Featured Article
The Fire of the Century (December 9, 2025, Made In China Journal)
On the second day of the fire at Wang Fuk Court, flames continued to sporadically flare up in the smouldering units, reigniting blazes across the buildings. After dusk, the high-rises—no longer illuminated by residential lights—sank into darkness. One could barely see the buildings and could only estimate their contours by the billowing white smoke.
Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs
Totalitarianism in China: Resurrected and Rejuvenated by Reform (December 3, 2025, The Diplomat)
Many observers, especially in the West but also in China itself, expected political reform and relaxation to occur as China grew wealthier and more accomplished. That has not happened. Indeed, quite the opposite has taken place. It increasingly seems that China’s developing scientific and technological abilities and achievements, along with its increased financial strength, have taken the country into a tighter, more repressive state of totalitarianism not seen since the Mao years.
Revised Law Sparks Debate in China Over Petty Offense Privacy (December 3, 2025, Sixth Tone)
China will now seal individual records containing petty offenses such as those relating to drug use and prostitution under a revised law that will go into effect on January 1, 2026. The news has ignited fierce online debate over public safety and the rights of petty offenders.
Exploring China’s Growing Role in Central Asia (December 4, 2025, Global Voices)
Over the last twenty years, China has become an increasingly important diplomatic, trade, and political player in Central Asia. As the former soviet bloc nations struggle to grow economically and politically, China is investing in a range of industries within the region, including EV production and manufacturing, waste processing, renewable energy, mining, and more.
China in diplomatic push to isolate Japan in feud over Taiwan issue (December 5, 2025, NPR)
The biggest feud between Japan and China in more than a decade appears to be escalating, with China trying to isolate Japan diplomatically, as punishment for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks last month about Japan’s possible involvement in a conflict over Taiwan. No end to the spat is in sight, and neither side shows signs of climbing down.
Religion
Changchun: The Detroit of China (December 4, 2025, China Partnership)
The city of Changchun is the capital of Jilin Province in China’s northeast. Its name means “long spring” in Chinese, though many people call it “The Detroit of the East” because it is a center of automobile and train manufacturing. During the Japanese occupation of the 1930s and 40s, it was the capital of Manchuria. Today, it remains a leading city in the northeastern region.
Lessons from Mount Athos and the Desert Fathers (December 5, 2025, ChinaSource)
The ferry dropped us off at the pier at the foot of Mount Athos. Our first stop was the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon, adjacent to the sea. Its green theme, golden cross, and vibrant, majestic atmosphere made it a place Russian President Putin had visited twice on pilgrimage. Stepping into the monastery was like entering a newly filtered world, experiencing a tranquility I had never felt before.
China and Beyond (December 8, 2025, ChinaSource)
What happens in China doesn’t just stay in China. With unprecedented numbers of Chinese emigrating to other parts of the world, Christians from the mainland are finding new opportunities to serve beyond China’s borders. This significant people movement also presents the challenge of reaching people from China who find themselves separated from their homeland and who are often very open to the Gospel.
Digital Shepherding Reimagines Spiritual Presence Beyond the Pews (December 8, 2025, China Christian Daily)
At 11:00 p.m., a pastor’s phone lights up. It isn’t an emergency call, but a hesitant private message from an online fellowship member: “I’ve been feeling empty lately. I’m lost in my faith journey and don’t know who to talk to.” The sender has never attended a Sunday service in person. His profile picture is a generic landscape, and he rarely speaks in the group chat. A decade ago, such a believer might have remained invisible to the church leadership. Today, however, he represents a growing demographic in the digital age: a soul on the other side of a screen, waiting to be seen.
Changchun: Swimming Against the Current (December 8, 2025, China Partnership)
In the 1930s and 40s, Changchun was the head of Manchuria, a Japanese puppet state. Today, the city (like the rest of China) struggles with a declining economy. But Changchun pastors say churches in their city are bucking the trend. Changchun churches are thriving, growing, and vibrant, and people from across China are moving to Changchun to join these Christian communities.
Society / Life
Writing Factory: Notes From a Life on China’s Assembly Lines (November 25, 2025, Sixth Tone)
After leaving education at 16 to work in factories and as a courier, Zhang Sai’s passion for literature made him an outcast among his peers—so much so that he even hid it from his wife. Yet he never abandoned his love of writing. This year, the 38-year-old published a memoir, “Workers Don’t Dream of Factories: 20 Years of Work Like This,” which he wrote while working at a sanitary napkin factory in Quanzhou, in China’s eastern Fujian province. Here, he shares his journey in his own words.
