Biden on the balloon, dictators and surprises; Fentanyl and Taiwan; Local debt survey again ; PRC-Cuba; Jack Ma
Note: Thursday is the start of the “Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 Holiday”, the PRC will be off Thursday and Friday. I am planning to move the weekly discussion thread to Thursday and then not publish Friday this week.
Summary of today’s top items:
Biden’s fundraiser comments an “open political provocation” - At a fundraiser Wednesday President Biden discussed the spy balloon incident, saying Xi was surprised by its flight and that being surprised like that is “a great embarrassment for dictators”. He also said China’s economy is having “real economic difficulties”. The foreign ministry was not amused and condemned the remarks, though the part of the response to Biden's “dictator” comments are not on the foreign ministry website in English or Chinese. I guess it would be awkward to put up on the site that someone called Xi a "dictator"? Biden’s words should not be a big enough deal to undo whatever small amount of progress was made during Blinken’s Beijing visit, then again things feel so te…