Hebei outbreak; Political and legal affairs conference; Taiwan; WHO

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion thread that started Friday. It is still going, we have some very smart and interesting period in our Sinocism community.

Among the issues I have been trying to dig into today:

• The outbreak in Shijiazhuang and other parts of Hebei is small by rest of world standards but clearly has the central government very worried. They are going to test all 11 million residents of the city for a second time, the Hebei provincial people’s congress meeting has been delayed and parts of Beijing are now under tighter restrictions;

• The US State Department declared that “all “contact guidelines” regarding relations with Taiwan previously issued by the Department of State under authorities delegated to the Secretary of State to be null and void”. The US is not changing its One China policy, but the change prompted an angry outburst from PRC officials and media. The policy sounds like it was not fully vetted through a traditional process but it fits with …