ZGBriefs | May 15, 2025

Featured Article

How Beijing’s “Academic Bars” Are Helping to Democratize Knowledge (May 7, 2025, World of Chinese)
Over the last year, academic bars have exploded in popularity across Beijing and other major Chinese cities. For many students, recent graduates, and workers, these events promise specialized knowledge and community outside the classroom. For lecturers, they provide access to eager and diverse audiences who bring surprising new insights to their disciplines.

Spotlight

Job Opening at ChinaSource: Assistant Content Manager
Are you a seasoned Christ follower who’s passionate about content, detail, and the mission of the global Church? You might be who ChinaSource is looking for! We are seeking a part-time Assistant Content Manager to help keep our website and platforms fresh, accurate, and engaging. In this remote role, you’ll support our Content Manager in editing, publishing, and managing content that connects Christians inside and outside China. You’ll also coordinate with designers and vendors to ensure everything runs smoothly. If you’re organized, love working with words, and have a heart for ministry in China, we’d love to hear from you! 
Click here to read more.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Video – Why Is China Building So Much Stuff in Africa and South America (May 8, 2025, The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
We spoke to two experts–a Brazilian scholar and a Chinese environmental lawyer–on how China’s more than $1.3 TRILLION investments actually impact communities and countries around the globe.

Censored Statistics, Deleted Data Muddy the Waters (May 8, 2025, China Digital Times)
As China continues to tighten information flows in and out of the country, how reliable are statistics from official Chinese sources? Recent media pieces have highlighted the deepening lack of government transparency and accuracy when it comes to important data, and its implications for research related to China.

Weaponizing the Electromagnetic Spectrum: The PRC’s High-powered Microwave Warfare Ambitions (May 9, 2025, China Brief – The Jamestown Foundation)
The growing investment in HPM technology underscores the People Liberation Army’s (PLA) strategic emphasis on asymmetric capabilities. As an asymmetric weapon capable of quickly disabling an adversary’s electronic systems, HPMs target the central nodes that hold technologically advanced militaries together, making them a critical weapon in future conflicts. The PLA’s pursuit of HPM capabilities aligns with its broader strategic objectives and contributes to its vision of informatized and intelligentized warfare.

Religion

Wuhan: Pressure, Pandemic, and Persevering (May 8, 2025, China Partnership)
The economy is down in recent years, and many people have left Wuhan to seek a better life elsewhere, either domestically or abroad. The church has faced increased persecution, and believers were among those living the city for greener pastures. But local pastors say this, together with reflections on the church’s failures during Covid, has purified Christ’s body and helped her unite with other believers to bless the city.

Pope Francis and China (May 9, 2025, ChinaSource)
The death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, April 21, brought forth moving expressions of grief, gratitude, and respect from people around the world. These serve as a testament to his ability to touch the hearts of people of different faiths, and of no faith, because he placed such a strong emphasis in his teaching and actions on our shared humanity and the values of kindness, compassion, and mercy.

God ‘Laughs at Restrictions,’ Says Missionary in China – Christianity Today (May 9, 2025, Christianity Today)
The six missionaries CT spoke to said they do not believe the new restrictions will have major impacts on their daily work. They have always operated under the assumption that any interactions with Chinese people that involve religious teaching or sharing are considered illegal, especially as many of these missionaries work with unregistered house churches.

Wuhan: Gospel History May 12, 2025, China Partnership)
Right now, our church is working with another church on a project to gather information about the history of Wuhan, and to create a tour of these missionary sites. Externally, we are calling this a “cultural tour.” Internally, we refer to it as a “faith journey.”

Pray With Us’: Chinese Christians Share How the Global Church Can Support Them (May 12, China Christian Daily)
For decades, the global Christian community has faithfully prayed for the church in China. From concerns over religious freedom to hopes for mission breakthroughs among unreached people groups, intercessors have stood in the gap for Chinese believers. Yet while prayer points have been many, the voices of Chinese Christians themselves are less often heard.

Seeing with New Eyes (May 12, 2025, ChinaSource)
In conversations about China—whether in ministry, education, or academic settings—one word quietly carries great weight: worldview. It shapes not only how people see the world, but how they understand themselves, others, and God. And yet, for many of us engaged in cross-cultural learning or ministry, it remains a category we acknowledge without fully exploring.

