Losing It All

In 1999, I finally took the leap. Together with my friends, I co-founded a company specializing in healthcare and telecommunications engineering. I was excited about my newfound dream, but little did I know that this was all part of God’s plan for me to meet with him.

Within the coming years, I saw my dream crumble and my partnerships fail. Differences among the partners began to arise, with each one harboring a different vision for the company. The tension caused the venture to halt, and after a few years, our project was declared a failure. With that failure came a great financial loss and, worse, a shattered sense of identity. Was I not the man who excelled at work? I was good with people, adept at business, and experienced in engineering. What had gone wrong this time? What would other people think of me—the once self-made man who could accomplish everything? I kept all my worries in my heart and never shared them with anyone, not even my wife and daughter.

2002 was the darkest year of my life. My career was in the depths, and I lost all confidence in myself. I had reached my limit. Burned out and depleted, I packed my bags and brought my wife and daughter to Irvine, California, to visit my sister. Directionless and aimless, I needed a change of environment and a new perspective on life.

Meeting God at My Worst

I was not a Christian then, but I had been invited to church by my Singaporean friends before. My sister in Irvine was a Christian who regularly attended New Life Christian Center in Orange County, and she graciously invited me to Sunday services every week in the hope that I would know the Lord. I went out of politeness, thinking that meeting some new friends could bring a change of scenery and mood.

Little did I know that once I stepped into the church, God was going to knock on my heart and I would soon meet him. That Sunday, the pastor of the church, Pastor Andrew Chen, shared a sermon from Isaiah 40:31: “…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”

That verse hit me like a ton of bricks. Only the Christian God could give me strength. I’ve always thought myself to be as capable as an eagle, but this verse taught me that even the strength of eagles comes from the Lord. I did not have strength in myself, and my strength had never been truly mine. If I ever needed to stand again and find my footing in this world, if I ever needed the strength to go on again in my career and provide for my family, then only God could give me that. I had no strength in myself to do it, except through the Lord. When I lost all my strength, God gave me his strength to go on.

With this, I accepted the Lord and asked him to be the Lord of my life. I also made him my provider, rather than relying on my own strength. I was then baptized in New Life Christian Church in Irvine, California, and soon after, I had a newfound strength to continue on. I no longer dwelt in my own plight but courageously confronted all my fears with the strength of the Lord.

Rebuilding My Life with the Lord

With my remaining savings of US$8,000, I re-entered the engineering sector and built my business again from scratch. I was not afraid of being the sole breadwinner in my family (my wife was a homemaker, and my daughter was still in elementary school), because I knew the Lord would provide if I followed him all the way. It was a humble, difficult beginning. Finding clients was difficult, searching for good employees was hard, getting the trust of suppliers was tough, and my financial supply was not yet stable.

Even while I was busy building things from the ground up, I started to build my inner life from scratch. I faithfully sought the Lord every day, read my Bible, and prayed to Him every morning, surrendering all my anxieties to him before I started the day. I also did my best to spread the Gospel to my employees. Despite the winds and waves on the outside, I had a profound peace from the Lord that he would take care of what I couldn’t.

Of course, we are not promised a smooth life, but rather God’s presence. Even as I drew near to the Lord and prayed fervently every day, there were still trials and difficulties. There was a time when I lost a major project at the final hour. That project was one that could have changed the fortunes of my company and provided for my employees and family well into the future. The deal was eventually lost to our competitor.

In the past, before I knew the Lord, I would have grumbled and complained, consumed by bitterness and resentment. However, the many months of being close to the Lord gave me a quiet peace in my heart and a knowledge that God is in control. I always reminded myself, “If God closed this door, he is likely shielding me from a risk I can’t see. What God eventually gives will always be the best.”

My faith in the Lord grew stronger, and my outlook on life changed. Soon enough, the Lord showed up for me. My company began to stabilize, and things grew at a steady momentum. Eventually, we received projects worth millions of dollars. I never stopped giving glory to the Lord, not only for saving my company and career, but for saving my soul. 

Years later, God brought me an unexpected opportunity: A publicly listed Malaysian company approached me about a collaboration to build a multinational company spanning many countries in Southeast Asia. I was not just thankful that the Lord provided me with financial opportunities, but that he was using my talents and giving me the opportunity to spread the Gospel to more employees across the world. As I helmed this multinational company, I let God be my leader, and the company attained an annual turnover of tens of millions of US dollars. I never forgot to seek the Lord daily, spread the Gospel to my business partners and employees, and make sure that the business was built on Biblical principles of honesty and wisdom.

Giving Back to the Lord

When I hit 60, I retired and handed the reins to a capable team. With a heart grateful to the Lord, I decided to give back by volunteering at a UK–based Christian charity and missions organization. I spent many years working with refugees from the Middle East and spreading the Gospel to them. It was there, among those who had lost everything, that I could truly feel that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Today, at 71, I look back on the darkest period of my life and thank the Lord that he shook me out of self-reliance to remember that I have a Creator who is my true provider. I am the man who excelled at work because the Lord gave me talents. I was good with people, adept at business, and experienced in engineering, not because of my own ability, but because of God’s generosity in providing abilities and opportunities.

People now look at me as a testimony of God’s faithfulness. He has changed a proud man who relied on his own hands into a man who relies entirely on the Lord, not just for providence, but also for the peace and joy in his soul. I am the created eagle of the Lord to whom God gave strong wings. And the best part is not that I can soar, but that I can soar with the Lord. I now know that I am never alone, and that I can face all difficulties with the Lord by my side. 

The Lord is my Shepherd, and with him, I have all I need.

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In Part 6, I reconsidered the West. Finally, I turn to the Chinese diaspora and offer several scenarios for the years ahead—ending where I began: with questions, not forecasts.

When the periphery shapes the center

Peripheries feed centers. The Chinese diaspora—students and scholars, entrepreneurs and workers, pastors and artists—forms feedback loops: translating ideas, building institutions, raising families in new contexts, and then sending back practices, networks, and language. Those loops reshape worship, scholarship, counseling, youth ministry, and public engagement on both sides.

What diaspora can give (and receive)

Diaspora communities can offer bandwidth: space to write and mentor; training in theology and counseling; durable funding models; bilingual bridges; hospitable networks for students and newcomers. At the same time, the diaspora must receive—listening to local wisdom, refusing to prescribe from afar, and standing in solidarity when local friends bear higher costs.

Four scenarios toward the 2040s (signposts, not certainties)

1. Managed pluralism
   Limited civic space persists with predictable guardrails.
   Signposts: steady regulation; local variation; practical room for mercy and education.
   Church posture: wise as serpents, innocent as doves; steady service; leadership formation; patient public virtue.
2. Tight nationalism / civil religion
   Ideological consolidation narrows space; foreign ties draw suspicion.
   Signposts: sharper rhetoric; scrutiny of associations; tighter data regimes; reputational costs for networks.
   Church posture: smaller footprints; deeper catechesis; resilient households and small groups; integrity under pressure.
3. Consumerist apathy
   Economic recovery or distraction dilutes interest in big ideas; mobility thins community bonds.
   Signposts: spiritual fatigue; high churn; transactional relationships.
   Church posture: patient discipleship; neighbor love; credible witness at work and home; practices that rebuild community.
4. Spiritual renewal
   Unexpected hunger opens new doors.
   Signposts: testimonies; student movements; public moral conversation; curiosity about Scripture and prayer.
   Church posture: humble proclamation; clear teaching; hospitable communities; accountability amid growth.

Scenarios can overlap or rotate. The point is not to predict a winner but to cultivate response muscles for each.

Practical counsel for the diaspora and friends

• Invest in people, not just projects. Mentoring, apprenticeships, and long partnerships outlast swings.
• Publish and translate wisely. Bilingual resources, careful editing, and context-aware examples help ideas travel without distortion.
• Strengthen the quiet work. Counseling, family ministries, and care for students and migrants rarely trend, yet they heal the social fabric.
• Model integrity. Financial transparency, mutual accountability, and servant leadership speak loudly across borders.

The watch post, again

I end where the prophet stood: “I will take my stand at my watch post,” Habakkuk 2:1 (ESV). To watch is not to wait passively. It is to pray and labor; to build schools and shelters; to write carefully and love concretely; to repent where we have chased power; and to rejoice where mercy takes root. If, as I have said, everything you can say about China and the Chinese church has an opposite that is also true, then the call is to be faithful in the tension—with courageous hope and practical love.

Thank you for reading this series. For earlier parts, see Part 1 (Four Questions for the 2040s), Part 2 (Traditional China Meets Christianity), Part 3 (Crisis and Critique), Part 4 (Two Tracks), Part 5 (Since 1949), and Part 6 (The West Reconsidered).

Source

Yet beneath the neon lights of the world’s largest gambling hubs lies a complex spiritual landscape. How are Christians shining their light in Macau? What are the challenges they are facing, and how has the Macau church progressed so far? While Christians in Macau are a minority in the global church, they remain a strong beacon of hope for us who may be presented with certain unique mission fields.

Evangelism Amidst Vices

Gambling has long been a part of Macau’s identity. Since the mid-20^th century, Macau citizens have witnessed a transformation of entire streets filled with mahjong tables (a popular Chinese gambling activity) and gamblers to tall, bright, and colorful multi-billion-dollar casino skyscrapers that boost a strong growth in tourism.

Yet it is not just gambling problems that Macau faces, but other vices and problems that have resulted from it. Local churches and parachurch ministries are now working on reaching out to gambling addicts who are facing debts and many family and personal issues that ensue.

Cheang Kun Weng, a local Macau citizen and founder and director of Hopeland Family Harmony Association, a Christian gambling recovery center, recalls Macau’s ghetto landscape of triads, mafias, drug addicts, and ex-prisoners during the mid-20^th century, a sight which he thinks still persists today. 

Today, Hopeland Family Harmony Association is one of the few Christian organizations in Macau that focuses on helping gamblers overcome their addictions, manage their finances, and most importantly, be transformed by Christ through gospel-centered teachings. He founded the association knowing that despite official statistics that may present a more conservative picture, he thinks that one in five Macau locals may be struggling with compulsive gambling.

