Five Shakes of the Dragon’s Tail ☋

Links about China and China-EU relations that caught my eye this week

1) Happy Mid Autumn Festival! The Guardian has loads of photographs from China and Vietnam.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2026/sep/25/chinese-mid-autumn-festival-september-2026-in-pictures

2) Noah Barkin’s quick thoughts on the Trump-Xi meeting from a European perspective:

“In reality, both Europe and the US are moving in the direction of a managed trade relationship with China.”

https://substack.com/@noahbarkin/note/c-343702355

3) (long) review of Minxin Pei’s “The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism”, on the very interesting “富强 Wealth and Power” Substack

https://belkw.substack.com/p/reading-china-the-dream-that-broke

4) “Would Beijing Accept Taiwan on These Terms?”

Report on recent discussion about three blog posts by Taiwanese scholar Ci-Ze Li on what “One Country, Two Systems” could look like for Taiwan.

I know another island where similar discussions are happening…

https://open.substack.com/pub/pekingnology/p/would-beijing-accept-taiwan-on-these?r=4422q

5) “There’s Something About Shua: The Playful Popularity of Shuaqi-ism” by Ruixin Zhang, with Manya Koetse

On the more relaxed approach to life – “shuǎqǐ” (耍起) – found in Sichuan and Chongqing, in the southwest. Is it Daoism, as opposed to Confucianism?

https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-rise-of-shuaqi-ism-taking-starbucks-to-the-fields-and-pretending-to-go-to-work

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