Covid policy; 20th Party Congress; New podcasts; Sinocism Chat

I hope you are having a nice weekend!

I do not usually publish on Saturdays but I wanted to share two new podcasts and briefly discuss today’s State Council news conference about Covid policies. The short answer is they announced no meaningful changes, so markets might be a little sad Monday. From Bloomberg - China to ‘Unswervingly’ Keep to Covid Zero Policy, Dashing Hopes:

China will “unswervingly” adhere to its current Covid controls as the country faces an increasingly serious outbreaks, health officials said, damping hopes that Beijing will ease its stringent policies that have put cities and factories under prolonged lockdowns.

“Previous practices have proved that our prevention and control plans and a series of strategic measures are completely correct,” Hu Xiang, an official at National Health Commission’s disease prevention and control bureau, said at a briefing Saturday.  “The policies are also the most economical and effective.”

On Thursday I recorded a new episode of the very …