Cheang, who first struggled with gambling before becoming a Christian, knows the personal struggles that gamblers go through and the labels they receive. His association is now working with churches and volunteers to help hundreds of individuals quit their gambling addictions and find change and help in God alone. His association’s interventions do not just include counseling and teaching of the Word, but also practical assistance with financial management and habit-changing practices, which can help these individuals and their families.

Cheang’s transformation is a result of local Christian pastors who ministered faithfully to him during his ordeals. Today, Cheang is paying it forward. He continues to witness how God is using dark, vice-filled pasts to help those who are still trapped within them. Seeing that many churches and ministries are not yet sufficiently equipped to help Macau locals who struggle with compulsive gambling, given the uniqueness of Macau’s situation where gambling is prevalent, Cheang also hopes for his association to be a stronger partner to churches in Macau and to reach more people who may be facing such crises in silence.

Macau’s Religious and Family Culture

Yet the challenges of evangelism in Macau are not limited to such vices, but also the city’s deep-rooted religious and family culture.

Macau is a former Portuguese colony where Catholicism entered the territory in 1557. However, the faith did not take hold, whether before or after the 1999 handover, despite its many historic cathedrals. Today, only about 5% of the population is Catholic, of which about half are foreign domestic workers and expats. These numbers are slightly more than double those of Protestants in the city, where less than 2% of the population are Protestants, according to the 2022 International Religious Freedom Report by the U.S. Department of State.

On the other hand, Chinese religious culture, including Chinese folk religion, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism remains much stronger in Macau compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the latest 2022 International Religious Freedom Report by the U.S. Department of State, about 76% of Macau residents are adherents of such faiths—a far higher percentage compared to approximately 68% of such worshippers in Taiwan and roughly 27% in Hong Kong.

Jackson Tsui, Senior Pastor at Macau Cumberland Presbyterian Church and Research Associate at the Xavier Centre for Memory and Identity, University of Saint Joseph Macao, has seen greater challenges than gambling for locals, such as resistance to the gospel among locals due to the worship of Guanyin or Mazu in Macau families. Unlike in other Chinese cities such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, where he believes most families are now open to family members attending church and exploring the Christian faith, Chinese religious culture in Macau remains strong. On Macau streets today, it is still a common sight to see locals pray to Chinese gods in their shops and streets, which he believes is gradually lessening in other cities such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Tsui has also seen how close family ties can hinder the growth of the church. Because Macau is small enough to travel across the city within a 15-minute drive, he believes that 40-60% of the Macau workforce usually takes their lunch back at home with their families. He explained that even after Macau locals are married, they would still have lunch with their families of origin at midday, separately from their spouses, and return to their married families for dinner with their spouses. Such generational closeness of Macau families could affect evangelism and church growth as many prefer to spend time with their families rather than at church.

Another concern of Tsui is Macau locals’ apathy, especially as Macau offers a low cost of living, affordable housing, and good healthcare. He has witnessed the rising comfort levels of Macau locals who do not feel they need God and do not consider rising early to attend church or join a Bible study group as important to them, especially when their lives are comfortable enough.

Nonetheless, Tsui still sees opportunities among young people. For about a decade, Tsui’s church has been focusing on children and youth ministries. He believes that as long as there are activities for them, entire families will attend church services, and then whole families can be ministered to. As Macau’s birth rate is low, Tsui believes that children here are very precious in God’s eyes and to the church.

Church Growth in Macau

Today, Macau has about 70 Chinese evangelical churches with a turnout of 4,000 to 5,000 each week, according to numbers collated annually by the Macau Bible Institute, the territory’s only Protestant seminary. 

However, Tsui thinks this number would likely double if foreign churches and congregations were included, due to the large number of foreign workers in Macao. For example, in Tsui’s church, 300 of the 450 congregants are part of the Myanmar congregation. He also thinks that the number of Christians among Macau’s foreign workers would likely increase, as many who moved to Macau for work have already embraced their faith in their home countries before the move.

Yet, for the Macau locals, there remains a challenge to reach the workforce. Based on the latest survey by the Statistics and Census Service, direct employment in the gambling industries accounts for 26.1% of the workforce, while indirect employment including hotels, restaurants, retail, and real estate could account for another 30% or more. These numbers include front and back-end jobs, including both shift and non-shift work. Because Macau’s gambling-related industries, including hotels, restaurants, and retail, employ such a high percentage of the Macau workforce, many locals are not able to attend church on Sunday mornings as they need to work. Some even take the Sundays off to rest from their hectic schedules. It remains a challenge to reach out to people working in such shift jobs as this represents a high percentage of the population.

While some churches are stepping up to conduct weekday or weekend services at non-traditional times, many logistical issues are still difficult to overcome, and those that have tried still find low attendance rates a problem.

Moreover, for those who have become Christians, some still struggle with their vocation, according to Alex Chi, principal of Macau Bible Institute. Chi sees many who have accepted the gospel still struggling to fit church commitments into their busy work schedules, and many can only attend church once a month. 

Some Macau Christians have also felt convicted to leave their jobs in the casinos as they believe such jobs did not glorify God. For them, this presents another challenge: finding work that fits their skills. Chi noted a case of one such local Christian who decided to take up a private-hire job, which severely impacted his family earnings. Furthermore, as a small city with a limited range of opportunities, Chi thinks that many Macau residents would either leave the city for better opportunities, or resign to a fate where they start to question whether the Christian God could provide for them in tough times.

Future of Christianity in Macau

Chi knows the difficulties faced by various Macau pastoral and ministry teams and is aware of the different challenges in Macau evangelism. Therefore, Macau Bible Institute strives to provide a wide range of courses to pastors and ministers, from theological courses to practical ministry workshops. 

Because of the many social and cultural issues in Macau, Chi knows it can be tough to get pastors and ministry workers to look beyond what seems impossible and remember the importance of being well equipped to tackle these problems and advance God’s Kingdom in Macau. Having joined the institute last year as its newest principal, Chi hopes to change these beliefs and let Macau pastors and ministers know that gaining theological and practical training is not merely for themselves, but for God and for the Church.

Presently, the seminary prepares pastors and ministers for the unique challenges they may face in ministry in Macau. For example, the institute customizes theological courses for pastors of every age and seniority level, and organizes workshops where ministers can obtain certifications in gambling addiction recovery support. They are also looking at starting English-language courses for foreign workers. Furthermore, they are actively increasing the quality of their theological courses, which they believe is essential to strengthening pastors and their congregations.

As Macau’s first and only Protestant seminary, Macau Bible Institute has now served the city for over 40 years. The pastors and ministers of Macau also remain hopeful that they will continue to see God’s hand in the city. Recognizing that Macau’s Christian community is small and close-knit, Chi plays an active role in bringing Macau pastors and ministers together to work alongside each other to tackle these unique challenges that much of the global church does not face.

It is our prayer that Macau’s Christians continue to be salt and light in this city, outshining even the most glittering skyscrapers of the “Las Vegas of Asia.”

Source

Featured Article

The Little Town Making Nearly All of China’s Lanterns (March 3, 2026, BBC) In China, red lanterns could guide a traveller to safety in cold winter alleyways, be symbols of power outside an imperial hall, or act as a call to religious devotion when hung in a temple. They are also absolutely synonymous with lunar new year celebrations right across the vast country and link today’s Chinese people with the culture of their ancestors.

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

What Is Shen Yun – the Chinese Dance Troupe that Received a Bomb Threat Causing the Evacuation of The Lodge? (February 25, 2026, The Guardian)
Yesterday’s evacuation of the prime minister from The Lodge has been linked to the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun. In a bomb threat emailed to the group, the sender said explosives would be detonated if Australian performances by Shen Yun proceeded. This is just the latest controversy surrounding Shen Yun. But this use of a security threat as a prop to achieve other goals exposes a deeper and increasingly consequential struggle over culture, representation and political voice in the transnational Chinese world. At stake is not a dance performance, but a deeper question: who gets to represent “Chinese culture” on the global stage?

China’s Ice Cold Calculus Over Iran (subscription required) (March 2, 2026, The Economist)
When American and Israeli warplanes struck Iran this weekend, killing Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, China’s flagship nightly news programme covered the story with notable frankness. The basic facts were reported, clearly and promptly. Contrast that with what happened barely two months earlier, when massive protests erupted across the Islamic Republic. For the first two weeks, China’s newscasters said nothing. When they did eventually cover the unrest, they depicted the protesters as pawns of “external forces”.

“Two Sessions”: China Scraps a Decades-Long Political Tradition as Xi Tightens Control Amid Economic Woes (March 3, 2026, CNN) Thousands of delegates from across China are gathering in Beijing this week for the start of the country’s most prominent annual political event, where leaders will signal how they plan to steer the world’s second largest economy in the year ahead—and try to dispel deepening concern about the challenges it faces.

As US and Russia Unbind from Nuclear Treaty, China’s Arsenal has Been Growing (March 3, 2026, Christian Science Monitor)
As the United States and Russia navigate uncharted waters without a nuclear arms treaty, China’s nuclear buildup is like a storm mounting on the horizon. Beijing has dramatically multiplied its force since Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. China had held its stockpile steady at around 200 since the 1970s. Now, it contains more than 600 nuclear warheads and is projected to exceed 1,000 by 2030, according to a 2025 Pentagon report.

Religion

From Sojourner to Co-Laborer (February 20, 2026, ChinaSource)
Taiwan is currently at a critical moment of social transition. At present, the number of international students in Taiwan has exceeded 120,000. When combined with more than 800,000 migrant workers, the island is rapidly moving toward what may be described as an “immigrant society.” Hsu Chia-ching, Minister of the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC), has also pointed out that Taiwan is entering a new era marked by the interweaving and integration of diverse ethnic communities. Amid these profound social changes, the nations living in diaspora communities in Taiwan are precisely the harvest field that God Himself has brought to the doorstep of the Taiwanese church.

Shame Into Honor (February 26, 2026, China Partnership)
We have spent the last several months praying for the persecuted church in China. In this last interview in that series, the wife of a persecuted pastor shares how God is using her husband’s imprisonment to heal the scars of her past. Xu Jing says that, since childhood, she has borne the scars of shame that came from her father’s imprisonment. But now that her husband is in jail—even though it is difficult and sad—she sees how God is turning her former shame into honor as she rejoices that her husband has been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.

