Party Constitution; Two upholds; Politburo; Covid; Taiwan
Summary of today’s Essential Eight:
Revised Party Constitution - The full text of the revised Party Constitution has been released. "Two Establishes 两个确立" was not written into it as I had thought it would be, but the "Two Upholds 两个维护" - 坚定维护以习近平同志为核心的党中央权威和集中统一领导 firmly uphold the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core - were. I am not sure what this means in terms of whether or not Xi got some push back on something he wanted or whether the "two upholds" actually covers the ideas behind the "two establishes". There is also no shortening to "Xi Jinping Thought" or any additional titles like "People's Leader", though I still think it is possible we may see those two happen with more regularity as the the propaganda and education campaign for the 20th Congress rolls out. I have not yet done a full comparison of all the changes, many of which were previewed last week.
Politburo meeting and study session - The new Politbur…