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Featured Article
Virtual Book Launch – Chinese Christian Witness: Identity, Creativity, Transmission, and Poetics (Center for Global Christianity and Mission)
You are invited to join a conversation about the new book, Chinese Christian Witness, edited by Xiaoli Yang and Daryl Ireland. This volume explores how Chinese Christians have understood and participated in mission over the past few centuries. Authors have written chapters on Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Chinese-initiated movements; they cover Chinese Christians in Oceania, Africa, Europe, and Asia. For those interested in Chinese Christians in the People’s Republic of China, the book includes chapters on both registered and unregistered churches. One distinctive feature is that the book also considers multiple artworks by Chinese Christians: plays, songs, paintings, sculptures, etc. They provide an opportunity to discover Chinese missiology through understudied media.
Date/Time: May 14, 9am EST | May 15, 9am BEIJING
Registration: To receive the Zoom link to the event, you will need to register here.
Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs
Student Allegedly Jailed in China for Six Years After Taking Part in Pro-Democracy Protests in Australia (April 21, 2026, The Guardian)
The Australian government has been urged to take stronger action to protect Chinese international students from political repression by authorities on their return after a Chinese student was allegedly sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for joining pro-democracy protests in Australia. The student, who the Guardian has chosen not to name, lost contact with his friends in Sydney after returning to China in December 2024.
Why China Treats ‘Lying Flat’ as a National Security Threat (May 1, 2026, The Diplomat)
China’s Ministry of State Security posted a video on its WeChat public account on April 28, defining the behavior of “lying flat” as an attempt to poison Chinese youth with ideological infiltration by hostile foreign forces. How can a lifestyle attitude become a national security issue?
Report: China’s ‘Harmonization Plan’ Erases Tibetan Language (May 5, 2026, Domino Theory)
The Chinese government is mandating the use of Mandarin in kindergartens in an effort to force Tibetans to assimilate, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday. According to the report, a 2021 Ministry of Education directive—the Children’s Speech Harmonization plan—mandates the use of standard Mandarin Chinese for all instruction prior to the first grade in ethnic minority areas.
Religion
Three Years in Prison (April 30, 2026, China Partnership)
Chinese Christian Li Yingqiang wrote this in March of 2024 as he reflected on the third anniversary of the imprisonment of his close friend. That friend was released from jail this spring—but shortly beforehand, Li was arrested and put in jail. Li is still in prison today, facing charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
Where Are We? (May 1, 2025, ChinaSource)
In October 2018, I met three elderly Chinese believers at an airport. Together, they were 265 years old. One of them had spent 27 years in prison for his faith and was still preaching the gospel after his release. That day, he stood near the terminal exit holding immigration papers he could not read, searching the crowd for a familiar face. I was that face.
The Chinese Church in the VUCA World (May 5, 2026, ChinaSource)
In the early 1990s, following the end of the Cold War, the US military introduced the “VUCA” concept to describe the global landscape of the post-bipolar era—Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Originally applied to military strategy analysis, this framework has progressively become essential for understanding global political, economic, and social transformations. Observing contemporary Chinese society through the VUCA lens reveals striking parallels—rapidly shifting policy environments, unpredictable economic trajectories, increasingly complex international relations, and intensifying ideological narratives. China’s churches are navigating this macro-structural transition.
Society / Life
A Tech Worker in China Is Laid Off and Replaced by AI. Is It Legal? (May 1, 2026, NPR)
A court in eastern China’s Hangzhou city, an AI hub, has ruled in favor of a senior tech worker whose company replaced him with artificial intelligence (AI). The decision is being hailed by legal scholars as a reassuring signal for labor rights protection at a time when the central Chinese leadership is pushing for industries to widely adopt AI technology. The Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court upheld an earlier decision by a lower-level court that the tech worker’s dismissal was unlawful.
Blaming ‘Foreign Forces’ Backfires for Beijing (May 4, 2026, The Jamestown Foundation)
A recent article from the Ministry of State Security (MSS) blamed “foreign forces” for the rise in youths “lying flat,” leading to outcry across Chinese social media. Chinese netizens have responded with a mix of irony, derision, and expressing outright disappointment. “Lying flat” is not reflected in data on working hours or in people’s lived experiences, but is an expression of disillusionment with a system that many feel treats them as resources rather than people.
Wu Beats Murphy in (Snooker) Decider to Win World Title (May 4, 2026, BBC Sport)
Wu Yize became the second-youngest player to be crowned a Crucible champion, defeating Shaun Murphy 18-17 in a compelling World Championship final. In a contest brimming with drama, Wu and Murphy served up the first final-frame decider since Peter Ebdon beat Stephen Hendry in 2002. It is only the fourth time the showpiece match has reached a concluding frame since the tournament moved to what is now regarded as its spiritual home in 1977.