A Statue That Connected Hearts (March 3, 2026, ChinaSource)
When my four-month-old daughter, Kathryn, was placed in my arms, my heart became instantly connected to China through the miracle of adoption. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my heart would also soon be connected to the woman whose statue I had noticed in the entrance courtyard. Later that day, I asked our adoption facilitator whose statue it was. He told me, “Soong Qingling.” 

Society / Life

Lunar New Year: Why, As a Chinese Woman, I Believe Washing Your Hair and Sweeping Is Bad Luck Today (February 18, 2026, The Independent)
With the lunar new year now upon us, there’s no better time than this festival to lean into your full Chinese selves and understand what this season requires of you, and what superstitions you may want to take on board. Growing up in a Chinese family in Singapore, my year was consistently marked by various traditional celebrations and rituals—and never more so at the start of the new year.

On 310 Yuan a Day, She Builds China’s Towers—and Streams the Struggle (February 25, 2026, Sixth Tone)
In the predawn darkness of a winter morning, wind whistles through the unfinished stories of a construction site in Xi’an, capital of the northwestern Shaanxi province. Liu Yan, severely nearsighted, pushes up her glasses with the back of a dust-covered hand, leaving black smudges on her face. The 24-year-old female rodbuster stands among the scaffolding, her hands moving tirelessly as she ties rebar after rebar. Around her, the construction site is still sleeping.

Economics / Trade / Business

China Moves to Unite National Market to Curb Cut-Throat Competition at Home (February 24, 2026, MERICS)
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leadership has elevated the creation of a “unified national market” from a technocratic slogan to a top-tier political priority—and the National People’s Congress (NPC) looks to set enshrine this goal in its 15th Five–Year Plan (FYP) in March. Policymakers are positioning themselves to cut the Gordion knot of national, regional and communal interests that has left China a jumble of dozens of provincial markets and hundreds of local ones—an economic patchwork at odds with a unitary political system. 

Arts / Entertainment / Media

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for January 2026, Part Two (February 27, 2026, China Digital Times)
Below is Part Two of CDT’s summary of deleted content from January 2026. (Part One, included 21 deleted articles; Part Two, 19 articles; and Part Three, 14 articles.) Between January 1–31, CDT Chinese added 55 new articles, mostly from WeChat, to the archive. (One of the articles was voluntarily deleted by the account owner at the request of the person who contributed the article, and thus is not included in this summary.)

A Prize Against the Odds (March 2, 2026, China Media Project)
Over the weekend, the results of the seventh edition of the Journalists Home News Prize (记者的家新闻奖), a grassroots journalism awards initiative that has been affectionately called “China’s Pulitzers” (中国普利策), were published through the WeChat public account of veteran investigative journalist Liu Hu (刘虎). The release is remarkable considering Liu’s circumstances just a few short weeks earlier.

Science / Technology

China’s Next Cyber Crackdown (February 24, 2026, Foreign Policy – China Brief)
After changes to existing cybersecurity laws came into effect last month, China is considering sweeping new cybercrime legislation aimed at further tightening the country’s online environment. (As ever, I am indebted to Yale University’s China Law Translate project for drawing my attention to this.) Since the early 2000s, China has managed the difficult task of maintaining a closed, highly monitored internet that serves the country economically without threatening it politically. Though Westerners often focus on the Great Firewall as China’s primary means of limiting access to the outside world, its system of censorship and control is far more complicated.

From Red Envelopes to Robots: How AI Took Over China’s Spring Festival (February 25, 2026, ChinaSkinny)
The Lunar New Year festival that just passed is more than China’s biggest annual holiday and the world’s largest human migration. It’s also a high-stakes battleground for China’s tech titans to showcase their latest strategic priorities. The most famous example dates back to the last Year of the Horse in 2014, when Tencent used the holiday to push digital red envelopes and accelerate mobile payments adoption; a move Jack Ma famously described as a “Pearl Harbour attack.”

Why Wait? China Should Skip a Step in Self-Driving Cars, Xpeng Founder and CEO Says (March 2, 2026, South China Morning Post)
The head of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng said the country should accelerate the development of autonomous driving technology amid slowing sales growth in the sector. He Xiaopeng, founder and CEO of the Guangzhou-based company, said on Monday that the country should skip an intermediate step and move directly to a more advanced version of autonomous capabilities, adding that Beijing should adjust regulations and policies faster to make this happen.

Education

China Mandates 15-minute Breaks Between School Classes (March 2, 2026, Sixth Tone)
China has extended mandatory breaks between classes for primary and secondary school students from 10 minutes to 15 nationwide, as authorities seek to ease student stress and improve health. The reform, announced Feb. 27 by the Ministry of Education, also reiterated a requirement that students receive at least two hours of physical education daily, a rule first introduced in 2024 after reports that some schools were canceling PE classes or manipulating timetables to prioritize academics. 

Events

ChinaSource Connect Dinner in Dallas
Andrea Lee and Joann Pittman will be hosting a ChinaSource Connect Dinner in the Dallas area on Friday, March 13, 2026. If you are also in the Dallas area, please join us for an evening of food, fellowship, and hearing stories of what God is doing in China. Space is limited, so please RSVP early.
For details and registration, go here: https://signupforms.com/registrations/45501

Public Lecture: Christianity in China Beyond the Headlines (ChinaSource)
In this lecture, Joann Pittman will provide an introduction to the complexity of the church in China, moving beyond common headlines and narratives to look at key issues and challenges that Christians face today. This will include a historical overview of Christianity in China, as well as gospel-centered stories of what God is doing among his people despite the challenging social and political environment. Finally, we will consider lessons that Christians in the West can learn from Christians in China. (Joann Pittman is Vice President for Partnerships and China Engagement at ChinaSource)
Date: March 26, 2026
Time: 6:15 — light refreshments || 7:00 — Lecture & Q&A
Location: Nazareth Hall, University of Northwestern— St. Paul

3003 Snelling Avenue North, Roseville, MN 55113

East Asian Christianity Conference: Christian Witness and Presence Among East Asian Religions (Gordon-Conwell Seminary)
As an annual gathering, this event brings scholars and practitioners together to engage comparative research on Christianity’s development and significance in East Asia, with implications for church ministry and mission today. The theme of this year’s conference is Christian witness and presence among East Asian religions. Church leaders from Asia and the West will come together to foster creative Christian discourse on outreach and leadership, drawing on current academic research and the lived experience of those in frontline ministry.
April 9–11, 2026
Hamilton, MA

China Christianity Studies Group Annual Meeting 2026 (Regent College – Vancouver)
The China Christianity Studies Group will hold its 2026 annual meeting on March 12, 7:00-8:30 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) / March 13, 10:00-11:30 AM (China Standard Time), co-organized by Regent College and Trinity Western University. This year’s theme, “Contested Theologies, Hybrid Traditions: Chinese Christianities in Global Circulation,” examines how Chinese Christian thought has developed through global exchange. Speakers include Duanran Feng (Oxford), Easten Law (Yonsei), and Songzan Xu (Cambridge).
The event will be held in person at Regent College (Vancouver) and via Zoom.
Meeting ID: 999 3563 2885 | Passcode: 680891

Pray for China

March 7 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Mar. 7, 2007, Back to Jerusalem pioneer Zhao Maijia (赵麦加弟兄) went to be with the Lord. Zhao served the Lord in Xinjiang for over 60 years—many with his wife, He Enzheng (何恩证姊妹). After her death in 2009, their descendants cooperated with agricultural experts from Taiwan to build “Canaan Farm,” a modern agricultural demonstration farm in Kashgar that planned to employ young Uyghurs with the purpose of introducing them to the love of Jesus. Pray for Uyghurs in Xinjiang to experience God’s grace and salvation during the government’s harsh crackdown on all aspects of Uyghur culture. “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Activating Prayer for China (February 23, 2026, ChinaSource)
Our family moved to China in the early years of the Reform and Opening Era. We were part of a business as mission multinational team in a major city. Some on our team had been born in China and were returning after many years away. Some had ancestors born in China and were moving there for the first time. More were lǎowài (老外, foreigner) with varying degrees of language competency. All on the team knew we would accomplish nothing without the Lord’s amazing grace.

A Call to Prayer as War Clouds Gather over the Middle East (March 2, 2026, ChinaSource)
At present, it is Ramadan in the Muslim world and Lent for Christians—a season that ought to be devoted to spiritual pursuit, prayer, and seeking God. Here, I invite brothers and sisters to join together during this Lenten season to keep watch and intercede for the Middle East and for Chinese brothers and sisters there.

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)

Source

The first thing I noticed when the minibus in which my wife and I were riding drove into the entrance courtyard of the Maoming (Guangdong) Social Welfare Institute was a large statue of a stately-looking woman. We were traveling with three other couples, all of whom, like us, would be adopting a baby girl in an hour or so. 

We were very tired from the long journey, but incredibly excited to receive our daughter. It was October 15, 1996. When I came down the steps to exit the minibus, I was drawn to the statue, however I knew I needed to follow the group to enter the orphanage. 

When my four-month-old daughter, Kathryn, was placed in my arms, my heart became instantly connected to China through the miracle of adoption. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my heart would also soon be connected to the woman whose statue I had noticed in the entrance courtyard. Later that day, I asked our adoption facilitator whose statue it was. He told me, “Soong Qingling.” 

Discovering Soong Qingling

I hadn’t heard of her. I wondered what her connection to the orphanage was. After I returned home, I went to the library and discovered a book titled The Soong Dynasty. Written by Sterling Seagrave, the book tells the story of Charlie Soong and his six children, one of whom was Soong Qingling. The Soong family was a prominent family whose fortunes were interwoven throughout China’s twentieth-century history. 

Charlie Soong was an American-educated Methodist who returned to China in 1886 after receiving a theology degree from Vanderbilt. Qingling (born in 1893) was the middle daughter of his three daughters. Like their father, all three daughters were international students in the US. Qingling graduated from Wesleyan College, a private women’s college in Macon, Georgia, founded with Methodist roots. 

