Sharp China: Wang Yi’s Message on Ukraine; Continued EU Tensions; Deflation and ‘Disorderly’ Competition; Extended Thoughts on Two Months of Xi Rumors

This episode of Sharp China is outside the paywall. Show Notes: On today's show Andrew and Bill begin with a look at tensions between the PRC and the EU ahead of the EU-China summit later this month. Topics include: Reports concerning Wang Yi's comments to EU counterparts conveying Beijing's perspective on the Ukraine war, the PRC Foreign Ministry implores the EU to "rebalance its mindset" rather than rebalancing trade, and the rare earths leverage that looms as Europe mulls its next moves. From there: Stepped up party efforts to combat overcapacity and "disorderly competition," the decades-long challenge of stimulating consumption, and extended thoughts on the spate of rumors surrounding Xi's grip on power and what can and can't be gleaned from observed behavior the past few months. At the end: A bit of TikTok news, and a welcome to the NBA for Yang Hansen.You can listen to the podcast in the Substack app:Or click here for instructions to add the podcast to your preferred player. To subscribe to Sinocism, click here.To subscribe to Stratechery Plus, click here.And if you enjoy this podcast please share it far and wide:Related Readings:More on June Politburo meeting; Stabilizing employment; Trump's threat to bomb Beijing; EU's mindset needs "rebalancing"; TikTok -- SinocismXi's Shanxi tour; VDL's tough on China speech; Rare earths; Kindergarten mass lead poisoning; "London Framework" -- SinocismExclusive | China tells EU it does not want to see Russia lose its war in Ukraine: sources -- SCMPChina Rebukes EU Chief After Demand for Greater Trade Access -- BloombergFrance Urges Tariff Barriers to Stop China From Killing Industry -- BloombergGermany summons China’s ambassador after a plane is lasered over Red Sea -- APChina’s top leadership takes aim at ‘disorderly low-price competition’ -- SCMPCalls grow for China's household sector to be bigger economic driver -- ReutersDeeply Understand and Comprehensively Rectify "Involutionary" Competition -- Qiushi - TranslationChina’s producer prices fall 3.6% in June, biggest drop in nearly two years as deflation deepens -- CNBCIs Chinese President Xi Jinping on his way out? -- NY Post‘Containing Xi’, or refining party rule? -- Observing ChinaIs Xi's Grip Holding? -- China Media ProjectVisualizing Power in China's Press - China Media ProjectExclusive: TikTok prepares US app with its own algorithm and user data -- ReutersNBA Draft surprise: China center Yang Hansen picked at No. 16, dealt to Blazers -- The AthleticTo add the Sharp China feed to your preferred podcast player:Click on the "listen on" button and you will see a dropdown with several options. Make sure you are logged into your account when you do it so you get the correct private RSS feed for subscribers. If you have not logged in for a while you can enter your email and then we will send you a login link.The “email link” in the pulldown shown above will send you an email that also makes it easy to set it up in your preferred podcast app on your phone.If you use the Substack app it has a built- in podcast player.Thanks for listening. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sinocism.com/subscribe