Xi'an outbreak; Xi on history; Democratic life meeting; Hong Kong

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday.

The PRC is back to work Tuesday from the New Year’s holiday. Today’s newsletter is a bit of a catchup from the last couple of weeks, no doubt there are some gaps.

The biggest story right now is the continuing outbreak in and lockdown of Xi’an, a city of 13 million people. The numbers are small — just over 1600 cases so far— for the rest of the world but huge for China. It appears from various reports that is the Delta variant, not the Omicron one. The local officials have seemed unprepared and social media has been full of complaints about lack of food. We are about two weeks away from the start of the annual Lunar New Year migration and barely a month from the Beijing Olympics. This outbreak is causing significant social and political pressures and is a reminder of how unlikely the PRC can move away from its zero-Covid policy anytime soon, especially with some sort of Omicron outbreak likely inevitable.

Welcome to all the new subscrib…