Why China’s Youth Are Seeking Solitude in the Wild (December 1, 2025, The World of Chinese)
Swinging from a tree in the rain and letting out playful monkey calls, Zhang Bolin—better known online as Lin Bei—looks entirely at home in what netizens jokingly call his “natural habitat.” A pharmacy graduate from Sichuan, he flashes a grin before admitting, “I kind of want to be a vagabond now. I feel like I’ve even put on weight [in the wild].” It is day 36 of the second “Qixing Mountain·Camel Cup” wilderness survival contest, yet Zhang looks less like a contestant on the edge of exhaustion than a man rediscovering a long-buried version of himself.
Toy Seller’s Legal Battle Shines Spotlight on China’s Ultra Strict Gun Rules (December 2, 2025, The Diplomat)
Last week, Nie Pengli’s two-and-a-half-year ordeal finally came to an end. Ahead of his scheduled retrial on charges of illegally selling firearms, he was informed that prosecutors had withdrawn the case. Nie had faced the prospect of years in prison. His alleged crime? Selling toy-like “gel blasters” that fire soft water-filed polymer beads.
Economics / Trade / Business
China’s EV Dominance Sparks EU Retaliation (December 4, 2025, East Asia Forum)
Viewing China’s clean tech manufacturing subsidies as the primary driver of its dominance in the EV market, the EU has imposed tariffs on all Chinese EV imports. But subsidies tell only part of the story, and it is unlikely that these measures will effectively dent China’s expansion into the European EV market. Moving forward, the EU and China must reach a compromise and consider implementing a minimum price strategy at least for major EV manufacturers from China.
From Theft to Labubu: The Evolution of Intellectual Property Protection in China (December 5, 2025, The Diplomat)
BYD, DeepSeek, and Pop Mart are among the Chinese companies making headlines for their global successes and controversies alike. What is often omitted, however, is that these firms illustrate China’s accelerating shift from a global factory producing low-cost, low-quality, low-value goods to a global innovator competing with Western companies in high-quality products on an increasingly equal footing, as seen most prominently in the EV sector. This shift has coincided with major developments in China’s intellectual property (IP) protection regime.
China’s Trade Surplus Hits $1 Trillion for First time Ever (December 8, 2025, NPR)
China’s exports to the United States dropped sharply this year in the face of President Trump’s tariffs—but the country is still finding plenty of customers elsewhere around the world. Customs data on Monday showed the country’s trade surplus for the year topped a trillion dollars for the first time.
China Inc. Goes Global (December 9, 2025, South China Morning Post)
With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.
Education
Video: The Number of Americans Studying Chinese Language and Culture has Decreased Drastically (December 8, 2025, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
Robert Daly joined us at our annual U.S.-China People’s Dialogue to share why it’s important for Americans to learn about China.
Science / Technology
China Is Commercializing Energy-Efficient Underwater Data Centers (December 4, 2025, MERICS)
China unveiled the world’s first commercial underwater data center in Hainan and a wind-powered module in Shanghai. The technology could help slow the growth of energy consumption as China builds ever more data centers for digitization and AI. Seawater is a huge, free, consistent cooling source, which makes the Hainan facility 40-60 percent more power efficient than traditional facilities.
China’s Censorship and Surveillance Were Already Intense. AI Is Turbocharging Those Systems (December 4, 2025, CNN)
China’s ruling Communist Party is using artificial intelligence to turbocharge the surveillance and control of its 1.4 billion citizens, with the technology reaching further into daily life, predicting public demonstrations and monitoring the moods of prison inmates, according to a new report.
Living Cross Culturally
Ministering to Sea Turtles (December 9, 2025, ChinaSource)
One of my favorites is the word play 海归 (haigui), which has been translated into English as “returnee.” A returnee is a Chinese person who has lived or studied abroad for an extended period of time and has now returned home. Sometimes, in English, returnees are also called “sea turtles,” which is where the word play comes in. A sea turtle is 海龟 (haigui). Different second character; same pronunciation. This pun can also be found in the name of an Australia-based organization dedicated to sharing the love of Christ with people from China in their country for work or study. The name of the organization is Thriving Turtles.
History / Culture
China’s Cliff Coffins: DNA Ties a 3,000-Year-Old Enigma to the Living (December 4, 2025, Sixth Tone)
Scientists have uncovered the first genomic evidence that a minority group in southwestern China’s Yunnan province is directly descended from the ancient culture that built the mysterious “hanging coffins,” or coffins nailed to sheer cliffs. The finding, published November 20 in the journal, Nature Communications, was led by researchers at the Kunming Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Fudan University in Shanghai.