The oldest daughter, Ailing, married Kung Hsiang-Hsi, who became China’s minister of finance. The youngest daughter, Meiling, married Chiang Kai-shek, moving to Taiwan after the Kuomintang’s loss in the Chinese Civil War.  

Qingling married Sun Yat-sen, who was instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and is considered the “founding father” of the Republic of China. After Sun’s death in 1925, Qingling became politically active. When the People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949, Qingling, unlike her sisters, stayed in the PRC and later became a senior state leader, including serving as vice chair (vice president) of the PRC. At a time when the PRC was isolated from many other countries, Qingling was an unofficial ambassador, traveling abroad to represent the PRC. In China, Qingling focused on setting up institutions focused on social welfare and women’s rights. 

Why the Statue Stands There

Which gets us back to the statue at the Maoming Social Welfare Institute—the statue honors Qingling because she was the founder of the institutes that care for orphans. I was very inspired by her love for orphans and felt a strong heart connection. 

Connecting Past and Present

When each of my daughters turned nine, I brought them to China, in part to facilitate a heart connection with their birth country. In 2007, when Kathryn was nine, she traveled to Beijing with me. The highlight of the trip for me was not the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, or the Great Wall—instead, it was a visit to the former home of Soong Qingling. She lived in Beijing from 1963 until she passed away in 1981. Her home is now a museum. It is filled with mementos given to her on trips abroad and other meaningful items. 

In 2008, I traveled to Shanghai with my second daughter, also from the Maoming orphanage. Qingling returned to Shanghai after World War II and lived there until 1963, when she relocated to Beijing. The highlight of our time in Shanghai was visiting her former home there, now a museum filled with mementos from her travels.

Walking through Qingling’s former homes with my adopted daughters after reading so much about her and learning about her heart for children was very powerful. Stopping in each room to reflect and share a bit with my daughters created moments of genuine connection.

A Shared Calling Across Generations

Another heart connection is that for the past 25 years, I have worked for a Christian ministry that welcomes international students to the US. Qingling is yet another example of someone who returns to his or her home country and has a big impact on society.

Now, almost 20 years after my visits, the priority of heart connection to Chinese children has grown even stronger. As I continue to share meaningful moments with my children now that they are in their 20s, I continue to reflect on the blessing of having a heart connection with Soong Qingling.

Heart Connections That Endure

As I look back now, I realize that these moments of connection—between people, places, and stories—don’t happen by accident. They are nurtured, protected, and sustained by communities that choose to listen, to remember, and to walk alongside others with patience and care.

A Shared Journey Forward

ChinaSource has been one of those communities for me over the years. As it enters this next season, my hope is that more readers will find their own place within this shared journey—whether through prayer, presence, or practical support—so that these heart connections can continue to form, deepen, and bear fruit for the generations to come.

Source

After more than a month of confrontation and tension—accompanied simultaneously by negotiations and military buildup—Israel and the United States launched coordinated attacks on Iran on February 28, 2026, marking a significant escalation in the region. Meanwhile, another conflict—between Pakistan and Afghanistan—that has received far less media attention has also escalated into open clashes in recent days, and its future trajectory remains uncertain.

As I write this, I have just exchanged messages of safety with local friends and coworkers in the Middle East. Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar have all been affected by the flames of war. Some of our coworkers were preparing to return to their places of service, but their flights were canceled, leaving them unable to go home. Many Christian organizations with personnel in the Middle East have now entered crisis-response mode. Organizational leaders are holding meetings and forming crisis committees to discern how best to respond in such a volatile situation.

What is different from last year’s twelve-day war is this: apart from the United States delivering a final strike by bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities and Qatar being indirectly affected, last year’s conflict primarily consisted of mutual airstrikes between Israel and Iran—symbolic and declarative more than a full-scale war. This year, however, Iran’s theocratic government faces both internal and external pressures. After its bloody suppression of protesters, it has lost much of its political legitimacy and now stands at a critical crossroads. Israel’s Netanyahu also faces pressure from domestic opponents and is deeply convinced that the Iranian regime poses an extreme threat to Israel’s right to exist.

In short, both sides see this war as a matter of regime survival. Under such ideological opposition, a comprehensive conflict seems difficult to avoid. Yet at the same time, we firmly believe that God remains sovereign. He loves every lost soul in the Middle East and watches over his followers there.

Chinese Believers in a Complex Landscape

In recent years, through God’s work, more and more Christians have moved to the Middle East with a sense of calling, living and working there and bearing witness to the Lord in their daily lives. Among them are many Chinese brothers and sisters. Because of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese citizens are relatively able to enter Middle Eastern countries that maintain good relations with China.

In such a geopolitically complex and sensitive environment as the Middle East, because of how they are perceived, Chinese believers sometimes have greater freedom of movement than Western coworkers in certain countries that are hostile toward the West—especially toward the United States. However, in times of war and unrest, the threat of violence makes no distinction based on nationality. Depending on the passports they hold, Chinese brothers and sisters in different Middle Eastern countries may each face distinct and difficult circumstances.

A Season of Prayer

At present, it is Ramadan in the Muslim world and Lent for Christians—a season that ought to be devoted to spiritual pursuit, prayer, and seeking God. Here, I invite brothers and sisters to join together during this Lenten season to keep watch and intercede for the Middle East and for Chinese brothers and sisters there.

Prayer Requests

1. Pray that God would grant wisdom and compassion to those in authority who are involved in the war, so that when making decisions they would not prioritize their own power and interests, but would cherish the lives of innocent civilians.
2. Pray that God would give wisdom and discernment to the leaders of Christian organizations in the Middle East, so they may know when to ask their coworkers to remain and when to evacuate. Sometimes evacuation is not necessarily safer, and remaining is not necessarily more dangerous. Pray also that God would grant these leaders double strength and loving hearts to care for their coworkers in the Middle East.
3. Pray that God would protect the Chinese brothers and sisters serving in the Middle East. May he grant them courage and faith and guard their coming and going. In certain regions, brothers and sisters can hear the sound of explosions. Pray especially for the psychological impact on children. Ask the Lord to grant them comfort, as well as resources and help for member care. Pray particularly for brothers and sisters currently in Israel, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. They are directly facing the impact of war and are unable to leave because airports are closed. Pray that God would protect their personal safety, grant them unexpected peace in the midst of hardship, and supply their daily needs. If, because of the war, Chinese brothers and sisters in the Middle East ultimately need to evacuate, pray that the Lord would give them peace in their hearts and free them from a sense of frustration or failure. Pray that their evacuation would proceed smoothly, and that they would not encounter difficulties at border crossings.

I firmly believe that even in the darkest moments, God is still at work. After the outbreak of war, I reached out to several local women friends in the Middle East. They expressed their worries and fears, and very naturally spoke of prayer and faith. In such a time of turmoil, may God himself work in the hearts of the local people, drawing them to seek the Lord of justice, mercy, and peace, and to turn to him.

This article was originally written in Chinese and has been translated into English for publication by ChinaSource.

Source

This year, in keeping with the spirit of Two Sessions, ChinaSource will be hosting two events in March, one in Texas and the other in Minnesota. 

ChinaSource Connect Dinner

On March 13, 2026, Andrea Lee and Joann Pittman will be hosting a ChinaSource Connect Dinner in Dallas, TX. It will be an informal dinner, with an opportunity for us to share updates on ChinaSource’s work and on what God is doing among his people in China.

We have reserved a private dining room at Spring Creek Barbecue in Irving. We would love to have you join us!

Date: March 13, 2026

Location: Spring Creek Barbeque, 3514 West Airport Freeway, Irving, TX 75062

Time: 6:00 PM–8:00 PM

Click on this link to RSVP: https://signupforms.com/registrations/45501

Seating capacity for this dinner is limited, so please RSVP early.

Public Lecture: Christianity in China Beyond the Headlines

This year’s public lecture will be given by Joann Pittman on Thursday, March 26 in St. Paul, MN. Joann will provide an introduction to the church in China, moving beyond common headlines and narratives to look at key issues and challenges that Christians face today. This will include a brief historical overview of Christianity in China, as well as gospel-centered stories of what God is doing among his people despite the challenging social and political environment. Finally, we will consider lessons that Christians in the West can learn from Christians in China. 

Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026

Time: 6:15 PM – light refreshments

          7:00 PM – lecture

Location: Nazareth Chapel, University of Northwestern-St. Paul, 3003 Snelling Avenue North, Roseville, MN 55113

Registration is not required, but it will help us know how many cookies to order! You can register here: https://www.signupforms.com/registrations/45470

This lecture is part of our ongoing joint lecture series, in collaboration with the China Academic Consortium and the United States-China Catholic Association. 

We hope to see you at one of our two events!

Source

Featured Article

5 Places to Experience Chinese New Year at Its Best (February 18, 2026, The World of Chinese)
This Spring Festival, China is taking a well-deserved pause with an extra-long nine-day holiday. With work stress usually running high across the country, it’s a rare chance to take a proper break and unwind. It’s also the perfect time to hit the road—soak up festive traditions, and experience a side of China that only comes alive during the New Year. 

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Where Did China’s ‘Wolf Warrior Diplomacy’ Come From (and Where Did It Go)? (February 18, 2026, The Diplomat)
The label was drawn from two popular jingoistic action films both titled  “Wolf Warrior.” It was the sequel that became a box office smash hit. This 2017 action film tells the story of a lone wolf soldier battling foreign mercenaries in a fictional African country to protect Chinese civilians and confront China’s enemies. It popularized the term, making “wolf warrior” synonymous with heroic Chinese patriot. Where did wolf warrior diplomacy come from and where did it go?

Chinese Surveillance Gets the AI Treatment (February 24, 2026, China Media Project)
Reading between the lines, a dry little document released by the Fujian Police Academy in December last year is a small window into the future of authoritarianism. 

The academy, which is directly under the Fujian provincial government and conducts research to improve public security mechanisms, proposes a new method for detecting an abnormal build-up of people into “potential mass incidents” (潜在群体性事件) — referring to an oft-used official bureaucratic euphemism for collective protests, riots, demonstrations, strikes, and other forms of organized public unrest. The academy’s new method uses AI that is fed data from sound sensors, cameras, and official reports.

