It’s funny how a given day’s coverage comes together.

First thing Wednesday morning, while editorializing around lackluster PMIs out of China, I wrote the following: “Maybe Xi and [the Standing Committee] will endeavor to make good on implicit and explicit promises to bolster the economy, maybe they won’t. Maybe they’re not even thinking about it today.”

As it turns out, they weren’t thinking about it today. Or if they were today, the economy was an afterthought yesterday, when Xi presided over the first meeting of the National Security Commission under the 20th CPC. During the meeting, Xi “made an important speech,” as Xinhua put it, in an account published Wednesday. They added this useful reminder: “Xi is head of the commission.”

It’s always a bit difficult to discern whether Xi’s speeches are actually as bombastic as they come across when translated (they surely are around big events like anniversaries, but it’s hard for outsiders to assess the tenor of less notable addresses). That said, it’s fair to call Xinhua’s account of Tuesday’s remarks alarming. Here’s what Xi told the commission:

It was stressed at the meeting that the complexity and severity of national security problems faced by our country have increased dramatically. The national security front must build up strategic self-confidence, have enough confidence to secure victory and be keenly aware of its own strengths and advantages. We must be prepared for worst-case and extreme scenarios, and be ready to withstand the major test of high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms. More efforts must be made to modernize our national security system and capacity, and get prepared for actual combat and dealing with practical problems.

The economy wasn’t mentioned at all, but A.I. was. It’s “imperative,” Xi said, that China “improve” its “security governance” of artificial intelligence.

The US is engaged in an effort to curtail American investment in key areas of the Chinese economy, including and especially supercomputing and A.I. As the AP not-so-gently noted while documenting the same remarks from Xi, “China’s unbridled enthusiasm for new technology and willingness to tinker with imported or stolen research and to stifle inquiries into major events such as the COVID-19 outbreak heighten concerns over its use of A.I.”