ZGBriefs | April 24, 2025

Featured Article

China Closed Christian Bookstores. Digital Publishing Grew in the Vacuum. (April 21, 2025, Christianity Today)
Although online Christian publishers risk getting shut down and struggle to make a profit, they believe these books are vital in growing China’s churches, so they plan to continue adapting as policies change. “The external environment may force us to change our format, but it will not diminish people’s spiritual needs,” said a former bookseller at Baojiayin, China’s biggest online Christian book retailer. “Instead, it will ignite an even greater need for the gospel.”

Spotlight

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

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Amid US Tariff War, China Convenes Rare Central Conference on Neighborhood Diplomacy (April 16, 2025, The Diplomat)
As the United States officially launched a tariff war against China, China convened an unusual Central Conference on Work Relating to Neighboring Countries on April 8 and 9. All members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China’s top political body, attended. At the meeting, CCP General Secretary and China’s President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to focus on “building a community with a shared future for neighboring countries.” He also proposed for the first time an “Asian security model.”

The Black, White, and Gray of Chinese Funding in Brazil and Guinea (April 16, 2025, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)
China remains one of the largest capital exporters in the world, yet there is generally a lack of reliable information on the consequences of Chinese overseas projects. These projects range into the billions and can be transformative for local economies, especially for emerging technologies, large-scale infrastructure, and sustainable energy projects. However, regulations for Chinese outbound investment can be immature and Chinese firms sometimes resort to shortcuts, violating laws of the host state. Particular areas of concern are labor violations and degradation of local environments.

After the Fanfare, What Did China’s Xi Jinping Achieve on His Trip to Southeast Asia? (April 21, 2025, South China Morning Post)
Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping during his weeklong trip to the neighbouring countries. In Hanoi, hundreds of children waved flags as he appeared at the Presidential Palace. In Kuala Lumpur, an honour guard fired off a 21-gun salute. And in Phnom Penh, King Norodom Sihamoni broke protocol to greet the Chinese president at the airport. But beyond the pomp, the substance of the trip was a message of unity – of the need for countries to stand firm against protectionism amid the uncertainty thrown up by the United States, including by its “reciprocal” tariffs.

Religion

Whose Zhongguohua Is It Anyway? – Five Voices on Contemporary Sinicization Debates (March 24, 2025, ChinaSource Journal)
The Sinicization (Zhongguohua, 中國化) of Christianity in China can historically be seen as both a political strategy and a religious negotiation. 

What Is the Significance of the “Sinicization of Christianity”? – —A Perspective from Religious Studies (March 24, 2025, ChinaSource Journal)
The authorities’ demand was driven by the strategic concern over religious influence of “hostile forces from the West” and the political need for nationalist-statist ideology. The churches’ response was driven by the social condition of “politics’ domination over religion,” which was rooted in the Chinese tradition and has been further reinforced since 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded.

37 Years Ago, Billy Graham Came to China for the First Time (April 15, 2025, China Christian Daily)
Reflecting on the 17-day journey, Graham wrote, “In a span of seventeen days, covering two thousand miles and five major cities, we packed in more speaking and preaching engagements, interviews, social events, and even sightseeing than I remembered from any other trip I’d taken (though not as much sightseeing as I would have liked). He wrote, “Both foreign and American press interviewed us at many stages, but their coverage hardly hinted at the impact all those experiences made on me. Several events remain as special highlights in my memory.”

Shenzhen: Gospel History (April 17, 2025, China Partnership)
God has really blessed this city. Shenzhen has a district called Fuyong. I heard it means “the gospel will be preached forever.”[1] Shenzhen used to be called Bao’an County, and was a place where missionaries bought land. For instance, the mountain behind the Third People’s Hospital was bought by missionaries. This history shows God’s blessing on this place.

How the Global Church Remembers (April 18, 2025, Chinese Christian Voices)
In many Protestant communities in China, traditional Holy Week liturgies have not been a central part of church life. Yet in recent years, some believers have begun exploring the beauty and depth of older Christian practices—not out of nostalgia, but from a longing to enter more fully into the story of Christ’s Passion. The following article, originally published in Chinese by the devotional platform 祷读365 on WeChat, takes us on a journey through Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Holy Week traditions.