Christianity in East Asia (May 13, 2025, ChinaSource)
God is actively working among his people throughout East Asia in ways that may be surprising to those of us in the West or may appear hidden. I am thankful for the opportunity to spend a few days listening to my Asian brothers and sisters share stories of God’s faithfulness to his church in that region.

Society / Life

Sweeping Change? Call to Protect Janitors’ Right to Rest (May 7, 2025, Sixth Tone)
In recent times, many people have taken to social media to call for dedicated break rooms for cleaners, particularly in March, when there was a surge in related posts on the Chinese lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote. The situation has led to employees demanding that their bosses find solutions, students pressing university leaders to act, and others lobbying the central government through its online services platform.

‘The Whole Country Is Proud’: Chinese Snooker Fans Hail Zhao Xintong Triumph (May 9, 2025, The Guardian)
Chain smoking under the fluorescent lights of a cavernous billiards hall in Beijing, Brother Yuan can’t stop smiling. The previous day, along with 150 million other people across China, he had been at home watching the snooker world championships final. Now he’s with his fellow cue-heads, celebrating the win of China’s first snooker world champion, Zhao Xintong.

Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China  with Emily Feng (May 9, 2025, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
NPR correspondent Emily Feng tells the stories of nearly two dozen people in China who define for themselves what it means to be Chinese. She profiles a Uyghur family; human rights lawyers fighting to defend civil liberties despite the dangers; a teacher from Inner Mongolia forced to make hard choices because of his support of his native language; and a Hong Kong fugitive trying to find a new home and live in freedom.  In Let Only Red Flowers Bloom, she reveals dramatic stories of resistance and survival in a country that is increasingly closing itself off to the world. To understand modern China, one has to understand the people who live there and how they interact with the Chinese state. 

Translations: What the “4+4” Medical Scandal Reveals About Second-Generation Privilege (May 9, China Digital Times)
A viral scandal that started out as the tale of one doctor’s extramarital affairs and medical malpractice has exploded into a wide-ranging societal discussion encompassing medical and personal ethics, research fraud, “returnee” students, intergenerational privilege, and unfair competition in the realms of academia, medicine, and scientific research.

China’s Army of Food Delivery Drivers Get By with Help from Discount ‘Loving Meals’ (May 12, 2025, AP News)
After the lunchtime rush, it’s time for China’s food delivery driversto eat. Liu Lijie, halfway through a 13-hour workday, parked his electric scooter in front of a restaurant in Beijing for his go-to choice, lamb noodle soup with a side of pickles, for 12 yuan ($1.65), a discount of 6 yuan off the regular price. The reduced-price meal is part of a movement that offers free or discounted meals to people in need, no questions asked. Known as “aixincan” (eye-sheen-zan), or “loving meals,” they are available at some restaurants in major Chinese cities, home to large populations of migrant workers who come looking for jobs.

Economics / Trade / Business

Made in… Where? (May 9, 2025, NPR)
Imagine you’re a company making sticky notes. You buy paper, which comes from either Japan or Indonesia. You buy glue, which comes from Taiwan. And then, in China, workers cut up the paper, apply the glue, and you’ve got yourself some sticky notes. Now, here is the million-dollar question these days – what is the country of origin of these sticky notes? Like, what is the official country they come from?

Long the ‘Factory of the World,’ China Is Now Experiencing Its Own ‘China Shock’ (May 11, 2025, Christian Science Monitor)
China is a manufacturing juggernaut, but new data shows the sector’s growth is slowing. As Beijing and Washington talk trade, and the U.S. seeks to revitalize its own manufacturing industry, what can America learn from China’s experience?

US and China Agree to Drastically Roll Back Tariffs in Major Trade Breakthrough (May 12, 2025, CNN)
The United States and China agreed Monday to drastically roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period, in a surprise breakthrough that has de-escalated a punishing trade war and buoyed global markets. The announcement, which was made in a joint statement, comes after a weekend of marathon trade negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland by officials from the world’s two largest economies, during which both sides touted “substantial progress.”

