Constitution Changes; Third Plenum; Liu He To DC; A More Disturbing CCTV Spring Gala Skit; Trump Trade Policies; North Korea

The Year of the Dog has certainly started with some bite, between the temporary government takeover of Anbang, the convening of a Third Plenum, and the release of the changes coming to the State Constitution, including the removal of term limits for the President and Vice President. In case you missed it I wrote a note yesterday on the term limit change-Term Limits Will Officially No Longer Apply To Xi Jinping.

The convening of a Third Plenum starting today is interesting as Third Plenums have in the reform era been held much later in the year. There is an apparent logic to holding the Third barely a month after the Second Plenum (January 18-19), as there needed to be at least month before the March 5th NPC meeting for review of any Constitution changes proposed by a party Plenum, and there is usually a Plenum right before the NPC to finalize any personnel and institutional changes.

According to the official announcement of the Third Plenum-CPC Central Committee to hold third plenary se…