Our picks: China watchChina Inc’s New Inconspicuous Expansion | China's Pettiness Complex | Battle of Lab-Leak Narratives, and more

Published 21 July 2021

·  China Is Pushing Its Own Coronavirus Lab Leak Theory in Latest Battle of Narratives

·  China’s Looming Succession Crisis

·  Britain to Permanently Deploy 2 Warships in Asian Waters

·  Understanding China’s Pettiness Complex

·  Joe Biden Is Determined that China Should Not Displace America

·  The Enemy of My Friend: Israel Is Being Forced to Choose Between America and China

·  China Inc’s New Inconspicuous Expansion

·  On Its Centenary, Five Authors Assess China’s Communist Party

·  Chinese Companies Face Uncertainty as Data Security Hawks Gain Power

China Is Pushing Its Own Coronavirus Lab Leak Theory in Latest Battle of Narratives  (Eduardo Baptista and Cyril Ip, SCMP)
Beijing is seeking to counter the hypothesis that the virus could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Call it a tale of two laboratories: the Fort Detrick Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in the US, the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, and a competing narrative about the origins of Covid-19.
Odds are that most Americans have never heard of Fort Detrick, about an hour’s drive from Washington and the original home of the U.S. biological weapons program.
But hundreds of millions of Chinese netizens are familiar with the Detrick name and its supposed links to Covid-19, mostly thanks to China’s so-called Wolf Warrior diplomats.
They have said dozens of times in social media posts and press conferences that Fort Detrick, half a world away from China in the state of Maryland, needs to be investigated as a potential source of the virus.

China’s Looming Succession Crisis  (Jude Blanchette and Richard McGregor, Foreign Affairs)
What Will Happen When Xi Is Gone?

Britain to Permanently Deploy 2 Warships in Asian Waters (Reuters / VOA News)
Plans for the high-profile visit by the carrier strike group come as London deepens security ties with Tokyo, which has expressed growing alarm in recent months over China’s territorial ambitions in the region, including Taiwan

Understanding China’s Pettiness Complex  (Minxin Pei, Nikkei Asia)
Mean-spirited tough-guy antics have won Beijing nothing but bad press.

Joe Biden Is Determined that China Should Not Displace America  (Economist)
His China policy is looking even tougher than Donald Trump’s.

The Enemy of My Friend: Israel Is Being Forced to Choose Between America and China  (Economist)
One is its strongest ally, the other offers investment and trade.

China Inc’s New Inconspicuous Expansion  (Economist)
Chinese companies are adapting to a more hostile global climate—and thriving.

On Its Centenary, Five Authors Assess China’s Communist Party  (Economist)
What happens in China after Xi Jinping’s rule will shape the world’s future, too.

Chinese Companies Face Uncertainty as Data Security Hawks Gain Power  (California News Times)
Long before China’s cyberspace agency warns Didi delays the blockbuster $ 4.4 billion public offering In New York, the country’s data security hawks have begun to prepare their legal weapons to face another perceived threat from the United States.