Xi meets military delegation; UK ambassador criticized; China not scrapping GDP targets; Stock market

We are in the slow period of the Two Sessions as we await the Premier’s NPC conference and the release of the final versions of the new plans.

The campaign against foreign media is not slowing, and now the UK Ambassador to the PRC is in trouble for a recent article she posted to WeChat. The official tone and the tolerated discourse inside the PRC Internet towards foreign media is increasingly nasty, and worrisome. We have seen this trend before but it looks to me qualitatively and quantitatively different than the prior cycles of anger in the last decade or so.

Perhaps the most interesting news today is a report in the South China Morning Post, albeit single-sourced, that Yang Jiechi may lead a team to Anchorage, Alaska to meet with top US officials. PRC media is publicizing a letter Xi sent in response to a US high school principal praising student exchanges, so perhaps if there is meeting in Alaska there will be some deals around the “Trinity of Hope” for those wanting to see some s…