Third Plenum July 15-18; Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe cases; Second Thomas Shoal; Taiwan; Capital flight; Common Prosperity

Summary of today’s Essential Eight:

1. Politburo meeting and Third Plenum - The Thursday Politburo meeting announced that the Plenum will convene July 15-18. According to the readout from the Politburo meeting they “listened to a report about opinions collected within and outside the Party on the draft of The CPC Central Committee's Decision on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese Modernization.” Any help in parsing through the readout for clues about any substantive reforms ahead will be much appreciated by me and the rest of the Sinocism community. Here is some of the language in the readout that seems interesting:

• “It was noted at the meeting that the solicitation of opinions has fully promoted intra-Party democracy and pooled the wisdom of the whole Party, and all regions, departments and parties fully affirmed the draft 会议指出，这次征求意见充分发扬党内民主、集思广益，各地区各部门各方面对决定稿给予充分肯定”. So how collaborative was the process? And since many people have seen the draft will there …