Gene-edited baby; Comrade Jack Ma and Party Construction; Xi's nephew interned in DC; Taiwan elections

Lots going on so today’s newsletter is a bit long:

• A Chinese scientist claims he has created a gene-edited baby. The reactions in and out of China have been almost uniformly negative;

• Taiwan’s “mid-term” elections were disappointing for the ruling DPP Party but it is not clear what impact the results will have on Taiwan-Mainland China relations and US-China relations;

• Xi chaired the November Politburo meeting. There was no announcement of the 4th Plenum, so it is clearly not happening in November and may very well not happen in December. The 3rd Plenum earlier this year was a big one, more so for the massive bureaucratic reorganization than for term limits removal, perhaps Xi never had any intention of holding two Plenums this year?;

• The G-20 meets 11.30-12.1, Xi Jinping is bracketing his trip to the G-20 with visits to Spain, Argentina, Panama and Portugal from 11.27 to 12.5.

Mike Forsythe and Ed Wong of The New York Times wrote a very disturbing story about Americans who are unable to l…