Eyeing a place in history

Follow Us Get the newsletter Hong Kong wasn't the Chinese Communist Party's first target. And it won't be its last. Since the days of Mao Zedong, China's leaders have bolstered their legitimacy by reclaiming and subsequently subduing rebellious parts of the country's far-flung corners — most notably the huge territories of Tibet and Xinjiang. Hong Kong, newly tamed under President Xi Jinping's national security law, is only the latest place to test Beijing's patience. With the new law in force, protests have quieted down and there's growing speculation officials will delay a September election. This week, four local youths were arrested for comments they made online. There's already increasing concern that Xi has another target in his sights: the democratically run island of Taiwan. The January re-election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who views the island as a de facto independent nation, has further strained already fraught ties. China's armed forces have stepped up incursions into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. Beijing has also grown increasingly angry at U.S. arms sales to the island. While an invasion is unlikely, the prestige Xi would accumulate by reclaiming Taiwan might be hard to resist. It would burnish his leadership and place him in the history books alongside Mao, who united China, and Deng Xiaoping, who negotiated for the return of Hong Kong and Macao. — Iain Marlow Self-propelled howitzers fire during annual military exercise in Taichung, Taiwan, on July 16. Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg Bloomberg News has started a weekly look at how the U.S. presidential and congressional candidates are spending their ad dollars. Click here to read the first installment. Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net. Global Headlines Partisan stalemate | Democrats and Republicans have given no ground after three days of negotiations on a virus relief package, as enhanced unemployment insurance for millions of out-of-work Americans and protections from evictions run out. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows plan to return to the Capitol today for more talks. Tucked into the packages are a slew of provisions that don't have much to do with a public health crisis. Read more here. Tech scrutiny | U.S. lawmakers subjected the chief executives of Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon to intense questioning yesterday, with Democrats accusing them of using their power to crush competition and Republicans complaining about anti-conservative bias. During the House hearing, the executives were forced to concede some new information that could be used to rewrite ageing U.S. competition law for the digital era. Brexit red tape | U.K. companies are bracing for a bureaucratic headache that's about to menace $195 billion worth of goods traded with the European Union. The end of Britain's customs union with the bloc means that U.K. firms will have to comply with "rules of origin" after Dec. 31, but many have never had to identify their share of exports produced domestically. If they can't, they'll have to pay tariffs on what they sell to EU states. Port problems | France's two biggest ports — Marseille on the Mediterranean Sea and Le Havre on the English Channel — are faring worse than others in Western Europe during the pandemic. Already alone among continental Europe's 10 biggest ports to report a drop in goods handling over the past decade, their inability to shake off a reputation for labor unrest and inefficiency, with dockworkers setting tires alight and blocking roads to protest pension reforms, is complicating revival efforts. Tires burn as dock workers protest pension reforms at the Port of Marseille. Photographer: Christophe Simon/AFP 'Plot' exposed | Belarus accused a Kremlin-linked military contractor of plotting to destabilize the country ahead of Aug. 9 presidential elections, in which longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko faces an unprecedented challenge. Lukashenko summoned his Security Council yesterday after law enforcement detained 32 Russians said to belong to the Wagner group controlled by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Skeptics suggested the alleged plot involving up to 200 mercenaries was a propaganda ploy by the regime. What to Watch U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has struck a deal with Oregon to end weeks of clashes between federal officers and protesters in downtown Portland that the president has made a focus of his re-election campaign. Herd immunity to the coronavirus may be developing in the slums of India's Mumbai, where researchers found around six in 10 people have Covid-19 antibodies indicating they've recovered from infection, potentially one of the world's highest levels. Britain's MI6 Secret Intelligence Service announced Richard Moore, a former ambassador to Turkey, as its new chief, known as 'C', a role made famous by the James Bond spy movies. And finally ... Vietnam has followed a pandemic blueprint developed six years ago with U.S. support as it fights a resurgence of the coronavirus, using strategies that the Trump administration largely ignored. As John Boudreau and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen report, the southeast Asian nation's laser-like focus, with strict quarantines, aggressive tracing and clear communication with the public, has so far succeeded in containing the disease, making Vietnam one of the few countries in the world that hasn't reported a single Covid-19 death. Market workers in line to be tested for Covid-19 in Hanoi in April. Photographer: Linh Pham/Getty Images AsiaPac     Like Balance of Power? |  Get unlimited access to Bloomberg.com, where you'll find trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Balance of Power newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022