US-China Relations, Party Congress, GDP Target Scrapped-Sinocism 10.26.17

Happy Thursday, day 2 of the Xi Era (XE?)…

Apologies for a typo in yesterday’s newsletter. I put Li Keqiang’s Chinese name next to Li Zhanshu 栗战书 in the list of new PBSC members. I corrected it almost immediately on my Twitter stream but did not think it was worth clogging your inboxes with a resend. That Twitter stream is worth watching for corrections and other announcements about the newsletter.

And a reminder, the publishing schedule for this subscription version of the newsletter is “at least” four issues a week. This week has been exhausting so will likely just be four, with a free version and another book review excerpt over the weekend for everyone.

Some of you may be sick of the Party Congress and so today’s commentary focuses on President Trump’s November 8-10 visit to China. Trump called Xi Thursday to congratulate “Chinese President Xi Jinping on being re-elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)” and “for the successful conclusi…