.Sam Freedman's newsletter is the best thing I've read on UK politics and well worth the subscription.
samf.substack.com

Xi’s congress report lays bare an aggressive and statist worldview | Financial Times “These standard phrases have been dropped. It is now clear that the Chinese Communist party no longer rules out the possibility of a major war in the foreseeable future” ft.com/content/857691…

The story only gets more surreal from there. To hear it, read this brilliant translation, which includes a link to the original Chinese.

It is a window into a political culture based on secrecy, mass mobilization, and choreographed spectacle.

chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/10/transl…

How does the Party stage photoshoots for Xi Jinping?

CDT has published a first hand account, in translation, of how this photoshoot was staged in Wuhan's Zhiyuan Apartments on July 28, 2022.

It started with a mysterious phone call to the city's teachers on July 27...

Classified papers at Mar-a-Lago held U.S. secrets on Iran missile program, intelligence on China, people familiar with them say washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

'Chinese censors on Friday scrubbed from the internet reports that a teenager had died in a quarantine facility after the case sparked anger and prompted citizens to question the country's 'zero-COVID' policy.' #China cbsnews.com/news/china-tee…

#MMT is based on 'monetary sovereignty,' the idea that a central bank can always pin down yields via QE. Huge Yen devaluation and the UK bond market blow-up have debunked that. You'd think #MMT advocates would be out there defending their theory. Instead, all you hear is silence.

thebrushpass.projectbrazen.com/steady-trump-c…

On Oct. 28, the Orwell Foundation will launch Orwell Daily, which for free will serialize at least a portion of the author’s famous books and other writings washingtonpost.com/business/orwel…

Weekly Open Thread 2022 #31: Party Congress, by Bill Bishop open.substack.com/pub/sinocism/p…

Physicians are reporting unseasonably high numbers of respiratory illnesses in kids, straining many children’s hospitals before the typically busier winter months wsj.com/articles/a-sur… via The Wall Street Journal

Berkshire Goes to China, by Karen Christensen 🇺🇦 Slava Ukraini! open.substack.com/pub/karenchris… A landmark work is being published in Chinese more than a decade after the translation agreement was signed

The real secret lurking in Xi Jinping’s political report, one that tells us quietly and convincingly that the “New Era” is about one man’s grasp for power: For the first time in almost 40 years, “political reform” is gone. chinamediaproject.org/2022/10/21/buz…

'Intra-party democracy' (党内民主) has long been included in the CCP's political reports as a goal for greater collective and deliberative decision-making within the Party. For the first time in 45 years — gone.

Brilliant how-to (and how-not-to) guide to analyzing China’s Party Congress discourse ⁦China Media Project⁩ chinamediaproject.org/2022/10/21/buz…

Children’s hospitals in the D.C. area have been full for weeks wapo.st/3sh6sWN

U.S. charges 7 in alleged plot to repatriate US resident to China reuters.com/world/us-charg… According to indictment, Quanzhong An is accused of working at the behest of China's Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to harass and intimidate a Chinese man and his son in US

The first episode of this is *incredible*. You should absolutely subscribe for the interesting conversations with great writers.

But also because it shows off some of the good stuff about hosting your podcast on Substack... (thread)

Elon Musk plans to lay off 5,500 out of 7000 of Twitter's employees (78%) when he purchases the company.

Twitter has started stack ranking and it's expected layoffs will initially target lower performers, who scored less than a 3 on performance reviews.
washingtonpost.com/technology/202…