Religion

When the Spring Festival Meets Lent (February 17, 2026, ChinaSource)
Friends who follow the church calendar may have noticed that this year—2026—Lent overlaps with the Chinese New Year. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, which falls on a Wednesday, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. This is a collision between two ancient traditions. The universal tradition of Lent stretches back at least 1,700 years. The Chinese New Year, established according to the traditional calendar, dates back over 2,100 years.

Fellowship in Suffering (February 19, 2026, China Partnership)
In the final part of this interview with “Preacher Du,” he and his wife share how fellowship carried them through years of suffering. They talk about what it was like for his family when he spent several years in jail. Imprisonment can be even harder on family outside than on the one inside. It can be isolating, discouraging, and scary. But Preacher Du’s wife was not alone during her husband’s years in prison, because other churches sent women to care for her, love her, and pray with her.

Beyond Proclamation (February 24, 2026, ChinaSource)
The ways in which the Gospel has been proclaimed in contemporary China have varied over time, from itinerant evangelism in the 1970s and 1980s to social media today. While these and other methods have been instrumental in the exponential growth of China’s church, the witness of Chinese believers goes beyond mere proclamation, encompassing on a deeper level how their faith finds expression in their lives. As restrictions on opportunities for public proclamation increase, the nature of this witness takes on greater significance.

Society / Life

Inside Chunwan 2026: China’s Spring Festival Gala (complimentary article) (February 16, 2026, What’s on Weibo)
Watch the CGM Spring Festival Gala with us. It’s that special annual evening show that captures millions of viewers on the night of the Chinese New Year. Loved by many, hated by some, it always generates social media buzz. We’ll bring you the ins & outs of the 2026 Gala and its social media frenzy, with updates before, during, and after the show.

China’s Erasure of Ethnic Minority Languages (February 21, 2026, The Diplomat)
How is the Chinese government marking international mother language day on February 21? By legalizing the erasure of mother languages. In December 2025, according to the NPC Observer, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee signed off on revisions to the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, originally adopted in 2000. The revisions remove a provision that allowed speakers of “minority languages” to use those as the medium of instruction in schools, stating simply that such education is “no longer necessary.”

Rural Spaces of Digital Labour (February 23, 2026, Made In China Journal)
As I walked through the village of Junpucun in Guangdong Province, I was struck by how different rural China was from idyllic images of the countryside as a peaceful, natural space. In the narrow streets of the village, tuk-tuks zipped between courtyard houses, with packages stacked everywhere. Shutters were slightly lowered, and the sound of sewing machines echoed in the background. A chicken wandered among the packages next to a brand new Porsche, which seemed to be the latest model. It was evident that this rural area was undergoing significant changes. What stood out the most was not the speed of these transformations, but their consistency: the way infrastructure and domestic rural lives were intertwined in their ordinariness.

This Spring Festival, China’s Bus Drivers Cosplayed Emperors (February 24, 2026, Sixth Tone)
More than 2,000 years after Qin Shi Huang built China’s first imperial highway, the emperor was spotted navigating traffic in the northwestern city of Xi’an. And in southwestern Chengdu, Tang dynasty poet Li Bai was driving a bus where classical poems echoed through its speakers. During this year’s nine-day Spring Festival holiday, bus drivers across China dressed as historical and fictional figures, turning ordinary sightseeing routes into theatrical rides. 

Economics / Trade / Business

Many Countries Launch New Trade Measures – But China’s Exports Just Keep Growing (February 19, 2026, MERICS)
A remarkable fifty-two of the world’s 70 largest economies (including the EU-27) in 2025 responded to market distortions from China’s export glut by launching new trade defense measures and investigations, the MERICS Trade Defenses Map shows. But most of these moves proved insufficient, as China’s industrial overcapacity drove its trade surplus up 20 percent to a record 1.2 trillion USD – an especially striking increase given that exports to the US actually fell following Washington’s imposition of almost-uniquely muscular tariffs.

Podcast – Will Chinese EVs Drive on U.S. Roads? (February 23, 2026, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
As Washington and Beijing prepare for the upcoming Xi–Trump summit in April, one question has emerged: could Chinese automakers, particularly electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers, invest in the United States? Chinese firms like Geely and tech companies such as Xiaomi have expressed interest in partnerships or production on American soil and President Trump himself has publicly floated the idea that Washington might allow some form of Chinese auto or EV investment in the United States. On February 3, 2026, Ilaria Mazzocco and James Rowland joined Gregor Williams to explore the feasibility, challenges, and implications of such investment—from national security reviews and export controls to the broader geopolitical context.

Are China’s “AI Tigers” Cheating? US Rival Anthropic Alleges Some Are (February 24, 2026, CNN)
United States artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is accusing three prominent Chinese AI labs of illegally extracting capabilities from its Claude model to advance their own, claiming it raises national security concerns. The Chinese unicorns – DeepSeek, Minimax and Moonshot AI – created over 24,000 fraudulent accounts and trained their models using over 16 million exchanges with Claude, a process known as distillation, Anthropic alleged in a Monday blogpost.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Podcast – Hǎi Profile: A Conversation with Jiaoying Summers (February 18, 2026, ChinaFile)

Jiaoying Summers is a stand-up comic who is packing theaters around the U.S., and last year premiered a one-hour comedy special on Hulu. With three and a half million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, she owes much of her success to short video clips of her standup routines which began going viral as the COVID pandemic was shutting down live entertainment. 

修: The Character That Builds and Repairs (February 20, 2026, The World of Chinese)
Almost anyone who has tried to lose weight knows the golden rule: Control your mouth and move your legs (or simply, diet and exercise). Sounds easy enough. But a few months into the new year, more and more young Chinese are discovering they cannot rely on willpower alone to sustain healthy habits. Enter 邪修 (xiéxiū, literally “heretical cultivation”), a term originating from fantasy novels whose protagonists used unorthodox, even immoral means to develop special powers or gain immortality. Now, it has been adopted by young internet users to refer to unusual lifehacks.

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for January 2026, Part One (February 22, 2026, China Digital Times)
CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin (TikTok’s counterpart in the Chinese market), Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, Douban, and others. Although this content archived by CDT Chinese editors represents only a small fraction of the online content that disappears each day from the Chinese internet, it provides valuable insight into which topics are considered “sensitive” over time by the Party-state, cyberspace authorities, and platform censors.

Science / Technology

Inside China’s Historic Electricity Milestone and Clean Energy Revolution (February 20, 2026, Sixth Tone)
China crossed a historic threshold in 2025, consuming 10.37 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity—the first time the nation has surpassed the 10 trillion mark. The milestone caps a dramatic expansion, as power consumption has grown 2.5 times over the past 15 years, and stands at 7.7 times the level recorded in 2000, according to the National Energy Administration.

Education

China’s Vocational Degrees Rising as Students Seek Skills Over Prestigious Universities (February 21, 2026, South China Morning Post)
When the results of China’s grueling National Higher Education Entrance Examination—or gaokao—were released last summer, Lin Gangming was surprised to learn that he had scored high enough to attend some of the country’s top universities. But instead of chasing prestige, the student from Yangjiang, a small coastal city in Guangdong province, chose a different path: Shenzhen Polytechnic University—a public undergraduate vocational college in the province.

Travel / Food

China Seeks to Cultivate a Food Supply Immune to Geopolitical Shocks  (February 22, 2026, South China Morning Post)
A single policy could redraw global food supply lines and scramble markets from the Americas to Southeast Asia. Covering grain, vegetables, livestock and fisheries, this document calls for stable, higher-quality and more efficient output while linking domestic production to trade. It emphasizes expanding high-standard farmland, strengthening disaster resilience, accelerating agricultural science and technology innovation, including biotechnology, stabilizing output and addressing labor shortages.

Language / Language Learning

China’s Erasure of Ethnic Minority Languages (February 21, 2026, The Diplomat)
A years-long trend of replacing Mongolian, Tibetan, and Uyghur-medium instruction with Mandarin Chinese-medium instruction is now codified in law. Students in these communities will now only be taught their mother tongue as a single, standalone class; all other classes will be taught in Chinese.

Spaced Repetition Software: What It Is and How to Use It to Learn Chinese (February 23, 2026, Hacking Chinese)
Spaced repetition means that you review words you want to learn in certain intervals to maximize learning efficiency. Since this involves keeping track of much data, a computer program is needed to handle it properly. Spaced repetition software is very powerful and can be used for many things, but learning vocabulary and characters are perhaps the most important applications.

History / Culture

Revelers Welcome Year of the Horse With Fireworks and Feasts (subscription required) (February 17, 2026, New York Times)
With fireworks, lion dancing, temple visits, and even robots, more than a billion people across Asia and in diaspora communities welcomed the Year of the Horse on Tuesday. The Lunar New Year marks the arrival of spring and the first new moon of the lunisolar calendar. It is the most important holiday in many Asian countries and is known as Spring Festival in China, Seollal in South Korea, and Tet in Vietnam. Traditions vary across and within countries, but common threads run throughout: family gatherings with marathon feasts, and rituals to honor ancestors and seek prosperity. Many people flock to temples to make offerings of traditional food, and light incense at altars for ancestors and elders.

Events

ChinaSource Connect Dinner in Dallas
Andrea Lee and Joann Pittman will be hosting a ChinaSource Connect Dinner in the Dallas area on Friday, March 13, 2026. If you are in the Dallas area, please join us for an evening of food, fellowship, and hearing stories of what God is doing in China. Space is limited, so please RSVP early. 

