Hong Kong; Beidaihe; "Factual vaccine"; Protracted war

And we are back, I missed you, and it was not as quiet a staycation as I hoped.

We did have a good discussion last Friday with lots about US-China relations and the very poorly worded Executive Orders about TikTok and WeChat. Thanks to everyone who participated.

I was hoping to come back rechargged and full of positive energy, but the China-related continues to be mostly grim, starting with Hong Kong.

As expected, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee approved the current Legco session extending for another year, with the pandemic as the pretext. One PRC subscriber explained to me that the postponement of the September Legco election was thought to be a way to reduce tension with the US as it would push that issue past the US election. I am not sure that logic holds, but Xi and his team have made clear they will not be cowed by the so far weak responses from the US and its allies. Nor should we expect them to be.

The arrests yesterday of several people, including Jimmy Lai …