Vanke bailout; BIS nominee and chip export controls; Jimmy Lai's trial; Generic drugs

It is a slow day and so this is a thin newsletter. The top leaders are all missing from the propaganda reports today; sometimes this collective absence is the sign of an interesting meeting underway, or maybe they all just took a day to celebrate the Lantern Festival 元宵节. We will find out soon enough.

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Growing bailout for Vanke - Bloomberg reports that “Chinese authorities are working on a proposal to help China Vanke Co. plug a funding gap of about 50 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) this year”. Vanke, once among the most respected PRC real estate developers, has been on the verge of collapse and if this report is correct the recent bailout efforts from the Shenzhen government have not been enough. Vanke is yet another too big to fail developer, and another reminder that the real estate market has not yet stabilized.

2. Nomination may signal tougher chip export controls - Landon Heid, a staffer from the House Select Committee on China, is Trump’s nominee for …