The demotion of Qin Gang of his post as 🇨🇳 Foreign Minister was expected. That fact that he keeps his position as State Councilor is an indication that Qin is not being purged but that he has in fact some kind of health issue. 🧵

China's Qin Gang is out as FM, but the saga continues. Chances are Wang Yi is a placeholder. And Beijing will appoint someone else to serve for longer term later. Some thoughts /1🧵 reuters.com/world/china/ch…

Evidence is emerging suggesting this is indeed a political purge Ministry of Foreign Affairs is gradually deleting Qin Gang's past activities from 部领导活动 section of its website But activities of other past leaders are still there Credit to 涵瞰世界/杨涵 Han Yang for noticing 1/

So Putin’s visiting in October to attend the BRI forum.

Some personal news: I’ve left Sixth Tone. Leading the features team there was a fantastic experience and I’m immensely proud of the work we did together, but it was time to go. (1/X)

Chinese MOFA tells the Philippines to stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue, and suggest President Marcos read more books to correctly understand the context of the TW issue so as to draw the right conclusion. finance.sina.cn/2024-01-16/det…

JUST IN: Breaking from past tradition, Chinese premier Li Qiang will not meet and take questions from the press at the close of the Two Sessions this year, announces NPC spokesperson

Leaders from China, Japan and South Korea started their first formal three-way summit since 2019. Chinese Premier Li asked Japan PM Kishida and South Korean President Yoon to reject playing bloc politics and decoupling from China. Minmin Low reports trib.al/7PDaoFr

Sharing a thoughtful and thought-provoking piece by Peter Hessler on the current era of sideline sinologists, the widening social acceptance of anonymously attacking the motivations of China commentators, and the unknown future for China that awaits. chinafile.com/reporting-opin…

Time for the Hong Kong Sevens. First one at the brand-new stadium. MML with all the deets of South Stand "essentials" (IYKYK 😂)

In the past few hours, Chinese state media Xinhua pushed out a series of headlines showing various SOEs announcing share buybacks to stabilise capital markets.

At a growing number of bars in China, patrons are getting their fortunes told as they sip cocktails. It’s part of a wider boom in the country's spiritual economy as anxious youth seek a glimpse of the future. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…