Xi inspects Shanghai, meets Carrie Lam; China International Import Expo; ASEAN Summit

Xi Jinping is in Shanghai. He conducted an inspection tour of the city, to emphasize some of the themes from the Fourth Plenum, hosted a dinner on the eve of the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), and met with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

According to the readout of the meeting with Lam, Xi told her that:

the Hong Kong SAR government, under your leadership, has made great efforts to stabilize and control the situation and improve the social atmosphere. The central government has high trust in you and fully recognizes the work of you and your management team. Stopping violence, curbing chaos and restoring order remain the most important task for Hong Kong.

But the readout gave no more details. Hong Kong saw another weekend of protests and violence.

Xi and the propaganda apparatus are making a huge deal out of the second CIIE, as it is a venue for messaging to the world that China is open for business, its market is huge and growing, and that China is a bulwark against…