New round of US charges against Chinese state hackers; Bullets on the Belt & Road as "fine brushwork" begins

The Central Economic Work Conference is apparently underway and we should have details from the meeting by this time tomorrow. While Xi’s speech earlier this week appeared to give no hints of movement towards trade concessions with the US, there is always chance that speech, tailored for a domestic audience, was not the place to look for signs anyway. Perhaps there will be more positive signals from the CEWC, or at least clearer directives from the top for the Chinese officials tasked with talking to US negotiators.

The US has announced a new set of charges against MSS hackers, but the actions are weaker than expected. There has been talk for a while of sanctions and naming of SOE beneficiaries of the cyberthefts and as the Washington Post reported a couple of hours before the announcement today:

Sanctions related to the cyber economic espionage effort also are expected to be announced. 

No sanctions were announced, and I hear from multiple people that the Trump administration backed of…