Featured Article
Secret Tunnels and Unregistered Workers: China’s Coal Mine Disaster Is a Reminder of Darker Days (May 31, 2026, BBC)
In Shanxi, the province that sits at the heart of China’s coal mining industry, there’s long been a saying: “Only go down a coal pit when you have no other way out.” For decades, life in these pits was intertwined with tragedy. It became so common that it gave rise to other sayings: about how miners were “exchanging their lives for money” or “staking their lives for tomorrow” when they ventured into underground tunnels where they died from gas explosions, flooding, and shaft collapses.
Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs
How Has China’s Year-Long Law Enforcement Campaign Changed Local Governance? (May 31, 2026, South China Morning Post)
Beijing has revealed the sweeping scale of a year-long campaign targeting irregular law enforcement against businesses as the country intensified its efforts to discipline local bureaucracies and improve governance. The Information Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet, said in a press briefing on May 21 that the campaign uncovered more than 66,000 problematic administrative law enforcement cases and helped companies to recover 30.7 billion yuan (US$4.5 billion).
Netizen Voices: “Money Can’t Get Out, and Neither Can People” (May 31, 2026, China Digital Times)
Chinese social media and financial news apps are abuzz over new policies restricting the use of “cross-border” brokerage apps and Hong Kong brokerage accounts by mainland retail investors, and prohibiting overseas travel by some key employees of domestic AI firms. The dual restrictions were widely derided online, with some commenters joking that now “money can’t get out, and neither can people.”
Red Genes for June Fourth (June 1, 2026, China Media Project)
Today, June 1, is International Children’s Day, a holiday rooted in the Soviet-era Eastern Bloc and observed since 1950 across communist and non-aligned countries as a celebration—at least nominally—of childhood. But this week also marks the 37th anniversary of the brutal crackdown on large-scale protests for political reform in China.
We Can Live with China (But Drop ‘Constructive Strategic Stability’) (June 1, 2026, ChinaFile)
The May 2026 summit will soon be forgotten. Its rhetoric and ceremonies were dull and its few achievements were known weeks in advance. But the meetings did spotlight a conceptual breakthrough of Trump’s which, if sustained, could set US-China policy on a more manageable footing: America can live with China. This departure from the first Trump and Biden administrations’ views gives proponents of moderation in American diplomacy reason to hope.
Leaked Documents Show the Success of China’s VPN Crackdown (June 2, 2026, ChinaFile)
In recent years, however, Beijing has cracked down on VPNs, making them less readily accessible to average internet users. State-approved VPNs, which are relatively easy for authorities to surveil, are still permitted. At the same time, it’s become harder for outside observers to estimate the number of wall-jumpers in the country.
Religion
Why China’s Persecuted Christians View Western Advocates with Skepticism (May 20, 2026, Christianity Today) (subscription required)
Growing up, Grace Jin Drexel did not want to be known as “Ezra Jin’s daughter.” Jin “Ezra” Mingri is the founding pastor of Zion Church in Beijing, one of China’s largest and most public house churches. He is also a leading voice in the house churches’ burgeoning missions movement. Grace loves and respects her father, but like many children of prominent leaders, she desired to forge her own path. She even told her dad, “One day, you will be known as Grace Jin’s father.” However, Drexel put her personal plans aside in October 2025, when Jin was arrested and jailed, along with much of Zion Church’s leadership.
Zhengzhou: Praying for the Church (May 28, 2026, China Partnership)
How can we pray for churches in Zhengzhou? Believers are weary and worn, exhausted by the challenges of everyday life and the additional difficulties of following Jesus in China’s restrictive environment. Pray for church leaders to experience God’s strength, for the Spirit to move, and for Christians to preach the gospel to themselves. Praise God that he rules and reigns, and ask him to move in Zhengzhou for the glory of his name.
Reframing the Mission (May 29, 2026, ChinaSource)
A decade ago, there was a groundswell of discussion and activity among global Christian organizations around how best to partner with China’s emerging mission movement. Many of the conversations concerned mobilization, training, setting up sending structures, and establishing business platforms in creative-access nations. Language learning, accountability, and spiritual formation were identified as essential to the future of the movement. Various models for collaboration were considered, many of which would form the basis for partnerships formed in the ensuing years. Much has changed during this time.
China Change » A Christian Story From the Mountains of Guizhou, Part Three – ‘My Burden Is in Guizhou’ (May 30, 2026, China Change)
In the 1990s, there emerged a “Bible fever” or “Christianity fever” on university campuses and among the intelligentsia in China. In large measure, it was a continuation of the search and debate for the path to future China that had begun in the late 1970s and grew very active throughout the 1980s. [Note: Continued from Part One: The Forefathers and Part Two: An Evangelist at 16)]
The Problem of Language in Teaching World Christianity (June 1, 2026, ChinaSource)
Theology today is dominated by the English language. Once it was Latin and Greek, later it was French and German, and now it is English. Yet if we are to truly appreciate theology from a worldwide perspective, surely we need to engage theology in other languages.
How God Called Me to Mongolia (June 2, 2026, ChinaSource)
God wanted to send me a message, and that message declared emphatically, “Your future is here.” At that moment, the trajectory of my life changed. As the trip continued, something became very clear. There was a tremendous need for Jesus Christ in this place. For all the churches we visited, there was one consistent thread among all the congregations: The brokenness of the family.
From Tending Sheep to Shepherding Souls (June 5, 2025, ChinaSource)
From far away came the faint cry of a sheep, so weak it seemed the wind might carry it away. They followed the sound until they reached the edge of a cliff. Zhu’s brother tied one end of the rope around him and slowly lowered him down the rock face. Zhu reached for the lamb, trapped halfway down the slope and trembling with fear. He caught it, held it close, and was pulled back up, inch by inch, into the light. Salvation, he came to see, is not the story of human beings climbing upward by their own strength. It is the story of one who is willing to descend for the lost.
