Ma-Xi meeting; New guidelines for grassroots community workers; US-Japan Summit; More trouble for Vanke; Bytedance's Irish lies
Today’s newsletter did not come together as I hoped. It has been a distracting day, my wife and mother in law have come down with Covid. So today is very light on commentary, and I undoubtedly missed a lot. I hope to be back to normal tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.
Summary of today’s top items:
Ma-Xi meeting - Xi met with former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, on the same day US President Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida, and the 45th anniversary of the enactment of the US Taiwan Relations Act. Ma may be a spent political force in Taiwan but he is a vessel through which Xi can project a familial tone of calm and confidence about the Taiwan issue. I do think Xi is trying to signal they want a lowering of tensions, at least until the DPP does something they find problematic, and that so long as their are people on Taiwan like Ma and the youth delegation who joined him on this tour, there is always the possibility of “peaceful reunification”. I do not think many people on…