For details and registration, go here: https://signupforms.com/registrations/45501

Public Lecture: Christianity in China Beyond the Headlines (ChinaSource)
In this lecture, Joann Pittman will provide an introduction to the complexity of the church in China, moving beyond common headlines and narratives to look at key issues and challenges that Christians face today. This will include a historical overview of Christianity in China, as well as gospel-centered stories of what God is doing among his people despite the challenging social and political environment. Finally, we will consider lessons that Christians in the West can learn from Christians in China. (Joann Pittman is Vice President for Partnerships and China Engagement at ChinaSource)
Date: March 26, 2026
Time: 6:15 – light refreshments
             7:00 –  Lecture & Q&A
Location: Nazareth Hall, University of Northwestern – St. Paul,
3003 Snelling Avenue North, Roseville, MN 55113

East Asian Christianity Conference: Christian Witness and Presence Among East Asian Religions (Gordon-Conwell Seminary)
As an annual gathering, this event brings scholars and practitioners together to engage comparative research on Christianity’s development and significance in East Asia, with implications for church ministry and mission today. The theme of this year’s conference is Christian witness and presence among East Asian religions. Church leaders from Asia and the West will come together to foster creative Christian discourse on outreach and leadership, drawing on current academic research and the lived experience of those in frontline ministry.
April 9-11, 2026
Hamilton, MA

Pray for China

March 1 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Mar. 1, 1941, Wu Yifang (吴贻芳女士) was elected to the Executive Committee of the Third National Political Consultative Conference along with President Chiang Kai-shek (蒋介石). Wu’s life was marked by a number of impressive firsts. She was one of China’s first female college graduates and served as president of the national Chinese Students’ Christian Association in 1925-1926. In 1928 Wu became the first Chinese female college president when she assumed that role at her alma mater, Ginling Women’s College, and she held that position until the communist government abolished Christian education in 1951. She was the first female to head the National Christian Council and was the only Chinese woman to sign the UN Charter in 1945. Pray for Christian women to seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1

Activating Prayer for China (February 23, 2025, ChinaSource)
Our family moved to China in the early years of the Reform and Opening Era. We were part of a business as mission multinational team in a major city. Some on our team had been born in China and were returning after many years away. Some had ancestors born in China and were moving there for the first time. More were lǎowài (老外, foreigner) with varying degrees of language competency. All on the team knew we would accomplish nothing without the Lord’s amazing grace.

Lunar New Year Prayer Calendar (February 13, 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)

Source

Contagious Evangelism

The rural revival that broke out in the 1970s following the Cultural Revolution was characterized by rapid evangelism, as young believers were sent out two by two across China to spread the Gospel, holding revival meetings in farmhouses and planting churches in remote villages. Personal witness, often accompanied by miraculous answers to prayer, was key to the spread of the Gospel.

In Witnesses to Power: Stories of God’s Quiet Work in a Changing China, Kim-kwong Chan, a Christian leader in Hong Kong, tells the story of Chen Shaoying, a retired schoolteacher in southern China who heard the gospel for the first time while visiting her daughter in the hospital. When a relative of another patient offered to pray for her daughter, Chen became curious and asked her to explain her beliefs. Both Chen and her daughter accepted Christ as Savior. 

Returning home to a province with no church and no known Christians, Chen began telling others about her newfound faith. Soon a home fellowship formed. Within two years, over 150 new believers were meeting in five groups. These continued to grow as more lives were transformed through the power of Christ. Eventually, despite fierce opposition from a stubborn religious affairs official, Chen and her fellow Christians received permission to formally start a church. Dr. Chan was invited from Hong Kong to assist with the new congregation and he had the privilege of baptizing 60 of the recent converts. Within ten years there were more than 1,000 baptized believers meeting in two large communities and numerous small gatherings.¹

With China’s rapid urbanization came new opportunities for evangelism. Often through the testimony of Christian English teachers from abroad, young people on college campuses began turning to Christ in large numbers. They in turn reached out to their classmates, resulting in new fellowships being formed. One urban pastor recalls sharing the Gospel as a young man with a fellow student who listened patiently but, when asked whether he would like to receive Christ, said no.

As he turned to leave the dorm room, suddenly a sleepy face looked down from the bunk above. The student’s roommate, who, unbeknownst to them, had been listening the whole time, said eagerly, “I want to receive Christ!”

Encounters like these speak to the unashamed zeal of Christians in China to share their faith. Yet, although verbal transmission of the Gospel has been central, the witness of the church extends beyond mere proclamation. 

Embodied Truth

In their book, Chinese Christian Witness, Xiaoli Yang and Daryl Ireland make the case that the Western Enlightenment-inspired conception of Gospel transmission falls far short in explaining how the faith has spread in China. Citing Jesus’s promise in Acts 1:8, Yang and Ireland argue:

To be a witness . . . is not conditional upon any organization, but upon a promise: Jesus’ disciples will be witnesses, and their testimony will be heard in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Given its broad meaning, it allows us to think expansively about Chinese missiology, specifically the way Chinese Christians are bearing witness to Jesus Christ before their neighbors, both near and far. It involves the totality of transformation of individuals, cultures, society, as well as the rest of creation.²

The witness of China’s Christians is not only in what they say, but in who they are. As a faithful presence in a civilization that has long been inhospitable to the Gospel, they witness through lives that are countercultural, embodying the truth and beauty of Christ in ways that stand in stark contrast to the customs and values of their society. 

This “cultural apologetic,” says Charlie Wang, a church planter, aims not simply to argue for the truth and goodness of the Gospel, but to make it felt in such a way that others long for the Gospel to be true. As ChinaSource’s Andrea Lee puts it, “When the church becomes a place where grace is believable—where love feels unearned and joy unforced—it offers a glimpse of heaven’s reality on earth.”

Visible Unity 

While observers of China often focus on official persecution of the unregistered church, a significant part of the church’s witness is playing out in China’s registered congregations. China currently has over 66,000 official places of worship. These churches, many of them landmarks in China’s major cities, stand out as a testimony to the endurance of the faith in China, particularly at a time when the government seeks to limit the visibility of religion in society.³
 
The “official” church’s witness is also seen in the unity among its members. Even as denominationalism is making a comeback in China’s unregistered churches, Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) seminaries and churches continue to draw together believers from diverse Christian backgrounds who share what most would consider to be an evangelical faith. 
 
Some would argue that theirs is a unity born out of political necessity. Yet demonstrating this core commitment to the fundamentals of the faith while acknowledging the validity of diverse traditions provides a visible example of the unity to which we are called as believers. Their example deserves closer attention by Christians in the West and elsewhere, who often find themselves dividing over doctrinal differences, worship preferences, political loyalties, and myriad other issues.

Being Transformed 

Becoming a faithful presence means leading not with superior moral arguments or declarations of propositional truth, but rather, as Charlie Wang suggests, by embodying a beauty that makes others long for the Gospel to be true. This requires a process of formation whereby our loves and habits are retrained so that our lives become a testimony to the truth. As China’s church has long demonstrated, this formation process involves suffering as the means by which we die to self and are conformed to the image of Christ. It is the beauty of a transformed life that gives credibility to our words and vitality to our witness.

Source

Our family moved to China in the early years of the Reform and Opening Era. We were part of a business as mission multinational team in a major city. Some on our team had been born in China and were returning after many years away. Some had ancestors born in China and were moving there for the first time. More were lǎowài (老外, foreigner) with varying degrees of language competency. All on the team knew we would accomplish nothing without the Lord’s amazing grace.

Developing Relationships and Prayer Mobilization

The vast majority of our relationships in the initial period were with non-Christian Chinese. Enormous amounts of time and energy were focused on the effort to establish a viable business presence in China, and this meant developing relationships with important contacts. The successes seemed small in comparison to the failures, but we persevered even after the events of June 4, 1989.

With the passing of time we also developed precious relationships with older Chinese Christians. One of them, Brother Li, had been a student of Eric Liddell. Another, Brother Bian, was a former associate of Wang Mingdao. Amazingly, Bian’s son became a language tutor for our son and we visited the Bian family’s spare home on several occasions; their apartment building was only a couple of bus stops from ours. Brother Bian said something to me on one of those visits that changed my life. He very casually mentioned that he and his wife prayed for our team every day. I then realized that I had been so consumed with the work of our business project that I wasn’t sure I prayed for my own team every day—let alone taking time to lift up Chinese believers like this dear couple.

A few years later, we were on a short furlough and were prompted to undergo an extended time of prayer and fasting. The Lord brought to mind our praying friends back in China. We had long been aware of the revival that had swept across many parts of rural China. We also knew that there had been some stirrings of revival in the cities after 1989. However, most of those cities had not yet experienced the same level of church growth as in the rural areas. We sensed the Lord calling us to launch a prayer mobilization effort among Christians in the West that would focus on China’s more than 600 cities. 

When we returned to China, we shared this vision for prayer mobilization. One of our primary tools was a printed calendar. These calendars featured pictures from China’s cultural, historical, and contemporary social life. We were blessed to receive much encouragement from team members and from Chinese brothers and sisters. 

Over the next few years, the Lord opened doors for us to speak about our life in China and the calendar initiative at conferences organized by ChinaSource and other like-minded organizations. On one occasion we attended a conference in Chicago where Brother Bian, who first inspired us, was a featured speaker. We heard him issue an altar call for full-time service and watched as hundreds from China went forward. 

Later as the 200th anniversary of Robert Morrison’s arrival in China approached, Reverand Thomas Wang, another former disciple of Wang Mingdao, joined us in printing and distributing Chinese versions of the prayer calendar for several years. This coincided with the era of China joining the WTO, hosting the Olympics, and experiencing the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake that saw hundreds of Chinese and foreign Christians assist in rescue operations. All in all, these events resulted in a much more open and visible time for the Chinese church.

What This Priority Means to Us

Currently, the church in China is undergoing a time of severe testing unlike any seen since the Reform and Opening Era was launched. Our brothers and sisters in China will be much encouraged by our prayers. We could not be more excited about the priority given by ChinaSource to Activating Prayer in this campaign. We have been blessed to be one of ChinaSource’s many partners in providing prayer resources in English and Chinese via the web page and social media. We join in longing for the outcome of a “global movement of intercessors lifting up China with love and faith.”

Call to Action: Engaging in Prayer

Let us stand with believers in China through faithful, daily intercession—trusting that God works powerfully through prayer offered in love and perseverance. 

Three Ways to Pray:

1. Pray for the church in China
   Ask God to strengthen and encourage Chinese believers during this season of testing, granting endurance, unity, and deep faith.
2. Pray for relationships and witness
   Lift up cross-cultural workers, local believers, and seekers in China—that friendships formed through daily life would open doors for the gospel and mutual encouragement.
3. Pray for a global movement of intercessors
   Pray that Christians around the world would be mobilized to sustained prayer for China’s cities, churches, and communities, joining together in hope and faith.

