ZGBriefs | March 3, 2022

Featured Article

China quietly plans a pivot from ‘zero COVID’ (March 1, 2022, Science)
Under what’s now called “dynamic zero COVID,” localities have leeway to “tailor the measures to local conditions,” says HKU virologist Huachen Zhu. But the national government is pushing back at what it considers unnecessary local restrictions.

Sponsored Link

Public Lecture: The Rise of China and What it Means for the Church
China’s transformation since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 has been dramatic. What have been the implications of this transformation for the Church in China? How has this affected relations with the Vatican and the wider Christian community? Rev. Paul Mariani will provide an overview of leadership policy in China, then focus on how its current leaders see their “historical mission.” How does this backdrop help us to better understand the developments of the past ten years leading up to today?
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
5:00 pm PT
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA

A collaborative public lecture series hosted by
the US-China Catholic Association, ChinaSource, and the China Academic Consortium​
and co-sponsored by SCU History Department and SCU Sociology Department.

If you or your company/organization would like to sponsor a link in ZGBriefs, please contact info@chinasource.org for more information.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Why China Is Struggling to Deal With Russia’s War in Ukraine (February 25, 2022, Council on Foreign Relations)
China is one of Russia’s closest partners, but supporting the invasion of Ukraine would seriously damage Beijing’s ties with wealthy democracies and alienate Chinese citizens who oppose the invasion.

War in Ukraine is a severe test of China’s new axis with Russia (February 25, 2022, The Guardian)
Beijing will tread carefully, and weigh up whether its strategic alliance with Moscow is worth the cost of this reckless invasion.

Why Xi Jinping is still willing to wear the costs of zero-COVID (February 27, 2022, East Asia Forum)
Why does Beijing stick with this approach? The most important reason is that Xi has invested significant political capital in zero-COVID, which is portrayed as a shining example of how the Communist Party delivers good governance to the Chinese people.

Ukraine: Did China Have a Clue? (February 28, 2022, Stimson)
The question is important as it defines the nature and depth of Sino-Russian relations as well as what can be expected from Beijing in the days to come. Despite the impression that Putin intentionally created, a careful examination of the events suggests that China was, in fact, played.

First Chinese Citizens Evacuated From Ukraine (March 1, 2022, Sixth Tone)
China is relying on ground transportation to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine’s airspace remains closed.

China Leadership Gathers as Economic Challenges Mount (March 1, 2022, Bloomberg)
China’s annual parliamentary pageant — the National People’s Congress — opens Saturday in Beijing, bringing President Xi Jinping one step close to a precedent-defying third term in power. Amid the pomp and propaganda at the Great Hall of the People, the Communist Party leadership will lay out policies to address the country’s biggest challenges, such as rebuilding growth slowed by Covid. 

China will not join sanctions on Russia, banking regulator says (March 2, 2022, Reuters)
China will not join in sanctions on Russia that have been led by the West, the country’s banking regulator said on Wednesday, adding that he believed the impact of the measures on China would be limited. China, which has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has repeatedly criticised what it calls illegal and unilateral sanctions.

In Xinjiang, a new normal under a new chief — and also more of the same (March 2, 2022, Sup China)
Ma Xingrui, the new party secretary of Xinjiang, is tasked with repairing the damage left by his predecessor, Chen Quanguo, who initiated the largest internment of a religious minority since World War II. But he will also need to execute Beijing’s new policy of thwarting what it calls the “two plots.”

Religion

Despite Censorship, Chinese Christians Speak Out for Xuzhou Chained Woman (February 26, 2022, Christianity Today)
CT Asia editor Sean Cheng spoke with five Chinese Christians about the incident (for security reasons, those within China use pseudonyms).

Chinese Muslim Mystics (February 28, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Sufism—often called Islamic mysticism—takes its name from the coarse woolen garments of ascetic self-denial. What does tawhid mean to Sufis? Saying God is one is only the beginning. True realization of the unity of God is intimately linked to experiencing unity with God.

A Love Story from China (March 1, 2022, Chinese Church Voices)
Everyone loves a love story. In this video from 7G-TV, we meet two young Christians who struggled with the meaning of real love and whether a loving marriage is possible.