Society / Life
The Rage, Love, and Loneliness Behind China’s Toxic Sports Fandom (May 27, 2026, Sixth Tone)
Emotionally charged feuds among sports and esports fans have become common in China, with Weibo a key battleground for female supporters, while men tend to use the sports forum Hupu to air their grievances. In the past decade, the atmosphere around elite table tennis has grown especially acrimonious.
What’s Driving Anti-Qing Sentiment in Contemporary China? (May 27, 2026, The Diplomat)
A patriotic film backfired because a growing number of Han Chinese don’t see the Manchu-origin Qing dynasty as a part of their history. Like most “main melody” films—meaning movies promoting the official ideology of the Chinese government—promotional materials for “The Belief” have also been released by some Chinese state media outlets. However, the film immediately sparked a wave of criticism on Chinese social media.
Greener Pasture of Shepherd’s Life Lures Chinese Workers Penned in by ‘996’ Jobs (May 28, 2026, The Guardian)
A Chinese farm owner’s recruitment drive for shepherds has ended in success after his job advert seeking people to work on his Inner Mongolia ranch went viral, drawing the attention of city dwellers struggling to find work and highlighting growing strains in China’s labor market.
Beijing’s Hukou Reform Is Not Welfare-Oriented (May 29, 2026, Jamestown Foundation, China Brief)
On May 22, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released the “Opinion on Implementing the Provision of Basic Public Services at Place of Permanent Residence” (国务院关于推行常住地提供基本公共服务的实施意见), directing local governments to deliver education, public rental housing, social insurance, basic medical insurance, employment services, and a range of social assistance to the resident population without regard to hukou (户口) status (State Council, May 22).
Economics / Trade / Business
China’s World-Beating Solar Industry Is In Turmoil (subscription required) (May 26, 2026, The Economist)
As America’s war on Iran roils energy markets, China’s clean-energy companies would be expected to be cashing in. The country makes over 80% of the world’s solar panels, churning them out in vast quantities. Thanks to such efforts, renewable sources generated more electricity than coal last year around the world. Yet China’s solar industry, though world-beating, is in trouble. And the boost from the war has not been enough to steady it.
Fitness in China: Booming AI and Old School Human Pain Is Representative of the Wider Market (May 28, 2026, ChinaSkinny)
While its hard to have a conversation around China without touching on AI: Robots, OpenClaw and AI agents, AI companions, AI search, AI toys, and now AI-powered fitness, another trend is unfolding in parallel: a growing desire for old-school, more physical, more human experiences.
China’s Dual Economy: When Strategic Ambition Hollows Out the Foundation (June 1, 2026, China Leadership Monitor)
China’s economy has long defied the conventional prescription that sustainable growth requires a rising middle class and robust domestic consumption. For decades, Western economists pointed to China’s lopsided reliance on investment and exports as a structural flaw awaiting correction. Yet successive Chinese leaderships have not corrected this imbalance—they have deepened it. This is not an accident of policy failure. It is, in important respects, a deliberate design.
Travel / Food
Have You Seen These Remarkable Cliffside Villages in China? (May 12, 2026, Our China Story)
Hidden among China’s rugged mountains are cliffside villages that seem almost untouched by time. Built against sheer rock faces and often wrapped in mist, these remote settlements have endured for centuries. They are not only striking examples of how people have learned to live with nature, but also home to some of the country’s most breathtaking scenery. Which ones have you seen?
Our Gang’s Food: The Mixed-Up Cuisine of the Magic City (May 27, 2026, The World of Chinese)
Despite Shanghai’s reputation as a trendsetting city in China, its cuisine—known as “benbangcai”—is surprisingly hard to find outside the megacity. Yet its appeal may lie in its constant evolution, mirroring the city’s own ability to absorb and adapt to influences from both nearby regions and across the world.
Arts / Entertainment / Media
China’s Internet Finds Its Mascot: A Tired Opossum (June 2, 2026, Sixth Tone)
An image of an opossum standing by a window with its paws clasped behind its back has become China’s latest viral meme, and a stand-in for everyday frustrations. The meme, whose original source is unclear, began spreading across social media and workplace chat groups in late May.
Language / Language Learning
机: The Character Behind Machines and the Human Mind (June 1, 2026, The World of Chinese)
While modern technologies like AI tools and humanoid robots may seem unimaginable to people centuries or even decades ago, some ancient inventions are no less ingenious to our modern eyes. One such artifact, a repeating crossbow, excavated from a 4th-century BCE tomb in Hubei’s Jingzhou city in the 1980s, could fire 10 consecutive two-arrow payloads and reportedly kill from up to 25 meters away, drawing comparisons to a modern machine gun. The secret to the crossbow’s power mainly lies in its firing mechanism, or trigger, 機 (jī), a character that first appeared over 2,000 years ago.
History / Culture
These 600-Year-Old Chinese Surgical Instruments Are Coated in an Early Local Anesthetic—Carefully Extracted From a Poisonous Plant (May 29, 2026, Smithsonian Magazine)
In the early 15th century C.E., a doctor in China was entombed with surgical instruments. Recent analysis of residues left on those tools found that they’re coated in traces of a poisonous topical anesthetic—now the world’s earliest chemical evidence of use of a medical numbing agent, according to a study published in Antiquity.
Events
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
June 6 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On June 6, 1989, astrophysicist Fang Lizhi (方励之先生) and his wife Li Shuxian (李淑娴女士) took refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. They were leading figures in China’s democracy movement in the 1980s and lived in the Embassy for over a year before moving to the United States. Pray for Chinese exiles to find their home in the Lord Jesus. “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19
Activating Prayer for China (February 23, 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)