What Xi Said is a weekly rundown of the top ten emerging issues from the past seven days shaping US-China commercial relations.

What Xi Said is for global communication strategists and C-Suite executives.

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Memo: What Xi Said | Edition 8 | March 1, 2021

1. Xi demands loyalty from 'second-generation reds': Nikkei reports during his anti-corruption campaign, Xi has repeated that party members cannot sit on the fence, watching which side wins. Everyone must show the flag.

The message to second-generation reds is that "factional activities" will not be tolerated. This goes another step further in demanding loyalty.

2. Xi Jinping has brought more change to China than any leader since Deng Xiaoping. Beijing officials believe his autocratic leadership approach is superior to Western-style democracy.

Last year, the WSJ explored how Xi's political model is reshaping China and why it has set him on a collision course with the West. Here are some of the key findings.

1. The West got Xi wrong

2. Some worry Xi's nationalism lacks safeguards

3. Xi personally intervened to block the Ant IPO

4. Xi's government is stoking hypernationalism + silencing critics

5. China is working to influence international groups + reduce scrutiny

3. Hong Kong's government said it planned to require candidates for election to the territory's political bodies to swear an oath of loyalty to the government in Beijing.

A senior official, Erick Tsang, said the aim was to ensure that "patriots govern Hong Kong."

4. China revealed that four of its soldiers were killed during a border clash with Indian soldiers last June. An Indian army officer said more than 60 Chinese were killed or injured in the incident. India has acknowledged that 20 of its soldiers died.

5. The rivalry between America and China will hinge on South-East Asia: The Economist reports people across South-East Asia already see America and China as two poles, pulling their countries in opposite directions.

6. Biden orders review of critical foreign supply chains: FT reports Biden signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to conduct 100-day checks of supply chains for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicle batteries, and critical minerals used in manufacturing products such as cars and weapons.

7. Why China is hard for the USG = two examples:

Katherine Tai, Biden's pick for US trade representative, says China is both a rival and a partner.

#Correct

CIA nominee William J. Burns promises spying focus on China, seeing 'adversarial, predatory' regime.

#Correct

8. US ban on China's Xinjiang cotton fractures fashion industry supply chains: Thousands of companies worldwide are affected after the United States blacklisted 87 percent of China's cotton crop — one-fifth of the world's supply — citing human rights violations against Muslim Uighurs in China's northwest Xinjiang region.

"Companies can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse. US Customs and Border Protection's message to the trade community is clear: Know your supply chains."

9. CNBC: White House leaves door open to boycotting 2022 Beijing Olympics as pressure grows

+ The Biden administration has yet to decide whether or not the US will boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics

+ The pressure is growing from activists and GOP politicians in protest of China's human rights record

+ Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (R-SC) said that China "is more obviously dangerous today than Nazi Germany was in 1936."

10. Xi Jinping declared "complete victory" over rural poverty as state media credited him with lifting 100 million people from poverty since he took power in 2012. China, for example, counts extreme poverty as subsisting on $2.30 per day, above the $1.90 line the World Bank recommends for lower-income countries but well below the $5.50 benchmark it uses for middle- to high-income countries.