Society / Life

It Costs $76,000 to Raise a Child in China, Study Says (February 25, 2022, Sixth Tone)
The study comes as the country faces a record low birth rate, as many young people choose to delay marriage and childbirth due to various reasons.

Netizens React to Ukraine Conflict and Other Trending News(February 28, 2022, The World of Chinese)
Some have expressed sympathy for the people of Ukraine, while footage of a student studying in Kyiv cheering up Ukrainian children in a bomb shelter went viral.

Hong Kong government urges residents spooked by citywide lockdown not to panic (March 1, 2022, Reuters)
Hong Kong’s government said any decision to impose a COVID-19 lockdown would take into account the global financial hub’s status and ensure basic needs such as food and urged anxious residents who raided supermarkets this week not to panic.

Authorities Launch Probe Into ‘Caged Woman’ Case in Shaanxi (March 2, 2022, Sixth Tone)
Police in the city of Yulin announced Tuesday they had launched a probe into a “caged woman” case. The news came just hours after a viral article on the Chinese social app WeChat alleged that a man in the city was keeping a woman locked inside a cage.

Economics / Trade / Business

Four Questions Regarding the Chinese Economy (March 1, 2022, China Leadership Monitor)
With the all-important Party Congress scheduled for the end of the year, the leaders want steady growth but also stability. 

Education

Is Chinese Math Education as Good as It Seems? (February 25, 2022, Sixth Tone)
Although the country’s secondary school students dominate competitions like the International Math Olympiad, their training methods are setting them up for failure at the university and post-grad level.

Health / Environment

Hong Kong, Buckling Under Covid, Leaves Its Most Vulnerable in the Cold(March 2, 2022, The New York Times) (subscription required)
Poor residents have been forced to choose between infecting their families or sleeping outdoors because of cramped living quarters and a lack of isolation facilities.

Science / Technology

Yahoo ends email service as the final step in China retreat (February 28, 2022, Technode)
Yahoo stopped its mailbox service in China today as the US tech company readies itself for a final retreat from the world’s second-largest economy. In a letter, Yahoo advised users to change to other mailbox services and download backup contacts and schedules. 

History / Culture

When Nixon Went to China (February 25, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
Fifty years ago this week, on February 21, 1972, Air Force One touched down at Beijing’s Capitol Airport. President Richard Nixon, his wife, and a rather large entourage of officials were onboard. That this visit was momentous is an understatement as it marked the beginning of a thaw in the relationship between the two superpowers. This thaw would not only change the relationship between the US and China, but it would change the world.

Living Cross-culturally

More Questions than Answers (March 2, 2022, ChinaSource Blog)
I was asked by ChinaSource to share about what it’s like for a foreign worker these days two years into the pandemic. Two years on, more people are finding it harder to stay. Two years on, many people in China are asking hard questions about the future. Two years on, we have more questions than answers. To give you a sense of what it’s like for workers in China two years into the pandemic, below are a set questions and concerns that capture regular conversations among workers in a first-tier city in China.

Links for Researchers

Studies in World Christianity 28.1 (February 28, 2022, This issue of Studies in World Christianity contains select papers from the 2021 Yale – Edinburgh Conference on ‘Oral, Print, and Digital Cultures in World Christianity and the History of Mission’, held (serendipitously) online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, followed by two additional pieces that connect to the general theme.Centre for the Study of World Christianity)

Pray for China

March 5 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
On Mar. 5, 1910, Wang Zhen (王镇牧师) was born in Hebei. He became a Christian in 1930, after a Christian doctor told him it would be a miracle from God if his diseased leg was saved from amputation—and it was. However, it was not until he was a seminary student and heard Song Shangjie (宋尚节博士-John Sung) preach in Beijing in 1932, that Wang dedicated his life to the Lord. He pastored for several years; then in 1941, when the war forced the missionary-director to leave China, Wang Zhen took charge of an orphanage in Shanxi. After the war, he moved the orphanage to Beijing and continued to work tirelessly for the orphans and his own seven children. The orphanage was taken over by the new communist government, and in 1955 Wang was sent to prison as a counter-revolutionary. After his release in 1979, he preached and wrote Bible study books until he rested in the Lord on Nov. 2, 1983. Pray for orphans in Hebei, Shanxi, and Beijing to know the Loving Heavenly Father. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26