European leaders in Beijing; Tsai in California; Xinhua attacks US financial hegemony; Saudi-Iran Beijing meeting
Apologies for the newsletter being a bit late today. I got caught up in the announcement of Substack’s new Twitter-like service Notes, which I hope some of you can start using next week. I have been testing it for almost two months and am very excited about it.
There will be no Sharp China podcast this week as my co-host is now on paternity leave. I hope to be back next week with a special guest host.
The PRC was on holiday today for the Qingming Festival.
Summary of the Essential Eight:
European leaders in Beijing - Macron and von der Leyen have both arrived in China. It would be wonderful if Macron could actually make progress on finding a path to peace in Ukraine, but it is hard to be optimistic. Perhaps Xi will give him a “win” by calling Zelensky soon after Macron returns home? That would be smart, would let Macron say the trip was a success and would make Xi look like he is trying to be the peacemaker. Odds that may happen?
Tsai in California - Taiwan President Tsai went to Calif…