Forum on China-Africa Cooperation; Qiushi Journal takes on the US-China trade war, signals no structural concessions; MeToo stopped at the System's periphery; US universities self-censoring

And the summer of 2018 is a wrap..I hope you had a wonderful summer, now back to work...

• The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is dominating official media. XI has promised another $60 billion in financing to Africa. I know much of the Western media coverage is quite critical, but don't the African leaders have agency, and are there better offers/plans for them coming from the West?;

• The latest issue of the authoritative Qiushi Journal includes a commentary defending the PRC's version of "State Capitalism" reiterating what is clearly now the officia line that America's real goal in the trade war is to contain China's rise, and making clear that significant structural concessions to the US are not on the table;

• Xi Jinping will not attend the celebrations next week in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea. Instead he is sending his top PBSC consigliere Li Zhanshu;

• JD.com founder and CEO Richard Liu has returned to China after being a…