Shenzhen: Working Migrants (April 21, 2025, China Partnership)
Shenzhen is known for people living in clusters with those having a similar background. [There are two main areas]: “within the border” and “outside the border.” People “within the border” are mainly well-paid white-collar workers; people “outside of the border” are mainly workers with less education and lower pay. I pastor mostly people living “outside of the border,” Shenzhen’s lower class.

Ink That Binds (April 22, 2025, ChinaSource)
It began with a simple idea—one chapter per person. The initial goal was modest: to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Union Version of the Bible, the most beloved and widely used translation among Chinese Christians. Organizers envisioned 1,189 participants, each handcopying a single chapter, to create one complete Bible by hand. But what followed was far more than anyone anticipated.

Video: China’s Earliest Christians:  Who Were They and What Can We Learn From Them? (ChinaSource, via YouTube)
In 1625, a great stone stele was discovered near modern-day Xi’an that told the story of a Christian presence in Tang Dynasty China during the 700s. The name given to their religion in this stele is Jingjiao (Luminous Teaching). Who were they and what did they believe? In this lecture, Dr. Thompson will introduce us to these early Christians and how their story can inform and inspire the work of the modern church in China. Dr. Glen Thompson is a Professor Emeritus at Asia Lutheran Seminary (Hong Kong). He is the author of “Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China,” (2024), which was given an Award of Merit from Christianity Today as one of the top books of Christian history in 2024. (Recorded on March 20, 2025)

Society / Life

Translations: Weibo Users Say “Dr. Li, We Haven’t Forgotten You!”; DeepSeek AI asks, “Dr. Who?” (April 16, 2025, China Digital Times)
More than five years after the Wuhan lockdown and the death of COVID whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang, many Chinese citizens continue to remember the events of the pandemic and to pay tribute to Dr. Li and other individuals who risked their lives and freedom to help keep their colleagues, neighbors, and the general public safe. Several recent posts from CDT Chinese illustrate this continuing resistance to “officially induced amnesia” about the pandemic.

Ju Wenjun Outclasses Rival Tan Zhongyi to Retain Women’s World Chess Title (April 16, 2025, The Guardian)
Ju Wenjun has once again proven herself the undisputed queen of the chessboard. On Wednesday in Chongqing, the 34-year-old Chinese grandmaster clinched the 2025 Fide Women’s World Championship, defeating compatriot and longtime rival Tan Zhongyi by a commanding score of 6½–2½. With the victory, Ju becomes only the fourth woman in history to win the title five times, joining a storied class that includes Vera Menchik, Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze.

The Sad Reality Behind 1 Million Resumes Sent to a Chinese Company (April 17, South China Morning Post)
At a time when Chinese authorities have announced a 5.5 percent urban unemployment rate and more than 12 million fresh graduates are expected to enter the job market, a state-owned enterprise has got on everyone’s nerves for bragging how many people are hoping to join it. In a now-deleted WeChat post, China National Nuclear Corporation announced this month that “We received 1,196,273 resumes”, with a star-eyed emoji. It said its recruiters went to 14 top universities in 10 cities, attracted more than 3,100 students at job fairs and received more than a million resumes for 1,730 openings.

Free Clinic Highlights Easter Celebration at Guangzhou Church (April 21, 2025, China Christian Daily)
On April 20, in celebration of Easter, Tianhe Church in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, organized a free clinic offering charitable health consultations and basic medical checkup services for its congregation. After the early morning Easter service, the charitable event began at 10:30 a.m. and lasted for six hours, covering a range of specialties including traditional Chinese medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, and more.

Miss Match: Scams Target China’s Growing Singles Market (April 21, 2025, Sixth Tone)
According to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, matchmaking agencies in China require no prior registration review, and there are no mandatory qualifications for matchmakers — a regulatory gap that has enabled scams to flourish. Some agencies falsely claim to be officially certified or employ “professional matchmakers” to lure in clients.

