Oil scandal; Third Plenum; PRC investigating the EU's investigation; NATO calls out China; Wei Fenghe
Summary of today’s top items:
Oil tanker scandal - The censorship of discussion of the scandal around transporting edible oils and fuel oils in the same container trucks has started, as expected, now that the government has said it will investigate and the Plenum is just days away. A commentary on the People’s Daily WeChat account sums up why this is such a big deal - “Food is the most important thing for the people, and safety is the priority for food. Food safety is paramount and cannot tolerate any negligence 民以食为天，食以安为先。食品安全大于天，不容任何闪失”. In this week’s episode of Sharp China we discussed the scandal and why it matters. I wish I understood why The Beijing News was allowed to publish the expose that sparked this firestorm just thirteen days before the Third Plenum.
Third Plenum - Neil Thomas and Jing Qiang of the the Center for China Analysis have published an interesting report on what to expect at the upcoming Plenum. They say “expectations should be modest”. In this week’s episode…