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one's own life better or speed up one's development” and “ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not a choice for us. What we stand against are unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and decoupling and supply chain disruption. “

2. Global AI Governance Initiative (GAIGI) - The PRC has launched a Global AI Governance Initiat…