Economics / Trade / Business

How China’s Companies Are Responding to the US Trade War (April 16, 2025, The Diplomat)
The ongoing trade conflict between China and the United States is not merely a matter of intergovernmental policy confrontation or macroeconomic adjustment; it has also served as a catalyst for internal transformation within Chinese enterprises. Under the pressure of U.S. tariffs since 2018, Chinese firms have been forced to choose between adaptation and obsolescence, triggering a series of internal reforms, supply chain restructurings, and accelerated technological innovation.

A Stab at China’s View of the “Trade War” (April 17, 2025, AE Ideas)
Many experts on trade and China have recently emerged. Some were previously experts on inflation, Ukraine, and Covid. The biggest error made by newcomers is believing Xi Jinping is interested in what foreign commentators think he should be interested in—economic growth, the welfare of households, stock prices, supposedly high American tariffs. None are especially important for Xi and, therefore, for the PRC’s policy. Economic growth is nice, it’s not close to paramount.

Retail Giants Collide as Meituan and JD Target Each Other’s Turf (April 17, 2025, Sixth Tone)
China’s leading e-commerce and delivery giants are stepping deeper into each other’s territory, escalating a turf war over the country’s billion-dollar instant retail market. Over the past week, food delivery giant Meituan has pushed further into e-commerce with its Flash Sale platform, while leading online retailer JD.com ramped up its food delivery ambitions — each trying to outpace the other in speed, scale, and service.

Science / Technology

Embodied A.I. Deployment in China Races Ahead (April 21, 2025, China Digital Times)
On Saturday, Beijing hosted the world’s first half-marathon in which humans competed alongside humanoid robots. Among the 21 robots to compete, six completed the race, and the winning robot required several battery changes to reach the finish line in two hours and 40 minutes, well behind the winner of the men’s race who finished in one hour and two minutes. Nonetheless, the groundbreaking event received glowing reports in Chinese media, and as Amy Hawkins reported for The Guardian, it is emblematic of China’s strides in the widespread deployment of robots and “embodied AI”

Bringing AI Down to Earth (April 21, 2025, China Media Project)
Currently dean of the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, a research and development non-profit tied to the elite Peking University, Zhu Songchun (朱松纯) is one of the most influential figures in the sector. His message, that to remain globally competitive China needs fewer celebratory headlines and more substantive analysis, runs counter to the spellbound view of AI development that seems to have overtaken the government and official media like Xinhua.

Travel / Food

Azheke’s Shared Prosperity: From Remote Hamlet to Global Spotlight (March 28, 2025, The World of Chinese)
Once a subsistence-level farming village, Azheke has ridden the 21st-century wave of eco-tourism to become a popular destination for vacationers looking for an off-the-beaten-path locale. But unlike so many tourism hot spots where the hunger for money flattens out the local culture and leaves residents behind, the village’s path to prosperity has been built through a unique cooperative scheme, known as the “Azheke Plan,” designed to enrich the villagers and preserve its heritage.

Aboard the ‘silver trains’, China’s retirees do their bit to offset Trump’s tariffs (April 18, 2025, BBC)
On board the Star Express, the cocktails are poured and the karaoke microphone is passed around, as retirees party their way through China’s south-western Yunnan province.

Language / Language Learning

Car Talk: Starting a New Life on Wheels (April 14, 2025, The World of Chinese)
With innovative features like auto parking and gaming cockpits, smart EVs are capturing the hearts of young buyers. Here’s a language guide to buying your first car in China.

Education

The Mysterious Firing of a Chinese Professor Has Asian Students On Edge: ‘Brings Chills to Our Spines’ (April 16, 2025, The Guardian)
When FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents descended recently on two homes owned by Xiaofeng Wang, a Chinese national and cybersecurity professor at Indiana University, many in the idyllic college town of Bloomington were shocked. In December, Wang had been questioned by his employers about allegedly receiving undisclosed funding from China on a project that also received US federal research grants. On the same day of the home raids, Wang was fired from his longstanding post at Indiana University over email – a move that goes against the university’s own policy.

