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Featured Article
Celebrate Easter with Your Chinese Friends: 5 Must-Know Vocabulary Words (March 25, 2026, Chineasy)
While Easter is a Christian holiday that is widely celebrated in many parts of the world, it is not typically celebrated in China, Taiwan, and other Chinese-speaking countries. However, learning festival-related words in Chinese can be a fun way to introduce the holiday to your Chinese friends and deepen cultural understanding of each other. In this blog post, we’ll share five essential Chinese vocabulary words related to Easter that will help you impress and connect with your Chinese language partners closely.
Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs
UK University Students ‘Paid’ to Support Chinese Propaganda (March 25, 2026, The i Paper)
Chinese students at British universities are being offered cash rewards for political loyalty to Beijing through a state-linked mobile app which penalizes people for anti-China sentiment, The i Paper can reveal. The scheme raises fresh concerns about how far Chinese state influence extends onto UK campuses, and the impacts on academic freedom and student safety. Students are offered cash incentives to attend events organized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), log their locations, share personal academic information and CVs, and invite friends to join the app.
China’s New Ethnic Unity Law: From Autonomy to Assimilation (March 26, 2026, Council on Foreign Relations)
On March 12, China’s legislature adopted the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, a sweeping new statute that codifies Beijing’s approach toward China’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. Substantively, the law enshrines a decades-long shift towards aggressive assimilationist policies. Structurally, it reflects a deepening merger of Party ideology and state law that is becoming increasingly prevalent under Xi Jinping.
US-China Trade Collapsed. Can It Recover? (March 30, 2026, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
Trade between the United States and China collapsed in 2025, affecting US farmers, manufacturers, and consumers. Since early 2025, both sides engaged in an economic tit for tat, raising tariffs and introducing export controls. The new trade barriers, combined with earlier trade restrictions, had a wide-ranging impact on the US economy, costing billions in trade and lost jobs. While economic relations between the two countries have stabilized, US-China trade has changed. To help consumers and businesses navigate this challenging environment, Dr. Chad Bown joined us on March 20, 2026 to discuss the impact of declining US-China trade and how businesses are adapting.
China Pledges ‘Strategic Coordination’ with Pakistan to Help End US War on Iran (March 31, 2026, South China Morning Post)
China said on Tuesday it would enhance “strategic coordination” with Pakistan on the Iran crisis to promote dialogue and help end the conflict as Islamabad’s top diplomat Ishaq Dar arrived in Beijing. Dar’s trip, his second to China in three months, came just days after a phone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, during which Beijing pledged to support Pakistan’s role as a mediator.
Religion
Nanning: How to Pray (March 26, 2026, China Partnership)
This is the last post in our series on Nanning, a southern China city that locals say feels a little like an overgrown village. Today, church leaders say to pray for believers to understand the power of the gospel and to be transformed by God’s work in their lives. They ask for prayer for the young people of their city, who are often aimless; and hope that their churches can understand how to serve the people of Nanning as a whole. Most of all, they long for God to work in their churches and their city, and to reveal himself more and more.
Building Faith in Place (March 27, 2026, ChinaSource)
For the Christian community in China, the year 2025 saw a diverse array of new church dedications. These projects, ranging from rural sanctuaries to urban landmarks, reflect a changing landscape where the church is increasingly adapting to local culture, urban planning requirements, and the need for standardized venues. While an exhaustive list is impossible given the scale of the country, a review of key dedications reveals distinct trends in how churches are being built—and rebuilt—across China.
Despite Growing Crackdown, Independent Religious Groups Defy China’s Communist Party (March 30, 2026, The Diplomat)
Over the past six months, Beijing has arrested hundreds of leaders and practitioners of Protestant “underground churches,” including Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Yayang Church in Wenzhou, and Beijing Zion Church, with arrests across several cities. Zion Church pastors have since been charged with “illegally using information networks” and the lawyers representing them are facing threats in a mounting pressure campaign.
Missions from China (March 30, 2026, ChinaSource)
Compared to those sent out a generation earlier, today’s cross-cultural workers from China are considerably better prepared. Besides basic courses such as Perspectives or Kairos, many have access to seminary-level mission studies and to training provided both by indigenous and international agencies. Numerous titles by global missiologists have been translated into Chinese. Hundreds of believers have gone on short-term trips, either within China or abroad. Yet, for all the solid advances in preparation for cross-cultural service, many still struggle once they get to the field.
Society / Life
As China’s Economy Slows, Some Young People Are Snapping Up Cheap Apartments to ‘Retire’ Early (March 1, 2026, AP News)
The “Life in Venice” housing development, a multibillion-dollar replica of the Italian city on the Chinese coast, stands silent. Many of the tens of thousands of homes are hollow husks of concrete and alabaster. But in recent years the remote, partially abandoned complex has drawn unlikely new residents like Sasa Chen, a burned-out young Chinese woman who until recently worked a high-earning finance job in Shanghai, China’s bustling commerce hub. The appeal? Chen pays just 1200 RMB, or $168, a month for her apartment in faux Venice in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu. It’s so cheap that it’s allowed Chen to retire at the tender age of 28.
