Kim-Xi meeting; Xi meets other leaders; "Slow bull market" possible?; Sports consumption; Historical revisionism

The Thursday People’s Daily front page is one for history:

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Xi meets with Kim - Xi Jinping had an official meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who was in China for the first time in six years to attend the parade. Kim is now on his train back to Pyongyang. From the readout :

The DPRK side is willing to maintain close exchanges between the two parties and the two countries at all levels, to carry out exchanges of experience in areas such as party building and economic development, and to help advance the work of building the Party and the state in the DPRK. It is ready to deepen mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and to achieve more outcomes. The DPRK appreciates China’s fair position on the Korean Peninsula issue and stands ready to continue strengthening coordination on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations so as to safeguard the common and fundamental interests of both sides.

Will Kim get more from China now because of his improved relationship with Putin?

2. Xi’s meetings with other leaders - Xi had a busy day of meetings with visiting leaders. In addition to his meeting with Kim, he also met with First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao president, Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Xi has had quite a busy and active few days.

3. Can policymakers engineer a “slow bull” stock market? - That is the stated goal, and Bloomberg confirms rumors that started circulating over the last few days that regulators are taking steps to tamp down some of the growing fervor over punting on A-shares. It makes sense, given the need for individual investors to start moving more of their savings into the stock market, but also given the history of retail investors losing much of their investments in the historically more “casino” than “market”. But markets are hard to plan and control.

4. Will PRC firms by Nvidia H20s and B30As? - Reuters reports that top PRC tech firms still want to buy Nvidia chips, in spite of government pressure. That makes sense, since both the H20 and the forthcoming B30A are significantly better than any of the PRC chips, and can be made in large quantities. But as we have discussed repeatedly, Party and security forces matter more than market forces or corporate preferences. We should learn which forces prevail soon enough. If the Trump Administration approves sales to China of the modified Blackwell chip and Chinese firms purchase them in bulk, we will know that the pushback on the H20 was more of a ploy to get this better chip. But if PRC officials still discourage PRC firms from buying that much more advanced chip, then it will be hard to see how Nvidia sales to China recover, as the top leadership has set the course for accelerated indigenization of the PRC AI tech stack.

5. Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry 2025-2026 Stable Growth Action Plan - The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry 2025-2026 Stable Growth Action Plan”. The main targets are:

For 2025–2026, the main expected targets are as follows: the average growth rate of value added in the above‑designated‑size computer, communications, and other electronic equipment manufacturing sector will be around 7%; including related areas such as lithium batteries, photovoltaics (PV), and component manufacturing, the electronic information manufacturing industry will achieve an average annual revenue growth rate of over 5%. By 2026, it is expected to maintain the top rank in revenue scale and export share among the 41 major industrial categories; in five provinces, revenues of the electronic information manufacturing industry will each exceed 1 trillion yuan; the server industry will exceed 400 billion yuan in scale; color TVs of 75 inches and above will have a domestic market penetration rate of over 40%; and personal computers and mobile phones will advance toward greater intelligence and high‑end positioning.

The plan also addresses ensuring secure and stable industrial and supply chains:

2. Strengthen integrated tackling of key problems and ensure secure and stable industrial and supply chains. We will unswervingly promote the use of domestically produced goods [“guohuo guoyong 国货国用”], continue to fill gaps in weak links, extend advantages in strong links, upgrade traditional links, and build new links in emerging industries. We will increase policy support for key enterprises in industrial chains, enhance their rootedness [根植性], strengthen R&D on key core technologies, and improve the resilience and security of key industrial chains and supply chains. By driving integrated applications, we will improve system‑wide capabilities and enhance the reliability and security of products such as components and parts. We will strengthen R&D, application, and supporting adaptation across chips, components, and complete‑machine systems in computing and other fields. We will advance R&D and industrialization of BeiDou products with high precision, low power consumption, low cost, and high integration. We will promote the development of key industrial control equipment systems and operating systems such as intelligent industrial control computers, industrial smart cameras, and medium‑to‑large programmable logic controllers (PLCs). We will establish and improve early‑warning mechanisms for capacities of key products to detect potential supply‑chain break risks in a timely manner. We will study a supply‑chain maturity assessment system, promote the formulation of maturity assessment standards and management mechanisms, and conduct comprehensive maturity assessments for supply chains in servers, printers, storage, networking, and other areas. We will deploy and implement a number of “quality‑strong‑chain” projects, carry out R&D on common quality technologies, and strengthen quality support for the high‑quality development of industrial chains.

6. New document on developing sports industry and sports consumption - The State Council General Office issued the “Opinions on Further Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Sports Industry” with the goal of “unlocking the potential of sports consumption”. It should be a policy bonanza for outdoor sports, the “snow-and-ice economy” and sports equipment brands. Global sports brands should be worried:

(5) Promote upgrades in sports goods. Study and formulate an implementation plan to advance the high-quality development of the sports equipment manufacturing industry. Centering on the needs of elite sport, intensify R&D and commercialization in sports science and technology; give play to the guiding role of major special funds and key sci-tech projects; organize coordinated industry–academia–research–application efforts; and develop equipment for athletes’ competition, training, testing, and rehabilitation. Encourage sports enterprises to cooperate with universities and research institutes to build innovation R&D centers for sporting goods, strengthen research on basic frontiers and key technologies, and develop more sports products that meet personalized consumer demand. Strengthen quality support and standard-setting leadership, and increase the supply of standards for sporting goods. Deeply implement the “Three Product” campaign for consumer goods, and support eligible sporting goods to be listed as China Consumer Name Brands. Promote product quality improvement and build trendy “guochao” (Chinese-style) brands and products. Support opening first stores for sporting goods and hosting first-release and first-show events. (Led by the NDRC, Ministry of Science and Technology, MIIT, Ministry of Commerce, SAMR, and General Administration of Sport according to the division of responsibilities.)

I have posted a full translation here.

7. More on the “memory war” over World War II - China Media Project examines one aspect of the campaign of historical revisionism about World War II in Historical Revisions on Parade and cites work by an MSS-linked author who exposes “the United States’ political manipulation of history to gain political advantage”. Gao Xiang, Party Secretary of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), wrote On the Eastern Battlefield, Justice Was Upheld; A New Chapter Opens for a Shared Future—China’s Contribution to the World Anti-Fascist War and Its Contemporary Significance 高翔：东方战场擎正义 命运与共启新章——世界反. I have translated it in full here. The PRC’s political manipulation of history to gain political advantage has been relentless and I think quite successful this week.

I am doing a Sinocism Live with Joseph Torigian, author of The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, on Xi, Party History, and the 9.3 Parade at 10:30 AM ET tomorrow September 5th. I messed up the scheduling so I will resend a different link for it tomorrow. It will also go online in your podcast feeds as a recording soon after the event If you have questions you would like us to try to get to, please submit them here.