National Security Commission meets; Politburo study session on education; US-China; Musk in the PRC; More allegations of interference in Canadian politics

Summary of the Essential Eight:

1. First meeting of the National Security Commission under the 20th CPC Central Committee - At the meeting Xi stressed “the need to accelerate the modernization of the national security system and capabilities and ensure the new development pattern with a new security pattern.” Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, and Cai Qi are vice chairs of the commission. It is quite likely that Cai Qi is the head of the office of NSC. The original Chinese readout is longer and more interesting than the English summary and so I have included a full translation. As we have discussed repeatedly, everything in Xi’s PRC is national security and there is an intensifying focus on better coordinating security and development, with the security side winning out over the economics side it appears. There is also an intensifying hardening of the system against all sorts of threats foreign and domestic. The readout said “We must adhere to bottom-line thinking and worst case scenario thinking [极限思维…