My brain is a bit numb from reading and watching too much celebratory propaganda around the July 1 birthday, so today’s newsletter is a bit thin.

Today’s Essential Eight items:

1. Hong Kong

2. Belt and Road Conference

3. History is what the Party says it is

4. Internationalizing the RMB

5. More signs Dong Jingwei did not defect to the US

6. New White Paper on 100 years of CCP Human Rights

7. Xinjiang

8. US DOJ needs to do better

For those who thought PRC diplomats would be changing their style after last month’s Politburo study session, Zhang Heqing, a PRC diplomat posted to Pakistan as the cultural attache, has a message for you:

The small characters in the second line under “Deal with enemy” read “we are wolf warriors”.

Thanks for reading.