Featured Article
PLA 99th Anniversary (August 4, 2026, South China Morning Post – China Series)
As the People’s Liberation Army marks its 99th anniversary on August 1, one year from the deadline for its centenary goals, its evolution highlights the past, present and future of China’s military strategy.
Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs
The Future of AI Hinges on Openness and Cooperation. China and Britain Can Gain Much by Working Together (July 30, 2026, The Guardian)
This is where China and the UK have much to gain from working together. The UK has a competitive edge in frontier research, life sciences, financial services and AI innovation. China has well-recognized strengths in advanced manufacturing, engineering and large-scale industrial deployment, plus one of the world’s largest markets for AI applications. These advantages are highly complementary.
The Curious, Never-Ending Crackdown on Hong Kong’s Booksellers (subscription required) (July 30, 2026, The Economist)
Evidently the officers in charge of the raid had not expected such a big haul, or they would have brought more bins. The last of it had to be carried out in a suitcase. After the contraband came the suspect: a bespectacled woman, with a t-shirt printed “I am a bookstore employee”.
How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners (subscription required) (August 2, 2026, New York Times)
An unsecured police dashboard was a rare window into how the authorities track foreigners by collecting and aggregating vast amounts of private data.
PLA 99th Anniversary (August 4, 2026, South China Morning Post – China Series)
As the People’s Liberation Army marks its 99th anniversary on August 1, one year from the deadline for its centenary goals, its evolution highlights the past, present and future of China’s military strategy.
Religion
From “Being Heard” to “Being Seen” (July 8, 2026, ChinaSource Journal)
In recent years, “public theology” has become a prominent field of study within Chinese church circles. In the face of a polarized social context, we urgently seek to position ourselves. We organize forums and issue statements to secure a voice in the public square. Yet a blind spot exists behind these efforts: we desire to “be heard,” but we rarely ask how to “be seen,” nor do we ask whether we ourselves can “see.”
Anti-Child Prostitution Movement (July 8, 2026, ChinaSource Journal)
If the goal is only to do “charity,” ordinary people can donate some money within their means, but this will not bring about any transformation in the overall values of society. On the contrary, only actions that awaken “justice” can truly put an end to the continuous tragedy of young child prostitutes. Su therefore proposed a strategic concept for reconstructing social engineering. He invited people from all walks of life and various active roles in society to participate in this “anti-child prostitution movement.”
Zion Church Newsletter (July 29, 2026, via Facebook)
South Korea: Praying for the Chinese Diaspora (July 30, 2026, China Partnership)
This July, we are praying for the Chinese diaspora throughout Asia. This week, we are praying for Chinese in South Korea. A Chinese pastor in South Korea says there are many Chinese migrants, but they sometimes struggle to form their own identity. Chinese churches are often attached to larger Korean congregations, which brings stability, but can keep Chinese believers from taking ownership of their faith and congregation.
Reframing the Mission (3) (July 31, 2026, ChinaSource)
As spiritual fruit in the lives of his followers is an outgrowth of their relationship with Christ, so the effective witness of these disciples derives from their relationship to him and to one another. The outgrowth of the believer’s abiding relationship with the triune God is the relational unity into which believers are drawn as they abide in Christ. The task of discipling the nations is inextricably linked to this eschatological purpose, “that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:23)
Imprisoned Chinese Pastor’s Wife: God Give Me Courage and Strength to Face the Suffering (August 1, 2026, VOM Radio)
Last October, Pastor Wang Lin, one of the leaders in Zion Church in China, was arrested and imprisoned under false charges of “fraud” and “illegal business practices.” Sarah Su (Su Ziming in Chinese), wife of Pastor Wang, recounts the day her husband was arrested and the Christian persecution they faced even before he was imprisoned.
Bearing Fruit Yet? (August 3, 2026, ChinaSource)
As I meditate on Psalm 1:3: “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers,” I reply to that question with, “My job is to stay steady, keep faithful, and do the next thing God has for me to do. God will do the rest.”
CCCOWE Is Finding New Ways to Speak (August 4, 2026, ChinaSource)
The 10th Chinese Congress on World Evangelization (CCOWE) concluded in Kuching, Malaysia. Having attended nearly the entire congress, I left feeling deeply blessed, pleasantly surprised, and grateful. Over those few days, I heard substantive teaching and met pastors and church leaders from different countries, denominations, generations, and ministry backgrounds. For me, this was more than a series of sessions. It was a space where Chinese churches from around the world could meet again, see one another anew, and build connections.
Society / Life
Li Xunlei: China Is Growing Older—and Less Mobile (July 24, 2026, The East Is Read)
A new report on China’s births, aging, and internal migration finds that even a substantial recovery in fertility would do little to slow aging before 2050. One constraint is the country’s skewed sex ratio: among those born between 2006 and 2010, there were more than 120 boys for every 100 girls. As these cohorts enter their prime marriage and childbearing years, the imbalance is likely to further depress marriages and births. At the same time, women have come to make up a growing share of the highly educated population, reaching about 53 percent in 2020, creating partner shortages at both ends of the educational spectrum.
The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society (July 29, 2026, Made In China Journal)
When I began to study social movements and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China around 2010, I encountered a long-running debate in this field about whether China had a civil society. In this debate, which began in the 1990s, some scholars held a positive opinion and used the concept to denote newly emerging organizations in China’s transition to a market economy, such as NGOs and homeowners’ associations. Others emphasised that civil society was only a Western concept; they argued that many organizations that had been treated as elements of Chinese civil society were either highly embedded in the state or lacked the capacity to promote civic participation and democracy.
