Xi emphasizes self-reliance 自力更生; Rural vitalization plan; Cadre cultural revolution and bourgeois liberalization; CCTV turns 60; Espionage and meddling
It sure feels like things may be starting to spiral out of control on many fronts…
Xi's Heilongjiang tour continues, while the full propaganda rollout and the follow-on exhortations to study his comments have not yet begun;
A key theme of the tour is that the trade war is forcing China back on the road to self-reliance 自力更生;
The State Council released a five-year plan for "rural vitalization";
President Trump is accusing China of meddling in the upcoming US election.
In April in comments about the U.S. smackdown on ZTE I wrote:
While the company may end up crippled, the episode has strategic and propaganda value for Beijing. The timing of the announcement — right before the 2nd anniversary of an important speech on cybersecurity and technology made by Chinese President Xi Jinping — only serves to strengthen the point he's been making about the need to reduce reliance on foreign, and especially American, technologies.
Now that Xi and the CCP system have decided that America’s real goal in the…