A surprising tourism boom
Labor day travel, trade talks this weekend, Xi goes to Moscow, PLA Air Force in Egypt, protecting the private sector, new tech, and CIA recruitment videos.
This is The China Week, a succinct roundup and analysis of what happened in the People’s Republic in the last seven days.
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ChinaFile
A video interview by me with the scholar and author Joseph Torigian on his new book, The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping.
A Chinese family history of railway journeys, exile, and survival, Part IV by Zha Jianying.
Cautioning his students to stay quiet, a scholar of China hears echoes of its past in America’s present by Michael Berry.
Rhyming Chaos podcast
North Korea, a model for Donald Trump? An interview with author Paul French.
—Jeremy Goldkorn
The travel economy
A tourist boom on Labor Day
During the just-concluded five-day Labor Day holiday, “Chinese travelers took an estimated 314 million domestic trips, marking a 6.4% increase from the previous year,” according to figures released by Chinese state news agency Xinhua and by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Xinhua notes: “Tourist spending also saw a notable rise, reaching 180.3 billion yuan (roughly $25 billion), an 8% year-on-year jump that highlights the sustained vitality of consumer activity.”
There was also a dramatic increase in foreign visitors over Labor Day holiday, probably because of expanded visa-free policies: Foreign citizens (including Hong Kong passport holders) made more than 1.1 million trips into and out of the People’s Republic during the official five-day holiday break, up 43.1% from the same period a year earlier. Of these, 380,000 inbound trips were made without visas, 72.7% more than last year.
China-U.S. trade war
Tariff talks in Switzerland
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet China’s vice premier He Lifeng 何立峰 in Switzerland this weekend for talks about the tariffs.
Beijing has emphasized that the meeting is “at the request of the U.S. side.” Wang Xiangwei, a former editor of the South China Morning Post and astute observer of Chinese politics, says that “from a Chinese perspective, the upcoming talks in Switzerland will primarily serve as a fact-finding mission, as Beijing seeks clarity on Trump’s true intentions.”
Forget about a reverse Kissinger
Xi Jinping goes to Moscow
Xi Jinping began a state visit to Russia on May 7 to attend celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of victory in the “Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War.” “Xi's entourage includes Politburo members Cai Qi 蔡奇, and foreign minister Wang Yi 王毅.
Xi wrote an open letter that was published by the Russian Gazette newspaper, which said that the “the profound friendship” between Russia and China had been “forged with blood and lives in the World Anti-Fascist War,” and that this is “an inexhaustible source of the everlasting amity” between the two countries.
The Kremlin also announced that Vladimir Putin will visit China in late August.
Air force exercises in Egypt
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