History / Culture

4,000 Tombs Under Xi’an Airport Get a Terminal of Their Own (April 22, 2025, Sixth Tone)
Not far from northwestern China’s famed Terracotta Warriors, bulldozers and construction crews broke ground to expand Xi’an’s Xianyang International Airport in 2020 — and nearly crushed another major archaeological find.Beneath a planned new terminal lay 28 terracotta musicians, sealed in a tomb for more than 1,500 years, frozen mid-performance with their instruments still in hand and formation intact.

Language / Language Learning

The Magnitude of Traditional Chinese Literature (April 23, 2025, Language Log)
Two days ago, I received a big package with three heavy books inside.  They were three copies of the following tome: Routledge Handbook of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair and Zhenjun Zhang (London:  Routledge, 2025), 742 pages. It came as a surprise for, even though we had been working on the handbook for years, I had lost track of when it would actually be published. Holding the printed and bound work in my hands, the sheer magnitude of what its pages contained began to sink in.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

AI Moves to Page One (April 18, 2025, China Media Project)
Talk of AI-led transformation in the media sector goes back at least six years to 2019, when surveys showed that 73 percent of Chinese journalists expected significant impacts on their profession due to AI technology. Meanwhile, state-run research institutes advocated strategically integrating AI across “news collection, production, distribution, reception and feedback” to comprehensively enhance “public opinion guidance capabilities” — in other words, to improve the party-state’s capacity to control information.

Why Do We Hold ‘Family History’ Exhibitions in Today’s China? (April 22, 2025, Made In China Journal)
The ‘Questioning Silence’ exhibition follows a long tradition of exploring family history in Chinese contemporary art. Since the 1980s, when China transitioned to a more open and economically driven era, the contemporary art scene has evolved significantly. The ‘avant-garde’ movement introduced innovative ways to critique society and artistic creation (Zou 2002; Gao 2006). By the 1990s, contemporary art in China had flourished, engaging with various themes, including family history.

Events

Free Webinar: Cultural Intelligence in a Divided World (Field Partner)
In a globalised world, we all need to be able to connect with people from other cultures, and yet we see so much division and hatred. How can we respond?
Starts Apr 25 at 1:00 PM BST (British Summer Time)
Go here for more information and to register. 

Online Book Club (ERRChina)
Join us for an online discussion of the book, “At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China,” by Edward Wong. Description: “The son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC, Edward Wong grew up among family secrets. His father toiled in Chinese restaurants and rarely spoke of his native land or his years in the People’s Liberation Army under Mao. Yook Kearn Wong came of age during the Japanese occupation in World War II and the Communist revolution, when he fell under the spell of Mao’s promise of a powerful China. His astonishing journey as a soldier took him from Manchuria during the Korean War to Xinjiang on the Central Asian frontier. In 1962, disillusioned with the Communist Party, he made plans for a desperate escape to Hong Kong. Wong tells a moving chronicle of a family and a nation that spans decades of momentous change and gives profound insight into a new authoritarian age transforming the world. A groundbreaking book, At the Edge of Empire is the essential work for understanding China today.”
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Time: 5:00 pm EDT / 6:00 pm MDT / 7:00 pm CDT / 8:00 pm EDT
Location: ZOOM
Discussion leader: Joann Pittman
Go here to register. 

Pray for China

April 20 (Pray For China: A Walk Through History)
On Apr. 20, 1864, Samuel Pollard (柏格理) was born in Cornwall, England. Pollard had a fruitful ministry among the Miao in Yunnan and Guizhou from 1887 until his death from typhoid in 1915. Much of the fruit came as a result of the New Testament translation in a script for the Miao language invented by Pollard and a Chinese coworker, Stephen Li. Pray for Bible translation work still needed for minority people groups in Yunnan, Guizhou, and other remote areas in China. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

Operation World (April 21, 2025, ChinaSource)
Last year marked the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of the first Operation World, a book that millions have used to inform their prayers for the nations. It was just 32 pages long. From that humble beginning, a worldwide prayer movement was launched.

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

Pray for China (prayforchina.us)

Pray for China (China Partnership)