The Quiet Pressure of School Guard Duty in China (March 25, 2026, Sixth Tone)
Huxuegang — school guard duty — is a volunteer program established by the Chinese public security authorities to maintain safety around school campuses. During drop-off and pick-up times, guards help direct traffic and watch over students at kindergartens, primary schools, and middle schools. The team typically consists of police officers, school staff, and willing parents. The word “willing” is where things get complicated.
‘They Can Reach Me Wherever’: China Using Financial Tactic to Coerce People Who Flee, Report Says (March 25, 2026, The Guardian)
“I didn’t feel safe, even though I’m not based in Hong Kong any more,” said Christopher Mung Siu-tat after getting tax bills from Hong Kong authorities. “The regime can reach me by their long arms wherever I am.” Siu-tat, the executive director at the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor, a UK-based NGO, fled Beijing’s sweeping national security laws years ago. The letters are the latest example of a series of transnational repression (TNR) tactics the 54-year-old has faced in recent years.
China to Ban Storing Remains of Dead in ‘Bone Ash Apartments’ (March 31, 2026, The Guardian)
The practice of using an apartment to store ashes, known as a “guhui fang”, or bone ash apartments, has grown as rapid urbanization and a fast-aging population increases competition and cost for limited cemetery plots in cities. The empty apartment is used as a ritual hall, with people transforming the space into ancestral shrines with candles, red lights, and urns lined up by generation.
Economics / Trade / Business
Xiaohongshu/RED’s 2026 “Top 10 Buzzwords” (March 27, 2026, ChinaSkinny)
There isn’t a better barometer for what is trending with China’s trendsetters than Xiaohongshu/RED, China’s premier lifestyle platform. Analysis from QianGua of Xiaohongshu points to the key shift heading into 2026. In short, “seeding” (种草) is no longer about chasing viral moments, but understanding the people behind those moments.
China’s ‘Teapot’ Oil Refineries Keep Economy Brewing – but Surging Crude Prices Leave Them Strained (March 29, 2026, The Guardian)
The oil-refining industry in Shandong, a province in north-east China, is immense. But unlike other parts of the country, where the sector is dominated by large, state-owned companies, Shandong’s industry is fuelled by independent “teapot” refineries, so called because of their diminutive appearance. Operating on razor-thin margins, they survive by buying cheap crude wherever they can and turn it into petrol and diesel for neighbouring provinces. Shandong’s teapots account for about a quarter of China’s total refining capacity.
China’s Massive Pig Farms Spark a Supply Glut as Hog Prices Hit 8-Year Low (March 30, 2026, South China Morning Post)
The problems in the meat industry are creating a headache for Beijing, as falling pork prices undermine the government’s efforts to stave off deflation. They are also squeezing the country’s millions of pig farmers just as the US-Israel war on Iran pushes up global oil, grain, and feed prices, raising their costs.
Travel / Food
Bean There, Done That: How Chinese Coffee Extracts a New Kind of Belonging (March 12, 2026, Sixth Tone)
At a café in Kunming, 23-year-old graduate student Liu Ying drinks a tamarind americano. In her cup, bitter coffee beans from Yunnan’s famed Pu’er region meet the sweet-and-sour tang of dried local tamarind—a combination that shouldn’t work, yet somehow does.
What Happens When Chinese Tourists Visit the US? (March 27, 2026, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
Chinese travelers added over $20 billion to the US economy last year, greatly contributing to the service sector, where the United States has a trade surplus with China. Traveling puts people from the United States and China in direct contact with each other, opening up opportunities for empathy to grow. Furthermore, social media is changing the way people in the United States and China travel, empowering travelers to seek out more authentic cultural experiences when they visit new places. Despite geopolitical tensions and governmental restrictions that affect travel between the United States and China, human curiosity for different cultures remains strong.
Science / Technology
China’s AI Chatbots Are Advanced and Versatile – and Begging for More Users (March 30, 2026, NPR)
When it comes to AI chatbots, US companies tout that they are investing to build the best technology. For Chinese companies, it’s less about being on the cutting edge and more about getting people to use their apps all the time. People like 19-year-old delivery driver Li Hao. Li says he’s a loyal user of ByteDance’s AI chatbot Doubao, China’s most popular. But over the Lunar New Year holiday in February he tried another one — Alibaba’s Qwen — because the company was giving away milk tea if it was ordered through the chatbot. “I tried it and got a milk tea,” he said. “After that, I didn’t use it again.”