Source

Taiwan is currently at a critical moment of social transition. At present, the number of international students in Taiwan has exceeded 120,000. When combined with more than 800,000 migrant workers, the island is rapidly moving toward what may be described as an “immigrant society.” Hsu Chia-ching, Minister of the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC), has also pointed out that Taiwan is entering a new era marked by the interweaving and integration of diverse ethnic communities.

Amid these profound social changes, the nations living in diaspora communities in Taiwan are precisely the harvest field that God Himself has brought to the doorstep of the Taiwanese church.

Policy Context: Three Interlocking Survival Challenges

To understand Taiwan’s current situation, we must begin with three structural factors that are closely intertwined.

1. A Cliff-like Demographic Collapse Caused by Declining Birth Rates

Taiwan’s higher education system is facing an unprecedented survival challenge. Over the past several decades, educational policies promoted the upgrading of large numbers of vocational and technical schools into colleges and universities. However, as the low birth rate crisis has continued to intensify, the total number of university admission slots has now exceeded the number of students in the corresponding age cohort.

In order to sustain institutional operations, many universities have turned to large-scale recruitment of international students. In addition to regular degree-seeking students, institutions have also introduced students through various industry–academia cooperative programs.

According to statistics from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, the total number of students enrolled in colleges and universities has continued to decline from its peak in 2012—nearly 1.35 million students—and is projected to fall below one million by 2028. This trend has already pushed many private institutions to the brink of closure, with more than seven universities announcing shutdowns in recent years.

The impact of declining birth rates extends far beyond the education system. It has profoundly affected Taiwan’s overall industrial structure: severe shortages of entry-level labor, insufficient mid-level technical personnel, and a lack of high-level management talent are gradually undermining Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness.

2. The New Southbound Wave

To address labor shortages in entry-level industries—such as electronics assembly, precision machinery, food service, and hospitality—the Taiwanese government promoted the New Southbound initiative, encouraging closer connections between education policy and labor demand and urging schools to recruit young people from Southeast Asia.

Because of the significant economic gap between their home countries and Taiwan, most Southeast Asian students are unable to cover tuition and living expenses independently. As a result, legal mechanisms were introduced to allow part-time employment of up to 20 hours per week, enabling students to support themselves while completing their studies.

Over time, these measures have contributed to broader patterns of educational mobility, labor circulation, and cross-border movement. Together, these dynamics form what may be described as the New Southbound wave—a social and demographic current that extends beyond policy itself.

3. Industry-Academia Cooperative Programs

Under the framework of industry–academia cooperative programs, students are able to pursue degrees through work-study arrangements, earning both academic credentials and wages. In these programs, students may work up to 40 hours per week, while schools and enterprises simultaneously gain stable sources of enrollment and labor.

Such cooperative models are not limited to higher education but have also been extended to the senior high and vocational school system. The Overseas Community Affairs Council’s Industry–Academia Cooperative Program for Overseas Chinese Students provides a fully articulated educational pathway of three years of technical senior high school followed by four years of technological university education. This structure enables overseas Chinese students from Southeast Asia to acquire professional skills, obtain formal university degrees, and gain opportunities for significant life transformation.

In order to balance Ministry of Education curriculum requirements with internship hour regulations, operational models vary among institutions. Many senior high and vocational schools adopt a pattern of three months of on-campus study followed by three months of workplace internships, while some universities operate on a weekly schedule of three days of intensive coursework combined with three days of internships.

The Lived Survival Realities of International Students: A Deep-Water Zone of Multiple Risks

After arriving in Taiwan, international students often encounter language barriers as their first major challenge. Overall, English proficiency in Taiwanese society remains limited, and the use of other foreign languages is even more restricted. Even among those with higher education backgrounds, relatively few people are able to communicate comfortably in foreign languages.

In academic settings, aside from a small number of specialized programs taught entirely in English, most courses are conducted in Chinese. Even when admission requirements include passing a Chinese proficiency test at the B2 level, the learning pressure remains extremely high for many international students.

The challenges they face, however, extend far beyond coursework. They are living at the intersection of multiple, overlapping risks.

Traffic risks under high pressure.
To meet commuting and part-time work demands, many students rely on motorcycles for transportation. Differences in traffic rules, driving directions, Taiwan’s complex road conditions, and non-Chinese traffic signage contribute to higher accident rates among international students. When accidents occur, students may find themselves without access to help due to limited legal knowledge or institutional gaps during periods of status transition.

Scams targeting the vulnerable.
Unfamiliarity with Taiwan’s legal, banking, and financial systems makes international students prime targets for fraud. From fake employment contracts and online shopping scams to being used as dummy accounts or drawn into illegal currency exchanges, victims may lose all their savings and, in some cases, unknowingly violate the law, facing deportation or criminal charges.

Emotional isolation and relationship crises.
Living far from home and lacking family support systems intensify the emotional needs of young students. Under conditions of deep loneliness and work-related pressure, romantic conflicts may escalate due to limited life experience, sometimes developing into campus safety issues or broader social incidents.

Structural and institutional barriers.
When language frustration, cultural misunderstanding, and work pressure accumulate without adequate support channels, some students may choose to leave school altogether and become undocumented workers, further contributing to social and public security challenges.

The Reception Reality of Taiwanese Churches

In Taiwan, a significant proportion of international students from countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines are Christians. Yet many of them find it difficult to integrate into local churches.

Invisible elitist barriers.
Many Taiwanese churches operate within a middle-class framework that emphasizes stability and consistent commitment. Because international students often work rotating shifts and live with high levels of uncertainty, they are frequently perceived as difficult to shepherd within church systems that prioritize regular attendance.

Gaps in cross-cultural pastoral capacity.
When students urgently need legal consultation, emotional support, or crisis intervention, many churches remain at the level of hosting seasonal or festive activities, lacking the capacity for sustained, case-by-case accompaniment and cross-resource coordination.

Case Study: A Traffic Accident That Opened the Door to Campus

In Tainan, one church filled the gaps that institutional systems could not immediately address through tangible acts of love. An Indonesian international student was in an extremely vulnerable transitional period—having just graduated from high school but not yet completed university registration, with both legal status and insurance in a state of limbo. During this critical window, he was involved in a serious traffic accident in Taiwan.

For a young international student, this was not merely a physical injury. It was a moment when language, institutional protection, and emotional support all failed simultaneously.

When the news reached the church, the host family mother responsible for caring for the student rushed to the hospital immediately. She held no missionary title and no professional designation, yet over two days and nights she became the only “family” the student could rely on in a foreign land. She assisted with medical communication, handled complex administrative procedures, and remained by the hospital bed in prayer. In the depths of fear, the student tangibly experienced the grace of being received and held.

This quiet and unpublicized act became a turning point in the church’s engagement with the campus. Several months later, when church coworkers and partners from the WINS International Student Care Ministry proactively visited the school to express their willingness to support international students, the dean of student affairs immediately recognized the host mother who had stayed day and night at the hospital. Trust had already been established through that earlier presence, and the door to the campus was opened to the church.

In October 2024, the Language Explorers student club, supported by church co-workers, was officially established. By August 2025, the church further mobilized coworkers and local students to serve more than 300 international students through language learning, cultural experiences, and sports activities. This was not merely an event outcome, but a clear and practicable missional pathway—beginning with faithful accompaniment of one person and extending into service for an entire campus.

Conclusion: Walking with the Taiwanese Church to Fulfill the Missional Calling at Our Doorstep

For overseas missionaries and churches, Taiwan is not a place where mission has already been completed, but a critical node that God is repositioning. As the nations come to Taiwan through education, labor, and migration, we are witnessing the convergence of the missional trajectory described in Acts 1:8. The ends of the earth are not only waiting to be reached; they are arriving at the doorstep of Jerusalem itself.

May we first offer prayers to God for this reality, asking the Lord to grant spiritual vision so that both the Taiwanese church and the global church may recognize that this is not a coincidental social phenomenon, but a missional moment sovereignly guided by the Holy Spirit.

In this context, the exhortation of the Apostle John once again speaks to the church: “You are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers… Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 5–8). Let us therefore intercede for the international students and migrant workers who have already come to Taiwan, asking God to become their protector amid language barriers, traffic risks, fraud threats, and emotional isolation. May God also send his servants and spiritual family members into their lives at critical moments, so that hospitality does not stop at goodwill but leads toward truth and hope.

At the same time, let us pray especially for the Taiwanese church and for overseas missionaries who are preparing to respond to God’s calling. May the Lord supply what Taiwanese churches lack in cross-cultural pastoral capacity, institutional understanding, and human resources. May God also move overseas churches and missionaries not to act independently, but to walk humbly alongside local churches as bridge-building co-laborers. May God raise up equipped and sent young disciples through such partnerships, so that today’s sojourners welcomed in Taiwan may tomorrow return to the nations as witnesses for the truth.

When the global church unites in prayer, accompaniment, and service, we participate in a divine picture—in which the nations are welcomed into God’s household on this land, and God’s household is once again sent out among the nations.

Three Prayer Focuses

1. Praying for Spiritual Vision
   Pray that God would grant the church spiritual eyes to see the arrival of the nations in Taiwan as a missional work of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).
2. Praying for International Students and Migrant Workers
   Pray that international students and migrant workers may receive protection, care, and truth while living in high-risk contexts (3 John 5–8).
3. Praying for Cross-cultural Co-laboring Relationships
   Pray that overseas churches and Taiwanese churches may mutually build one another up and work together as fellow workers for the truth.

This article was originally written in Chinese and is presented here in an English translation edited by the ChinaSource team with the author’s permission.

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5 Folk Celebrations That Ring in the New Year (February 16, 2026, The World of Chinese)
The Spring Festival doesn’t wait for New Year’s Day to begin. Weeks before the official start of the year, celebrations are already in full swing across China. Here are five folk traditions that bring the Chinese New Year to life with color, energy, and rich cultural heritage. Wishing you a very happy Chinese New Year!

