Latest outbreak; Canadians sentenced; Virus origins; Rule of law government plan

And we are back…

The top leadership is not, there have been no sightings of any of the Standing Committee members since the end of July, so I think we can assume they are up in Beidaihe, doing whatever it is they do there in the first two weeks of August. If precedent holds they should start reappearing by Monday.

The newsletter will be publishing for the rest of this week, then will be off again Monday and Tuesday next week as I have to go collect our kids from summer camp, then we will be back to normal next Wednesday. I hope many of you are on holiday somewhere nice.

Today’s Essential Eight Items:

1. Latest outbreak

2. Frenzy over virus origins

3. Blueprint on building rule of law government

4. Two Canadians sentenced

5. More on the education crackdown

6. Hong Kong

7. Xinjiang and supply chains

8. Lithuania angers Beijing

Thanks for reading.