First ‘Home Cat’ Reached China 1,400 Years Ago Via Tang Dynasty Silk Road (December 6 , 2025, South China Morning Post)
From temple courtyards to trendy cafes, cats have long captivated hearts in China. Now, scientists have shed light on the pet’s origin in the country, suggesting its earliest presence dates back to the Tang dynasty (618-907), with its arrival via the Silk Road. A Tang dynasty provincial governor was recorded as the first person in Chinese history to name his dozens of cats. The avid cat lover also set aside a large area at home to play with them.
Food / Travel
What Made Solid Mango Pomelo Sago and Online Sensation? (December 2, 2025, ChinaSkinny)
“Solid Mango Pomelo Sago” (固体杨枝甘露) or “Solid Yangzhi Nectar” was once a light, spoonable Cantonese dessert, but has been reinvented into a hand-held tower of mango, yogurt and pomelo, wrapped, stacked, filled and overstuffed to the point where it resembles more architectural feat than food. It now comes wrapped in durian, rolled like a towel, skewered like tanghulu (a Chinese fruit skewer), layered into nine floors, or “yoga-pants-ed” with anything that will stretch around it.
Nostalgia in a Nutshell: How Roasted Nuts and Seeds Become a Staple Winter Snack in China (December 5, 2025, The World of Chinese)
Growing up in Liaoning province, some of Li Guannan’s fondest memories came from street vendors cracking freshly roasted hazelnuts together in their palms to show how easily and cleanly the shells could split during the region’s long winter season. Roasted sunflower seeds at her neighborhood market stall were another staple, heaped onto trays or spilling from plastic bags, each pile offering a different flavor—original, salt-baked, five-spice, buttery, caramel, and more.
Netizen Voices: As Sino-Japanese Tensions Rise, “Tourism is Treated like a Chamberpot, a Disposable Tool” (December 5, 2025, China Digital Times)
The spat between China and Japan has also dominated Chinese social media. CDT Chinese editors have archived at least 20 essays and articles (four are now censored) on various aspects of the conflict, as well as several compilations of online comments. Much of this content is focused on travel to Japan, an increasingly popular destination for Chinese tourists in recent years, and skepticism about Chinese government warnings that Japan is “unsafe” for Chinese travelers, and about blatant promotion of less safe alternative travel destinations such as Russia and Cambodia.
Best of Beijing in Reader’s Photos: Fall Foliage (December 8, 2025, The Beijinger)
As winter settles into the capital and the trees shed their leaves, let’s take a look back at Beijing in all its autumnal glory. From bright yellow gingkos to bold reds, here are some Beijinger readers’ best pictures of autumn’s hues.
Arts / Entertainment / Media
Chinese State-Backed Accounts Unmasked on X (November 28, 2025, Domino Theory)
Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, launched a new feature this week that fights disinformation by revealing the true locations of user accounts. Even though China’s Great Firewall restricts access to X on ordinary Chinese networks, many X users appear to be doing just that — accessing X on a local network, without the help of a virtual private network, or VPN. These are likely state actors masquerading as authentic accounts.
Wang Yibo Climbs Into a New Role (December 8, 2025, China Daily)
Singer-actor Wang Yibo has returned for the second season of Exploring the Unknown with Wang Yibo, in which he unveils a new identity — a rock climber. Produced by the Discovery Channel and co-presented by Tencent Video and Warner Bros., the outdoor reality show has been streaming on Tencent Video since November 28.
Events
Online Courses for those working with Chinese students (Thriving Turtles)
January 19-30, 2026. Thriving Turtles Training is an initiative to equip front-line gospel workers with the knowledge and skills they need to be effective cross-cultural gospel ministers. These courses are asynchronous (not in real time) running for 6-10 hours over a 2-week period. They are NOT webinars, so you are free to work in your own time and time zone. Courses contain a variety of interactive activities including (written) discussion forums. For more information see our website https://www.thrivingturtles.org/online-courses/
Courses offered this year:
• Cultural Intelligence for Ministry
• Helping Your Friend Thrive in China
• Discipling People with a Chinese Worldview
• Culture Values and Distance
Pray for China
December 5 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Dec. 5, 1978, then 28-year-old former Red Guard Wei Jingsheng (魏京生先生) posted “The Fifth Modernization” on Beijing’s Democracy Wall as a response to Deng Xiaoping’s (邓小平) essay on his Four Modernizations. Wei’s parents were Communist Party members and he was educated in elite schools in Beijing. During his time in rural China as a sent-down youth and as a PLA soldier, Wei became an opponent of communism. He ultimately spent a total of 18 years in different prisons in China before being exiled to the United States on November 1997. Wei has remained a PRC citizen. Pray for exiled Chinese to find joy in the presence of the Lord as they discover the path of life. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16: 11).
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)