Central Financial Work Conference; Biden and Xi to meet; Li Keqiang

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Li Keqiang to be cremated Thursday - As expected, there will be a cremation service for Li Keqiang this Thursday in Beijing.

2. Central Financial Work Conference readout - The Central (not national) Financial Work Conference has concluded. The long readout was heavy on high-level goals and aspiration but light on details. But the path is set, now we wait for more specific policies. On the key topic of local government debt the readout said the meeting "advocated for establishing a long-term mechanism to prevent and resolve local government debt risks, setting up a government debt management mechanism compatible with high-quality development, and optimizing the debt structure of central and local governments." I guess we need to all get better versed in Marxist political economy: "the meeting emphasized that General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech scientifically answered a series of major theoretical and practical questions regarding the development of…