Funeral service for Jiang + Robotaxi from Geely and Waymo

Xi Jinping paid his respects to his late predecessor Jiang Zemin at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday. “A great Marxist and leader” he had been, who maneuvered the country through times of “external pressures and internal difficulties,” Xi said in his speech. Xi even indirectly mentioned the 1989 Tiananmen protests, a taboo that is not often addressed publicly otherwise, as Frank Sieren reports from Beijing. He thus praised the suppression of the protests. That could be a nod to last week’s protesters that no one in the party would hesitate to take harsh measures.

In his speech, Xi emphasized the continuity of the great leaders and servants of the Chinese people, into whose traditions he modestly also put himself. Of course, he failed to mention that he has already given himself more power than his predecessors would have dared to by removing age and tenure limits.

Relations with the United States were much better in the Jiang era than they are today under Xi. But despite sanctions, threatening gestures and indications of a technological Cold War, Chinese and US companies continue to collaborate on key future technologies. The latest example is the cooperation between Chinese car company Geely and US firm Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet. The two companies jointly develop an autonomous EV. The car has now been presented in Los Angeles, as our author team in Beijing reports.

The unveiled van was designed exclusively for operation as an autonomous cab. Instead of a steering wheel, it has a sophisticated entertainment system. If the car becomes a success story outside China and the USA as planned, it could also weld the world’s two largest economies a bit closer together.

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Fabian Peltsch