China’s president is back in the spotlight. After retreating to the beaches of Beidaihe for an annual not-so-secret meeting with senior Chinese leaders and officials, and after weeks of absence from the front pages of the People’s Daily, President Xi Jinping is front and center again, performing his usual displays of strength. He appeared at the end of a three-day Central Military Commission meeting, delivering a speech that offered the usual pomp and circumstance about the People’s Liberation Army and how it should resist corruption and how it should remain steadfastly loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. But perhaps more interesting are the reports from Bloomberg and Sinocism that Xi emerged from his Beidaihe conclave convinced that the United States, for all its talk on compromising on trade, is trying to keep China weak. If true, it would suggest upcoming low-level U.S.-China talks on trade won’t go anywhere.
Unknown assailants conducted four separate attacks in Chechny