Elon Musk’s Surprise Trip to Beijing; A Third Plenum Set for July; An Uneventful Blinken Visit; Xi’s Trip to Europe

Sharp China with Bill Bishop

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Bill Bishop is the author of Sinocism

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On today's show Andrew and Bill begin with a surprise, 24-hour trip to China for Elon Musk, and a Sunday meeting with Premier Li Qiang. Topics include: The Musk meeting as PRC response to mounting scrutiny in the US, the benefits to both sides of the Tesla-PRC relationship, and why this week's news may not answer Tesla's long term questions in the Chinese market. From there: Parsing the readout from the April Politburo meeting, including insights into how leadership sees the economy now, an announcement for the long-awaited Third Plenum, and policy changes that may or may not materialize in the months to come. At the end: Takeaways from Secretary of State Blinken's visit to Beijing last week, Xi Jinping prepares to travel to the EU amid a flurry of investigations into PRC entities and actors, and an emailer asks about the veracity of officially reported PRC economic data.

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Politburo meeting and a July Third Plenum; Beijing relaxes some housing restrictions; Scarborough Shoal tensions — Sinocism

Xi to Europe; MSS head on the "five antis"; Musk's big Beijing trip; Housing restrictions; RMB; Kinmen patrols — Sinocism

Elon Musk flies in to meet China’s premier as Tesla fights local rivals — Financial Times

Elon Musk Can’t Solve Tesla’s China Crisis With His Desperate Asia Visit — Wired

Politburo meeting and announcement of Third Plenum in July — Sinocism

Macron plans to charm Xi in the Pyrénées — Politico EU

President Xi Jinping Meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — MoFA

Blinken Meets With Xi as U.S. Pressures China to End Support for Russia — Wall Street Journal

China Has Crossed Biden’s Red Line on Ukraine — Wall Street Journal

Thread from Finbarr Bermingham — X: @fbermingham

永恒的经典！窦唯 《艳阳天》 — YouTube: TheXQL1100