History / Culture
Old Techniques, New Vibes: How China’s Inheritors Are Reshaping Ancient Arts (March 25, 2026, World of Chinese)
Young Chinese are increasingly embracing the reinvention of heritage crafts. A November 2025 survey by China Youth Daily found that over 90 percent of 1,500 respondents born between 1990 and 2009 believe incorporating youth culture into traditional disciplines makes them more appealing, while 86 percent hope to see more of these reinterpretations.
The ‘Third Front’: China Resurrects Mao’s Military Capabilities (March 30, 2026, The Guardian)
Dotted across the mountainous roads of Sichuan and just a few hours’ drive from some of China’s most bustling cities, the crumbling ruins of an abandoned military experiment are eerily quiet. Top secret factories that once housed thousands of workers are now overgrown with vegetation; nearby villages, empty of young people who were once shipped in from across the country to build China’s future, are plastered with advertisements for hearing aids and, in one case, a bundle deal on coffins.
Books
An Accessible Cross-Cultural Missions Textbook for the Chinese Context (March 31, 2026, ChinaSource)
In recent years, more and more Chinese seminaries have established programs in cross-cultural studies and missions, reflecting the growing emphasis that the global Chinese church places on cross-cultural mission. Yet launching a program or offering a course requires more than faculty and students; it also depends on essential textbooks and reading materials that articulate key concepts. Due to teaching needs, I have recently collected and selected a number of Chinese-translated books and articles on missions as required reading for my students. When I came across the Chinese translation of G. W. Steel’s For the Fame of His Name: Rethinking Church and Missions for the 21st Century, I found it refreshingly different.
Events
Conference – Chinese Christianity in Global Perspective (The Institute for Advanced Studies of Chinese Christianity)
Hosted by IASCC, the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology, and Biola University, this conference will explore the past and future of Chinese Christianity from a global perspective. For more information, contact IASCC at [email protected] or check out the Conference Questionnaire.
Dates: April 8-11, 2026
Location: Hong Kong
East Asian Christianity Conference: Christian Witness and Presence Among East Asian Religions (Gordon-Conwell Seminary)
As an annual gathering, this event brings scholars and practitioners together to engage comparative research on Christianity’s development and significance in East Asia, with implications for church ministry and mission today. The theme of this year’s conference is Christian witness and presence among East Asian religions. Church leaders from Asia and the West will come together to foster creative Christian discourse on outreach and leadership, drawing on current academic research and the lived experience of those in frontline ministry.
Dates: April 9-11, 2026
Location: Hamilton, MA
Webinar – Five Things to Know about China in the Era of Xi jinping (China Center, University of Minnesota)
This presentation will focus on placing major trends in today’s People’s Republic of China into comparative and historical perspective. Zeroing in on domestic issues ranging from censorship and Internet to protest and repression and international ones ranging from the Chinese diaspora to global images of Beijing’s shifting place in the world order, the speaker will offer some basic information and also suggest the value of unexpected analogies in sharpening our understanding of the subjects at hand.
Date: Thursday, April 16
Time: 12PM CDT
Online Book Club (ERRC)
The next book for ERRC’s online book club discussion will be Other Rivers: A Chinese Education, by Peter Hessler. The discussion will be facilitated by Joann Pittman from ChinaSource. Grab the book and start reading today! Check back in this space and at the ERRC website for more details and a registration link.
Date: Wednesday, May 13
Time: 5PM PDT / 8PM EST
Conference: Nourishing Trust and Friendship: Following the Way of Christ (United States – China Catholic Association)
Join us for the 30th Biennial Conference of the US-China Catholic Association.
Dates: July 31–August 2, 2026
Location: University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
Pray for China
April 3 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Apr. 3, 1861, Herbert Hudson Taylor (戴存仁) was born in England. The eldest son of China Inland Mission founders Hudson and Maria Taylor, he came to China with them at age 5. After schooling in England, Herbert came back to China to serve with the CIM in 1880 and helped with the opening of the CIM school in Chefoo (now Yantai). He was 80 when he was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II in nearby Weifang along with the Chefoo School faculty and students. All told he was in China for over 50 years. Pray that the Father, who forgives our trespasses, will be glorified by Christian teachers and students at the Yantai Huasheng International School and other schools in the International Schools Consortium. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
Activating Prayer for China (February 23, 2026, ChinaSource)
Prayer 2026: Off the Beaten Path (January 1, 2026, China Partnership)
Praying Through the ChinaSource Journal (October 13, 2025, ChinaSource)
Praying Through ZGBriefs (August 29, 2025, ChinaSource)
Operation World (April 21, 2025, ChinaSource)
Pray for China (prayforchina.us)
Prayer Walking as a Rhythm of Life (May 30, 2025, ChinaSource)