In Mexico City, Young Chinese Women Are Becoming Their Own Bosses (July 31, 2026, ChinaFile)
“Without a doubt, working here will mean I gain work experience, develop management skills and adaptability, and learn to manage stress in a short period of time,” Zhao reflects in Chinese. “It’s a valuable opportunity for my personal growth and career development.” As China’s global footprint expands, Zhao is part of a growing cohort of young Chinese women building overseas careers and leadership experience at Chinese corporations in emerging markets such as Mexico.
History / Culture
Podcast – A Century of Humiliation: The Myth That Made Modern China — with Alice Miller (August 3, 2026, Peking Hotel)
If you ever studied modern Chinese history, you likely met the “century of humiliation” in your first class. In 1840, British gunboats shattered the pride and legitimacy of the Qing empire, and the decades of semi-colonization that followed inaugurated a century of reform and revolution—all aimed at restoring an ancient, creaky civilization to unity and to the top of the world. The Kuomintang and the Communist Party told the same story and drew the same conclusion: the mandate belongs to whoever ends the humiliation.
Portrait of the Egg in China: More Than Just Food (August 3, 2026, The World of Chinese)
A comforting balance of savory, sweet, and tangy flavors, stir-fried tomatoes with eggs is often many people’s introduction to Chinese home cooking, thanks to its simple preparation and two universally accessible ingredients. But this classic dish is a relatively recent invention—tomatoes only arrived in China in the 17th century, and remained ornamental for another century. On the other hand, humans have been eating eggs for longer than we’ve been human.
Science / Technology
Scandal Exposes Limits of China’s Scientific Rise (July 28, 2026, Foreign Policy – China Brief)
Six-year-old Mei, a pseudonym, had a genetic defect that caused moderate learning difficulties. Her parents, a well-off professional couple, enrolled her in a gene-editing trial led by prominent neuroscientist Zilong Qiu at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, which is affiliated with the elite Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Mei died during the trial from a severe immune reaction after researchers ignored warning signs that had emerged in animal trials. Those involved in the trial concealed Mei’s death, omitting her data when they submitted a paper on the trial to Nature. After being stonewalled by the university and the hospital, Mei’s parents turned to Western media.
A Chinese Coal City Finds New Use for Old Mines: Cooling Homes (August 4, 2026, Sixth Tone)
A Chinese city has launched a new residential cooling program using water from abandoned coal mines, a low-carbon initiative that could replace traditional air conditioners. The initiative in the eastern Jiangsu province’s city of Xuzhou routes water from the now-defunct Woniushan Coal Mine to apartments in a nearby neighborhood, domestic media reported this week. The water maintains a consistent temperature of 19 degrees Celsius year-round.
Arts / Entertainment / Media
Taiwan Conquest Film Shelved (July 31, 2026, China Media Project)
Scheduled for release over the past weekend, the Chinese action war film The Belief (澎湖海戰), a dramatic depiction of the 1683 Qing conquest of Taiwan, seemed on track to define a new and, for many, concerning genre—the “forced-unification blockbuster.” But the film, it appears, has run aground, its planned debut coming and going in silence.
Language / Language Learning
How Cantonese Cuisine Became Part of the English Language (July 30, 2026, Sixth Tone)
For more than two decades, I have studied how Chinese words enter the English language, particularly through food. So when the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) released its second batch of updates this past June, one updated entry felt especially meaningful to me: “Cantonese.” For the first time, the dictionary formally recognized the word as a culinary term, defining it as food prepared in the style of Guangzhou and the surrounding region in southern China, as well as the restaurants that serve such cuisine.
Economics / Trade / Business
Could AI Take Your Job? Some Workers in China Already Know the Answer (July 30, 2026, The Guardian)
On the tree-lined streets of Wuhan, where cars jostle for space with mopeds and cargo trucks, the malfunctioning of a new type of vehicle has recently been causing chaos on the city’s roads.In March, several cars from a fleet of driverless taxis stopped abruptly in the streets. The “system malfunction” left distressed riders stranded for hours. The robotaxis, known as Apollo Go and powered by artificial intelligence (AI), were taken off Wuhan’s streets for months for investigations. But the outage was a boon for 45-year-old taxi driver Yao Xinnong. His wages, which had fallen by about 40 percent since Apollo Go launched in 2022, jumped back up as customers returned.
Xi’s Shanghai Tour Offers No Relief for the Housing Crisis (August 4, 2026, The Diplomat)
Xi Jinping, president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), traveled to Shanghai in mid-July. While the major reason for his trip was to open an international AI conference, he also had another priority: symbolically addressing concerns related to the distressed property market.
Travel / Food
Dangerous Delicacies: Inside Yunnan’s Wild Mushroom Obsession (July 30, 2026, The World of Chinese)
In China’s ecologically rich southwestern province, mushrooms have become a seasonal favorite, drawing food lovers from across the country—and even some foreign politicians. But alongside vibrant markets and adventurous foraging trips, mushroom season also brings hallucinatory misadventures that can turn perilous.
Pray for China
August 7 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Aug. 7, 1582, pioneer Roman Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci (利玛窦) landed in Macau. Ricci lived in China for 27 years until his death in 1610; he lived the last 9 years in Beijing. Ricci adopted the dress of a Confucian scholar and went to great lengths to indigenize his faith, serving in many ways as a model for Hudson Taylor (戴德生) in the 19th century. Pray for the sound teaching of God’s Word to produce spiritually mature disciples among Catholics in Macau and Beijing. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…Colossians 1:9
From Deep Thinking to Deep Prayer (July 21, 2026, ChinaSource)
Prayer 2026: Off the Beaten Path (January 1, 2026, China Partnership)
Operation World (April 21, 2025, ChinaSource)
Pray for China (prayforchina.us)
Prayer Walking as a Rhythm of Life (May 30, 2025, ChinaSource)