Plane flies into Beijing’s tallest building; More export controls on Japanese firms; Pause in march towards EU-China trade war?; Premier Li on AI

We should get news of the June Politburo meeting Tuesday

Today’s top items:

1. Plane flies into Beijing’s tallest building - A small plane flew into Beijing’s tallest building - the CITIC Tower aka “China Zun” - killing the pilot and injuring 13 people. The authorities released a brief statement that did not name the pilot or even the building, and then censorship went into overdrive. It looks to have been intentional.

The crash exposed some major gaps in Beijing’s security, it was likely shocking to the leadership, and heads will roll, but it probably will not hurt the low altitude economy in the long term, and may end up being constructive as it forces a regulatory revamp that derisks efforts going forward. Developing the low altitude economy 低空经济 is written into the 15th Five-Year Plan:

加快新能源、新材料、航空航天、低空经济等战略性新兴产业集群发展。

Accelerate the development of strategic emerging industry clusters such as new energy, new materials, aerospace, and the low-altitude economy.

There are lots of interes…