Science / Technology

China Is Building the World’s Tallest Dam. It’s Just Started Storing Water (May 9, 2025, South China Morning Post)
The Shuangjiangkou hydropower project in southwest China – which will be the world’s tallest dam when completed – began storing water on May 1, its developer said, taking it a step closer to getting up and running. The 36 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) project in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, in Sichuan province, has been under construction for nearly a decade and will be used for power generation and flood control.

Travel / Food

Mandarin Monday: Up Your Burger Game With This Vocab (May 12, 2025, The Beijinger Blog)
With our Juicy Burger Fest just under three weeks away, you’ve still got some time to brush up on your Chinese vocab for ordering your perfect burger. From saying how you like your burger cooked to asking for specific toppings and condiments, these words and phrases are sure to up your burger game!

Language / Language Learning

育: The Character That Follows You From Birth (May 9, 2025, World of Chinese)
Mother’s Day offers a moment to reflect on the often invisible labor of care, teaching, and emotional resilience that shapes our lives from the very beginning. Just as our ancestors worshipped fertility through art and ritual over 30,000 years ago, we continue to recognize the vital role mothers play in shaping our lives today. In Chinese, the character 育 (yù) captures this layered role with remarkable precision: it means “to give birth,” but also “to nurture” and “to educate.”

A Love Letter to Overseas Chinese Moms (May 12 2025, Sixth Tone)
The most obvious rationale here may be that we’re Chinese, so we must want our kids to learn the Chinese language and understand our culture and heritage. But really, when I talk with other Chinese moms, the reason they typically give is that they want their children to be able to communicate with their monolingual parents back in China, and that an ability to understand and speak Chinese is crucial for the kids to develop a strong emotional bond with their extended family.

Podcast – Learning Chinese Characters and Words with Flashcard Apps (May 2025, Hacking Chinese)
Should you focus on many words superficially or few words well? How do you stay motivated when flashcards get boring? And how can you tell if you really know a word? This week’s podcast episode is a reader and listener Q&A, where I answer three questions about learning vocabulary. This time, all questions come from Skritter users, but my answers will be relevant no matter what app you’re using.

History / Culture

The Asian Game of Mahjong, Which Creates Order Out of Chaos, Is Trending in the West (February 7, 2025, Smithsonian Magazine)
A 19th-century Asian game is lighting up TikTok. Mahjong, long synonymous with grannies at Chinese New Year, is attracting a new legion of fans. Mahjong clubs with light shows and DJs are forming in Los Angeles and New York; luxury hotels such as the Standard, East Village, in New York City are holding mahjong nights for their guests; and the game has also been given the nod by Hollywood as actress Julia Roberts revealed she plays mahjong every week with her girlfriends.

Dot Dot Dot: What the Last Ever Telegrams From Hangzhou Say (May 9 2025, Sixth Tone)
To reach one of China’s last telegraph stations, Thomas Yang spent 18 hours crossing three provinces on one slow train. Just to send a message that would travel even slower. Arriving in the eastern city of Hangzhou just a couple of days before its telegraph station shut down for good on April 30, Yang took his time to compose and send 15 handwritten messages — his first ever telegrams, and likely his last.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Breaking Beijing’s Script (May 7, 2025, China Media Project)
In 2025, even as the information landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation from two decades ago with a profusion of social media platforms and AI-powered content generation tools, China’s playbook on breaking stories remains remarkably unchanged. The Party’s ability to maintain narrative control despite technological shifts demonstrates how effectively institutional power can adapt to — and ultimately harness — digital transformation. But there are also limitations.

Pray for China

May 12 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake centered on Wenchuan County, Sichuan, left over 88,000 people dead or missing. Churches from across China sent relief workers and many stayed until forced to leave by the government. Dancer Liao Zhi (廖智姊妹) lost her family and both legs. She came to Christ after Christians ministered to her and helped her learn to dance again with prosthetic limbs. Liao Zhi re-married and now has two children. Pray for Christian women in Sichuan to have the wisdom of Huldah, as they minister to women in troubled circumstances. So Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect. 2 Chronicles 34:22

Operation World (April 21, 2025, ChinaSource)

Praying for China | Prayercast (January, 2025, ChinaSource)

Pray for China (prayforchina.us)

Pray for China (China Partnership)