Trump's tariffs tease; Li Zhanshu goes to Pyongyang; Xinjiang crackdown getting increasing global attention; Party crackdown on religion expands; China-Russia relations; Jack Ma is retiring next year
I hope you all had a nice weekend. Here are some of the top issues today:
There has still been no announcement yet on the promised tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese goods, but President Trump did threaten on Friday to put tariffs on all imports from China;
Li Zhanshu went to Pyongyang for a fraternal socialist lovefest on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK;
The Xinjiang crackdown was literally front and center of the Sunday New York Times. This issue is only going to grow in importance in the US-China relationship, and the possibility of senior PRC officials making the sanctions list under the Magnitsky Act is very real;
On the eve of an economic meeting and war games in Russia the PRC Ambassador to Russia says that PRC-Russian relations are the best they have ever been;
Jack Ma has announced he will step down as executive chairman of Alibaba one year from today. Alibaba stock sold off but from a political risk perspective his departure from any offic…