Xi in Shanxi; Taiwan and the WHO; New NBA China head; China's beef with Australia

Today is the 12th anniversary of the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake that killed over 69,000 people. I was in our Beijing apartment on the 38th floor of a building in CBD when it struck, and we were shaking so much I thought it was an earthquake in Beijing. I picked up our then 2 year-old twins and carried them down the stairs to the ground floor. Only when I checked Twitter when we got outside did I learn it happened far away in Sichuan.

What an awful day for so many people, and yet the Party was able to turn it into a heroic struggle that united the nation and proved the strength of the people and the Party in overcoming disasters. I imagine the playbook from the aftermath of Wenchuan is being used in Wuhan now.

Xi has finished his inspection tour of Shanxi. Among the key themes from the CCTV report on his trip:

• persist with supply side structural reforms as the "main line";

• persist with "making progress while ensuring stability" as the "main key" of work;

• Restarting the economy;

• The “s…