Fourth Plenum; 5G launches; Shanghai shuts online P2P lending; Pompeo's series of speeches on China

The Fourth Plenum has concluded, there was no announcement of any personnel changes other than the automatic ascension to full membership of the two alternate Central Committee members discussed yesterday.

Sinocism readers were right to be very skeptical of the rumors going around, though the lack of any public sign of pressure on Xi by way of enlarging the Politburo Standing Committee or making clearer signals about anointing successor will probably not stop the rumors that Xi is under pressure, weakened by missteps over Hong Kong and the relationship with the US, or facing a backlash that would force him to share more power. Seek truth from facts as they say in Beijing, and right now the facts as I can observe them are not pointing towards a weakened Xi.

The Plenum Communique reiterated that China is facing many risks, as one would expect given that nine months ago Xi convened a three day meeting of just about the same audience on risks; it articulated the advantages of the PRC’s sy…