Xi Thought on Party Building; May economic activity; Myanmar President in Beijing; Wang Yi on the Iran deal

We must optimize the layout of higher education, strive to build universities and advantageous disciplines that are of Chinese characteristics and world-class, continuously enhance the capacity to self-reliantly cultivate and to attract and gather high-level talent, and cultivate and strengthen the nation's strategic talent forces. - Xi Jinping

Today’s top items:

1. May economic activity - The May activity data, out from the NBS Tuesday, show the now-familiar split: exports and factories holding up while domestic demand remains weak. Industrial output rose 4.5% year-on-year, which Caixin credits to the AI buildout and resilient exports masking the property drag. Retail sales fell 0.6%, the first drop since the end of 2022.

NBS Spokesman Fu Linghui said the better gauge for retail sales is the combined goods-and-services retail measure that debuted this month, which shows that activity up 2.8% in January–May. The headline retail sales number leaves out most services, and services retail (…