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

The State of China’s Military (February 11, 2026, Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues)
Shanshan Mei and Dennis Wilder join the U.S.-China Nexus to discuss the context of the latest purges, the state of China’s military, and the relationship between the military and China’s Communist Party. While the public nature of the change in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership came as a surprise, it sent a strong signal that something is not right within the military’s overall image. And yet, China’s military continues to modernize while keeping the same general mandate: homeland defense and the unification agenda. Mei and Wilder see this turnover as a potential opportunity to elevate a new generation of leaders.

What China Is Really up to in the Arctic (subscription required) (February 12, 2026, The Economist)
As winter began in the Arctic, China was celebrating a banner year there. In September one of its ice-breaking ships, the Xuelong 2, completed the country’s biggest ever Arctic expedition (see map). It involved a hundred scientists and China’s first crewed deep-sea dive beneath the ice. In October, a Chinese-operated container ship finished the first scheduled transit from China to Europe via the Arctic without using icebreakers. 

China is Piling Pressure on Japan’s Sanae Takaichi. Will it work? (February 16, 2026, BBC)
Since Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made comments that have plunged ties with China to their lowest level in years, Beijing has been piling on the pressure in a wide range of ways—sending warships, throttling rare earth exports, curbing Chinese tourism, cancelling concerts and even reclaiming its pandas. As Takaichi begins a new term as PM after winning a historically strong public mandate from a recent snap election, analysts warn that both sides will find it difficult to de-escalate – and the China-Japan relationship will not recover anytime soon.

China Is Building Submarines Faster than Ever, Think Tank Says. Why That’s a Problem for Washington (February 17, 2026, CNN)
China has ramped up its production of nuclear-powered submarines over the past five years to the point where it is launching subs faster than the United States, threatening to negate a sea-power advantage that has long belonged to Washington, a new think tank report says. The buildup in the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s nuclear-powered sub force includes both ballistic-missile and attack subs, the report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) says.

Religion

The Faith of My Father, Jimmy Lai (February 11, 2026, Unherd)
When my father came to Hong Kong, then a British colony, as a boy, he discovered his life’s great loves: God, family, and freedom. The freedoms he found were curtailed after the handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. At first, it was gradual; he saw decreasing ad sales for his media properties, and subtle changes in the expressions on people’s faces. He was arrested one month after Beijing enacted the National Security Law on July 1, 2020, and in December 2020 was charged with violations of that law.

From Chengdu to Orlando: A Full-Circle Visit (February 11, 2026, Tampa Bay Observer)
Thirty-seven years ago, a Mandarin-dubbed VHS tape quietly made its way into a hidden house church in Chengdu, China. On May 15, 1989, Sarah Lin Lu watched the JESUS film for the first time—and she describes that day as the beginning of her Christian life.

Grace in Jail (February 12, 2026, China Partnership)
It’s about the next generation. We’re all “competing for souls.” They want to train successors for communism; we want to train successors for Christ and for the church.

Society / Life

In the Water With Shandong’s Winter Swimmers (February 12, 2026, The World of Chinese)
Nearly 800 years ago, on a visit to what is now Jinan, capital of Shandong province, the poet Yuan Haowen (元好问) recorded his impressions of boating on the city’s central Daming Lake on a tranquil fall day. “The autumn lotus blossoms are in full bloom, their red and green like embroidery,” he wrote. But this January, the tranquility gives way to icy excitement as hundreds of swimmers plunged into the frigid water during the 2026 International Winter Swimming Association (IWSA) World Challenge.

How Chinese Millennials Are Reimagining Weddings (February 13, 2026, Sixth Tone)
Whether eloping to Sichuan’s mountains, shooting photos at a rock festival, or hosting a sustainable garden fair, these couples are using their weddings to answer a fundamental question: Whose life are we building? Their choices expose how a single day’s celebration can become affirmations of relationships, identity, and what it means to be an adult in modern China.

Beijing Pastry Shop Overrun by Shoppers after Xi Jinping’s Visit (February 13, 2026, The Guardian)
A Beijing pastry shop visited by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a lunar new year tour this week has been swarmed by customers hoping to get their hands on Xi-approved sweet treats. Traffic was brought to a standstill in Beijing’s capital as the president took a tour around the city on Monday and Tuesday.

China’s ‘Rat People’: When Education Can’t Deliver on Its Promises (February 14, 2026, The Diplomat)
They call themselves “rat people”, Chinese slang for young graduates who have given up on conventional success. They join the “lying flat generation” who reject the “996” grind (9am to 9pm, six days a week), refuse to date or marry and scrape by on minimal consumption. It’s a dark, sobering, self-portrait of a generation that was supposed to be China’s future.

Economics / Trade / Business

As China Ages, a Pension Crisis Looms  (February 11, 2026, The Diplomat)
On October 23, 2025, the Fourth Plenary Sesson of the 20th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee concluded with approval of the f15th Five-Year Plan, covering the period from 2026 to 2030. Chinese leaders have described this plan as a “crucial link” in the country’s long-term goal of achieving fundamental modernization by 2035. Yet beneath these ambitions lies a structural challenge that threatens to erode many of its gains. 

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Fighting for Information in the World’s ‘Largest Prison for Journalists’ (February 13, 2026, Domino Theory)
About a month after her release from the Shanghai Women’s Prison in May 2024, citizen journalist and former lawyer Zhang Zhan (張展) made her first post on X in four years. She had been detained since 2020 for documenting the unfolding Covid-19 crisis in Wuhan. 

Gendered Genres: Women’s Poetry in Post-Mao China (February 16, 2026, Made In China Journal)
The death of Mao Zedong in 1976, followed by the beginning of Reform and Opening Up, sparked a period of intense intellectual energy and literary revival known as ‘cultural fever’ (文化热), when fascination with Western culture mixed with a search for lost roots and collective consciousness gave way to self-expression. During this period, poetry again assumed a pivotal role in shaping new aesthetic forms and modes of expression.

China’s Humanoid Robots Take Center Stage for Lunar New Year Showtime (February 17, 2026, NBC News)
China’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, on Monday showcased the country’s cutting-edge industrial policy and Beijing’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing. Four rising humanoid robot startups—Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab—demonstrated their products at the gala, a televised event and touchstone for China comparable to the Super Bowl for the United States.

Education

(Hello Africa) Chinese-Backed Program Inspires Kenyan Slum Kids to Code for Future (February 7, 2026, Xinhua Net)
Defying the sweltering afternoon heat, Jenny Fair and her young peers huddled around a large table, marveling at remotely controlled robots making circular motions. Currently in Grade Seven, the 13-year-old learner is enrolled at Code with Kids, a community-focused organization dedicated to providing affordable and accessible science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to underprivileged Kenyan youngsters aged between three and 18.

Health / Environment

China’s Yangtze River Shows Signs of Remarkable Recovery After Fishing Ban (February 12, 2026, The Guardian)
The Yangtze River in China, which has been in ecological decline for 70 years, is showing signs of recovery thanks to a sweeping fishing ban. The ban was made more effective by the implementation of “evolutionary game theory,” which included finding alternative employment for fishers. One veteran biologist said it was the most positive freshwater conservation story he had seen anywhere in the world in 20 years.

History / Culture

Spending the Day in China’s Wartime Capital (February 5, 2026, What’s On Weibo)
This is my first full day in Chongqing—China’s wartime capital during World War II. (The reason I’m sharing is I’m often asked why/how I travel solo in China. This is what my days actually look like!)

On Patience, Peace, and an Ordinary Afternoon (February 16, 2026, ChinaSource)
A small confusion arose, about an order, about payment, about something entirely ordinary. Before I could resolve it myself, he stepped in quietly and helped. It was instinctive and unannounced, the kind of act that does not seek recognition. There was no explanation afterward and no attempt to communicate intent. We acknowledged each other with a brief smile and returned to our separate corners of the café.

Year of the Horse: The Meaning of the Lunar New Year Symbol for 2026 (February 16, 2026, The Independent)
On Tuesday, February 17, Asian communities around the world will ring in the Year of the Horse with community carnivals, family gatherings, parades, traditional food, fireworks and other festivities. In many Asian countries, it is a festival that is celebrated for several days. In diaspora communities, particularly in cultural enclaves, Lunar New Year is visibly and joyfully celebrated.

Events

Public Lecture: Christianity in China Beyond the Headlines (ChinaSource)
In this lecture, Joann Pittman will provide an introduction to the complexity of the church in China, moving beyond common headlines and narratives to look at key issues and challenges that Christians face today. This will include a historical overview of Christianity in China, as well as gospel-centered stories of what God is doing among his people despite the challenging social and political environment. Finally, we will consider lessons that Christians in the West can learn from Christians in China. (Joann Pittman is Vice President for Partnerships and China Engagement at ChinaSource)
Date: March 26, 2026
Time: 6:15 — light refreshments
7:00 —  Lecture & Q&A
Location: Nazareth Hall, University of Northwestern – St. Paul
3003 Snelling Avenue North, Roseville, MN 55113

East Asian Christianity Conference: Christian Witness and Presence Among East Asian Religions (Gordon-Conwell Seminary)
As an annual gathering, this event brings scholars and practitioners together to engage comparative research on Christianity’s development and significance in East Asia, with implications for church ministry and mission today. The theme of this year’s conference is Christian witness and presence among East Asian religions. Church leaders from Asia and the West will come together to foster creative Christian discourse on outreach and leadership, drawing on current academic research and the lived experience of those in frontline ministry.
April 9-11, 2026
Hamilton, MA

Pray for China

February 23 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Feb. 23, 1951, Christian educator Zhang Boling (张伯苓先生) died in Tianjin after serving for many years as the founding president of Nankai University—then and now one of China’s top schools. Zhang’s faith was on display in his weekly talks to students and in his support of Bible translation and distribution ministries. Pray for Christian administrators, faculty, and students in Tianjin to deepen their walk with the Savior. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:15-16

Lunar New Year Prayer Calendar (February 13, 2026, ChinaSource)
The Year of the Horse is often associated with speed, strength, and forward momentum. As this new lunar year begins, our reflections on “the horse” go beyond folk symbolism or festive imagery. They invite us into a deeper conversation about the direction and lordship of our lives.

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)

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