Standing Committee meeting on floods; Surprise rate cut; Plenum study guide; PRC-Russia; US Amb. Burns on US-China

Summary of today’s Essential Eight:

1. Standing Committee meeting on the flooding - The Standing Committee met to "study and arrange work related to flood control and disaster relief", as well as to discuss "other matters 会议还研究了其他事项" that were not disclosed, as they are usually not. Readouts from Standing Committee meetings are relatively rare, and happen for especially serious issues. The August 17, 2023 Standing Committee meeting was also publicized, and had as its theme "to study and arrange work on flood prevention and relief as well as post-disaster restoration and reconstruction". Clearly the flooding in parts of the PRC this summer is getting quite serious, and has come earlier than in previous years. As the readout says “China's climate conditions are abnormal, with frequent and prolonged heavy rainfall, early and rapid development of river floods, and some areas repeatedly hit by heavy rains, making the flood control situation severe and complex”.

The CCTV Evening News report …