TLDR: President Xi Jinping has doubled down in his big Congress speech on China’s growth-strangling covid elimination strategy and its nerve-jangling commitment to a possible forced unification of Taiwan.

Elsewhere this morning, Bupa NZ has called off its sale of $1b worth of care homes here and Vector’s $3.5b sale of its metering business is in trouble, The Australian’s Bridget Carter reports.
I’ll be watching the PM’s post-Cabinet news conference at 4pm today and covering it live on the chat section of the Substack app on iOs and Android. I’m also watching CPI inflation data due on Wednesday morning, which is expected to show a slight drop in inflation in the September quarter.
Paying subscribers can see more detail and analysis below the paywall fold and in the Dawn Chorus podcast above.
In the news overnight and this morning here and overseas:
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