Patriotism campaign for intellectuals; Xi's position; Politburo meeting and the economy; Google's secret China plans, Potty politics; US-China

Good morning from Sinocism. Here are some of the top things I am following:

• The Party has announced a new patriotism campaign for intellectuals;

• News that the US is now considering additional tariffs on Chinese goods came just after Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported that Liu He and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin were working to find ways back to the negotiating table;

• Google is planning to re-launch a search engine in China;

• I am stubbornly (stupidly?) sticking to my view that reports of real challenges to Xi’s authority are over-egged; see comments in the Essential Eight.

For the August 1 91st anniversary of the founding of the PLA CCTV released a short video “我是中国军人 [I am a Chinese soldier]" that almost looks like it was made by Apple's ad agency. It tugs at the heartstrings and then it goes hard on patriotism and China’s rise. But the phrase at the 1:16 mark “我身后是和平，我面前是战争“—behind me is peace, in front of me is war” takes away some of the warm and fuzzy feeling: