So far the Five Eyes countries - US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand - have announced they are not sending officials or diplomats to the Beijing Olympics, though New Zealand’s couched it not so much as a boycott but more as a Covid-related measure.

Various PRC officials and media outlets are on the one hand livid and threatening countermeasures and on the other saying no one cares. They obviously do care, but if the boycott remains limited to just the Five Eyes countries then it will be easy to spin it as yet another effort by “Anglo-Saxon” countries to keep China down.

Today’s Essential Eight items:

1. Xi’s economic wisdom

2. Resisting erroneous Western thoughts

3. Limits but no bans for VIEs and foreign funds

4. Democracy summit triggering some hard feelings

5. Olympics

6. Acknowledgement of the deal for Meng and the two Michaels

7. Shanghai’s red mansion

8. PRC picked an interesting time to go after Lithuania

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