An Explosion at a Fireworks Plant in China Kills at Least 26 People, State Media Says (May 5, 2026, NPR)
An explosion at a fireworks plant in a central Chinese province killed at least 26 people and injured 61 others, authorities reported Tuesday. China’s official news agency Xinhua said the blast occurred at a fireworks plant in Changsha city of Hunan province on Monday afternoon. State media China Daily said the plant was operated by the Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Co. in the Changsha-administered, county-level city of Liuyang, a prominent fireworks powerhouse.
Economics / Trade / Business
Tencent’s New ‘Pet TV’ Symbolises the Broadness of Opportunities with China’s Pet Lovers (April 25, 2026, ChinaSkinny)
Tencent Video’s launch of “Pet TV” may sound absurd, but it captures how far China’s pet economy has evolved. The service, currently running a trial, offers content designed specifically for cats and dogs, including calming videos for dogs, moving-object content for cats, breed-specific sections, and 24-hour pet-oriented programming. Tencent says the idea is to help reduce loneliness, separation anxiety and destructive behaviour when pets are left at home
China Sparks Backlash with Plan to Send Jobless Graduates to Vocational School (April 30, 2026, South China Morning Post)
Beijing has pledged to expand vocational training for young jobseekers this year, as it looks to help millions of unemployed graduates find work in emerging industries such as robotics and AI. But the policy drive—which includes plans to encourage university graduates to return to technical school—has drawn mixed reactions from a generation already hit hard by China’s youth unemployment crunch.
What Oil Crisis? China’s EVs Are Ready to Dominate the 21st Century (May 1, 2026, CNN)
To many consumers peering in from the outside, the options in China—on display in Beijing this week at the world’s largest auto show—seem like a dream. But to some automakers and politicians around the world, they’re an existential threat. Chinese carmakers are cranking out their offerings at a large scale and a comparatively low price. And there’s another major sell: while oil and gas costs skyrocket due to the Iran war, the vast majority of these cars are electric or hybrid.
Arts / Entertainment / Media
Instant Karma: No Regrets for ‘Coffee Gran’ Who Stirred Media Frenzy (April 29, 2026, Sixth Tone)
“When you’re trending, you earn more money—and when you’re not, life is more comfortable. Good health is the most important thing.” After seeing both sides of the coin, Han Suzhen knows which she prefers. The 74-year-old shot to fame in May 2024 when a tourist’s short video about her “hand-brewed instant coffee” went viral, sending countless customers flocking to her small alleyway store, Granny Han’s Sugarcane Juice, in downtown Nanjing, capital of the eastern Jiangsu province.
The Updated Dictionary of TV Drama Roasting (May 1, 2026, The World of Chinese)
“All troops, listen up! Your commander’s foundation just smudged—let’s fight another day!” This joke recently went viral on Chinese social media. It originates from the costume drama Pursuit of Jade, released earlier this year, in which the male protagonist General Xie Zheng, played by actor Zhang Linghe, remains impeccably made-up—his hair perfectly styled, and not a drop of blood on his face—even on the battlefield.
Living Cross-Culturally
4 Years After Lockdown, Shanghai’s Expat Community Is Recovering – and Changing (May 5, 2026, South China Morning Post)
Four years after Shanghai’s harsh citywide lockdown, there are signs the city’s expatriate population— which thinned significantly during the pandemic—is starting to rebound, though with a notably different demographic profile. The sound of English, Korean and French is once again often heard drifting through the plane-tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession—widely seen as the heart of the city’s international community. And local residents point to a gradual, though uneven, recovery.
Science / Technology
The Chinese Lesson On the Human Rights Approach to AI (April 30, 2026, Global Voices)
As one of the countries most infamous for using AI for surveillance and restricting citizens’ freedom, China cannot offer a direct answer to how to develop a human rights approach to AI. Yet, its open embrace of AI technology and its ambitions for dominance in the global AI market can serve as a case study for the burgeoning relationship between the private sector and the state, the machine and society.
When Big Tech Needed Mothers in Rural China to Train AI (May 5, 2026, Sixth Tone)
At 4:30 in the afternoon, after school pick-up, Yingzi brings her daughter back to her workstation. She tells the girl to start her homework, then turns back to the screen. Her task that day is to annotate dense pedestrian traffic captured by shopping-mall surveillance cameras. One hundred frames of video. Hundreds of human figures. Each body must be broken down into head, torso, legs, and arms, then boxed and labeled inch by inch so the machine can learn to see a person as a person.
Travel / Food
Jianshui: One of China’s Last “Living” Ancient Cities (April 29, 2026, The World of Chinese)
At around 10:30 a.m. on a mid-February day, the square in front of the Yinghui Gate, the eastern entrance to Jianshui ancient city, is crowded with dancers in colorful costumes, while viewers spill out from the three-story Chaoyang Tower. Unlike the staged performances common in other ancient towns, the hundred or so locals here are rehearsing for their own Chinese New Year celebration. At night, the same square fills again, this time for daily square dancing.
