Miscellaneous News

Soon after his appointment as the party’s No. 2 in October, Mr. Li assumed leadership of a national Covid task force, succeeding Li Keqiang, according to some of the people. By that time, Mr. Xi had already decided to move toward reopening, though he remained cautious about how quickly to do it.

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Worried about the government’s ability to corral faster-spreading Covid variants and the impact of repeated lockdowns on China’s deteriorating economy, Mr. Li and some colleagues in the leadership lobbied for a faster rollback of zero-Covid, according to people familiar with the matter.

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To make their case, they played to Mr. Xi’s sense of pride, arguing that zero-Covid undermined China’s ability to compete with the U.S., the people said. As evidence, they pointed to a letter to the leadership from Terry Gou, founder of Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group, warned that strict Covid controls threatened China’s central position in global supply chains.

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Mr. Xi was persuaded to give a green light to the wealthy southern province of Guangdong to test a more-targeted approach in Covid controls similar to one Mr. Li tried briefly in Shanghai in the spring of 2022 before abandoning it as the contagion worsened. This involved minimizing economic disruptions and keeping as much of the city open as possible while implementing varying levels of curbs and lockdowns in districts with higher infection levels.

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In working to find a path out of zero-Covid, Mr. Li showed his ability to collaborate effectively with other senior leaders, according to people familiar with the effort. He has brought the same skill to bear in trying to revive the Chinese economy, they say.

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On broader economic policy, Mr. Li has enlisted the help of He Lifeng, the head of China’s top economic planning agency, who joined the party’s 24-member Politburo in October. Together, they led the drafting of a plan to pivot away from regulation toward encouraging economic growth.

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In November, the government implemented measures meant to boost housing supply and demand, relaxing some of the previous restrictions on lending. Messrs. Li and He also suggested Chinese regulators loosen their grip on internet giants in an effort to boost confidence

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People close to Mr. Li and his colleagues, meanwhile, have made overtures to the business elite, offering assurances about the government’s support for the private sector while trying to persuade those who had decamped abroad during the pandemic to return to China.

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One Beijing-based tech investor said that a high-ranking government official who is close to Mr. Li recently tried to assure his firm that the government planned to implement “positive policies” toward China’s internet sector. In another recent exchange, a former official close to the new leadership tried to persuade an expatriate Chinese businessman to return to the country with offers of rare Shanghai hairy crab and a promise that Beijing was committed to supporting the private sector.

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Witchhunter12 said:

You know, regardless of your stance, as long as you're a "decent human being" the news about Iran and Saudi Arabia resuming diplomatic ties should be taken as positive news, its not really up for debate imo.

And yet what do you see from the West?

This is the biggest geopolitical development of the week and outlets like Foreign Policy magazine have yet to write about it.

Other outlets can only moan about how it was a diplomatic coup and China stepping into America's territory.

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Like this is petty, it would be embarassing for us if Chinese diplomats and Hu Xijin ran their mouths like this at an American achievement, Americans should be categorically ashamed of themselves for exhibiting this attitude towards a major milestone for peace.

But they are right about one thing, this is a new reality they'll have to get used to. The world has already been bi/multipolar economically for years now, increasingly its becoming one in technology, and as of yesterday, it just became so diplomatically. All that's left for Washington is finance, military, and culture. The clock is ticking and Chinese are patient.

However, just because Chinese are reserved and patient, doesn't mean we can't come out with outbursts of pride every now and then. And just as @siegecrossbow said, yesterday was one of the proudest I've felt as a Chinese in years.

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coolgod said:

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Guessing the SVB collapse shook the US pretty hard. Yellen preparing for another begging mission to China in 3,2,1.

美帝国主义者很傲慢，凡是可以不讲理的地方就一定不讲理，要是讲一点理的话，那是被逼得不得已了。

Xi should probably give a victory speech after the trade war with the US is over.

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KYli said:

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KYli said:

Retired Harry B. Harris Jr can't get over the bitterness of being helpless and hopeless in his attempt to stir up conflicts in Asia.

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xypher said:

Yeah, these Indian stats are bs. First of all, in most countries women are still shamed and feel insecure about reporting rape to police, and in India that problem is even worse due to their societal structure, so in e.g. Sweden women will report sexual assault more frequently on average than Indian women under the same assault rate. Secondly, police itself can dismiss or process the case under different law even if woman reported to police, and again the societal structure comes into play there. Another big case is what is counted as "rape" in these countries under the law, which can skew the values heavily. Finally, the data is self-reported by India and could be easily massaged to make them look better, and Indians care A LOT about opinions of other people (think of all the yt bloggers who gain tens and hundreds of thousands of views by just positively reacting to some Indian videos).

I don't for a second believe that HK and India have the same rape rates or that women are almost 35x likely to get raped in Sweden than in India.

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Overbom said:

No. SVB assets to deposits ratio was about 1. So their assets can cover their deposits.

The problem is that it will take time to convert these assets to hard cash. And that's what's the problem here. While the regulators try and sell all these assets, all these startup companies need access to their money now (not a year/s later), otherwise they will have to close shop or go to fundraise from their investors again..

So as I said, everyone will get back their money with a 10-15% haircut, eventually... Now how long this will take, months, years. Who knows.

Ideally, from the regulators's perspective it would be best if a much bigger bank just outright bought SVB on the cheap and then immediately honoured the SVB deposits. However looking at the past, negative, example of Wells Fargo, no bank is ain't going to do it unless the regulators sign up on some solid guarantees.

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Chevalier said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1634588185169895424

The Anglos are realising they can’t win against china and now want to go back to the days before they tried to strangle Chinese development. Personally I don’t think Chinese ought to let up on the pressure- when people have made no secret of their desire to impoverish you and your kin and to prevent you from building a better life for yourself, nothing less than the steel gauntlet of karma bitch slapping them will suffice.

Anglos realise now with the harbinger of SVB and the run on US treasuries that they need china more than china needed them.

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siegecrossbow said:

Startups will die if they don't get their cash within a few months though.

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