It’s Two Meetings Time! Ok, so maybe you are not that excited. Neither am I, in fact I do not enjoy writing the newsletter during this annual period because there is usually so little of actual news value. Perhaps 2019 will be different but I am not holding my breath.

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress started Sunday, the National People's Congress starts Tuesday and the whole show should be done by March 15. Among the things to watch:

• Tomorrow we should get Li Keqiang’s work report and the 2019 GDP target (6-6.5% is the expected range);

• The projected 2019 PLA budget;

• The new foreign investment law;

• Lots of reports of Xi visiting and speaking with various panels and delegations.

Huawei has gone on the legal offensive in Canada and the US. Their PR and legal strategies are interesting and I wonder if the response is more than the US government expected;

There has been an official update in the cases of detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Kovrig is suspecte…