Dumplings vs. Machines: Inside China’s Latest Food Fight (April 30, 2026, CNN)
The making of dim sum—the bite-sized delicacies hailing from southern China—is all about craftsmanship. Take har gow, or shrimp dumplings, for example: finely chopped ingredients placed on translucent wheat starch wrappers, sealed with just the right amount of finger pressure to ensure they can hold up in the steamer but also don’t feel too starchy when eaten.
Chinese Tourists Leave Textbooks at Monuments for Others to Find (May 4, 2026, Sixth Tone)
Chinese tourists are leaving high school textbooks at global landmarks such as Big Ben, the Colosseum, and the Pyramids of Giza, in a viral “treasure hunt” that some say they find meaningful, due to seeing the images within their textbooks “come to life.” The trend, known online as keben jieli, or “textbook relay,” first began last November, when Chinese travelers to Egypt started posting pictures of the cover of a common junior high school history textbook, featuring the pyramids and the Sphinx, in the exact location of the textbook’s initial photo on social media.
History / Culture
The Pacific As a Mirror (May 5, 2026, Made In China Journal)
One evening in the early 1960s, physicist Chen Ning Yang took a train from New York City to Long Island. An elderly Chinese man sat next to him and the two struck up a conversation…At the time of the train ride, Yang was a professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton. His seatmate was three decades his senior. The older man was born in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang and had lived in the United States for half a century. Never married, he lived by himself and scraped by doing laundry and washing dishes. ‘He had a ready, friendly smile,’ Yang wrote years later. ‘I kept wondering whether that meant he had no bitterness’ (Yang 2005: 56–57).
Books
Book Review – Tracing God’s Work in Fujian (May 4, 2026, ChinaSource)
My personal connection to the southern China coastal province of Fujian makes Paul Hattaway’s latest book, Fujian: The Blessed Province, the book I’ve been waiting for much of my life. And though I savored it as if it were written just for me, this is a book for any Christian who cares about the movement of the gospel, not just in Fujian, not just in China, but anywhere. This is a story that will challenge, move, galvanize, and bring to prayer and praise anyone who cares about the good news, the blessed sound, the fúyīn (福音).
Seven Chinese Sci-Fi Writers You Should Be Reading in 2026 (May 4, 2026, The World of Chinese)
When it comes to Chinese sci-fi, many readers immediately think of Liu Cixin, the author of the epic The Three Body-Problem trilogy. Yet over the past two decades, a growing number of young and diverse Chinese voices have begun to emerge. In March, the China Writers Association and the China Science Writers Association brought several of them together at a Beijing event, some in person and some online, to discuss what Chinese sci-fi offers to an international readership.
Events
Online Book Club (ERRC)
The next book for ERRC’s online book club discussion will be Other Rivers: A Chinese Education, by Peter Hessler. More than two decades after teaching English during the early part of China’s economic boom, an experience chronicled in his book River Town, Peter Hessler returned to Sichuan Province to instruct students from the next generation. At the same time, Hessler and his wife enrolled their twin daughters in a local state-run elementary school, where they were the only Westerners. Over the years, Hessler had kept in close contact with many of the people he had taught in the 1990s. By reconnecting with these individuals—members of China’s “Reform generation,” now in their forties—while teaching current undergrads, Hessler gained a unique perspective on China’s incredible transformation. The discussion will be facilitated by Joann Pittman from ChinaSource. Grab the book and start reading today! Check out the ERRC website for more details and a registration link.
Date: Wednesday, May 13
Time: 5PM PDT / 8PM ED.
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
Opportunity
Invitation to Lead GoLiveServe into Our Next Chapter (Go Live Serve)
The Board of GLS is beginning the search for our next Executive Director. We invite you to join us in prayer and to share this opportunity with those who may be called. GLS warmly invites visionary leaders to take our organization into an exciting new season of growth and impact. For 35 years, we have been a pioneer in bi‑vocational (aka tentmaking) mission. As we look ahead, we are seeking a leader who will bring spiritual depth, strategic insight, and relational wisdom to our community. Building on our strength, this leader will take our ministry across Asia and the Middle East in collaboration with global partners.
Location: US‑based
Website: www.goliveserve.org
Contact: [email protected]
Pray for China
May 11 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On May 11, 1991, long-time China missionary David Adeney (艾得理) died. Adeney served in rural areas of Henan (1934-1941) as well as with university students in Nanjing (1946-1948) and Shanghai (1949-1950). After being forced to leave China, he continued ministering in Singapore and the US. His 1985 book,China, The Church’s Long March, helped to inspire a new generation of foreign Christians to minister in China. Pray for Christians to persevere with joy in their walk with Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7
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)