ZGBriefs | February 29, 2024

Featured Article

Video: Reporting from China: How this trip was different (February 25, 2024, CBS News)
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl reports from Beijing and Shanghai, cities few Western journalists have entered since 2020, when China began to expel some journalists and restrict access to others in the foreign media. Stahl went at the invitation of U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, who spoke about China’s economy and its relationship with the U.S. 

Sponsored Link

Free Public Lecture | Human Flourishing in Confucian Thought: A Christian Response, by I’Ching Thomas
I’Ching Thomas will explore the notion of human flourishing in Chinese thought, focusing especially on Confucius’ teaching on self-cultivation and benevolence as keys to achieving the ideal of the Noble Man. Then, drawing on parallels with the biblical faith, she proposes that the Christian Gospel holds relevance to the aspirations of Cultural Chinese concerning human flourishing as defined by Confucian ideals. 
Date: April 5, 2024
Location: Nazareth Hall, University of Northwestern-St. Paul, 3003, N. Snelling Ave, Roseville, MN 55113
Time: 6:15 pm – light refreshments
           7:00 pm – lecture
This event is part of our ongoing collaborative lecture series cohosted by ChinaSource, the US-China Catholic Association, and the China Academic Consortium. 
It is co-sponsored by the University of Northwestern-St. Paul.
Go here to register. 

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

Living outside China has become more like living inside China (February 26, 2024, The Economist) (subscription required)
After she left Shanghai to work in the Netherlands in 2012 she kept in touch with friends on WeChat, a Chinese app. Then she realised some of her messages were being censored. Even in her new country she is careful what she says in public and only goes to places she considers “safe”—those where no members of the Chinese Communist Party are present.

Disappeared ex-foreign minister Qin Gang ‘steps down’ as lawmaker (February 27, 2024, Radio Free Asia)
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress announced on Tuesday that the Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress had “decided to accept” Qin’s resignation as a delegate.

China broadens law on state security to include ‘work secrets’ (February 28, 2024, Reuters)
Chinese lawmakers have expanded a state secrets law for the first time since 2010, widening the scope of restricted sensitive information to “work secrets”, according to a full text of the law published online. China’s top legislative body passed the revised Law on Guarding State Secrets on Tuesday, Xinhua state news agency reported. It will take effect from May 1.

Religion

He Enzheng: Female Missionary Pioneer in Xinjiang (February 21, 2024, Christianity Today) (subscription required)
n the 1940s, following a missiological vision of “Back to Jerusalem,” a group of visionary Chinese Christians set out with a heart for evangelizing Muslims, aspiring to traverse China’s northwestern provinces and neighboring countries. He Enzheng and her future husband Zhao Maijia (Mecca Zhao) were among this group of pioneers. Their goal was to bring the gospel to Xinjiang, the autonomous region in China where the Uyghurs are the dominant ethnic group. Their efforts planted seeds that continue to shape the spiritual heritage of the Chinese church, motivating Christians to carry on their mission.

Crossing Cultures: Ethnocentric Conversion (February 23, 2024, ChinaSource Blog)
Ministering cross-culturally requires what Darrell Whiteman calls ethnocentric conversion, the kind of transformation Peter experienced in Acts 10. The Apostle Peter’s ethnocentric conversion exploded into fullness through an unanticipated personal interaction with Cornelius, a gentile military officer who lived out his fear of God in household leadership, generosity, and constant prayer (Acts 10:1–2). 

Reassessing Digital Engagement, Part III (February 26, 2024, ChinaSource Blog)
The gospel, the good news of relational reconciliation to God, is not merely information, but transformation. And although this is discussed in a lot of Christian literature, we still fall back on technique as a means of accomplishing something that is intensely personal.

Reformed Emotions: The Story Emotions Tell (February 26, 2024, China Partnership Blog)
Recently, an animated discussion on faith and emotion took place in an online forum mostly comprised of Chinese house church pastors and Christian leaders. During the conversation, Grace, who teaches and does biblical counseling across China, shared her perspective on the intersection between theology and emotional understanding.

China is Open—For Business and More (February 27, 2024, ChinaSource Blog)
First, what do people mean by “closed”? I believe what most people mean by this is something like: We can no longer do things in China the way we used to do them. This is true. Full stop. But it absolutely does not mean that we can’t do anything. Christians are coming here from around the world, to live and share the love of Christ with the people here, right now!

Just Listen (February 28, 2024, ChinaSource Blog)
Talking with a Christian from China who serves cross-culturally in Asia, I was struck by the contrast he drew between colleagues in foreign organizations with whom he seeks to partner and his fellow Chinese workers in the field. I had asked about how these organizations were coming alongside China’s emerging mission movement as it engages with unreached peoples abroad. “Usually their help hurts.”

Society / Life

China: Ship rams bridge, plunging cars into river in Guangzhou (February 22, 2024, BBC)
A cargo ship rammed into a bridge in the Chinese city of Guangzhou early on Thursday, plunging five vehicles including a public bus into the river. The accident killed two people and injured one. Three are still missing, state media said.

Apartment block fire in China’s Nanjing city kills at least 15, officials say (February 23, 2024, The Guardian)
The fire broke out early Friday morning, officials said at a press conference, with a preliminary investigation suggesting the blaze started on the building’s first floor, where electric bikes had been placed. The building is located in the Yuhuatai district of Nanjing, a city of more than 8 million about 260km north-west of Shanghai.

Has China’s Piano Craze Played Itself Out? (February 24, 2024, Sixth Tone)
The current generation of parents were those very students during the initial stages of the piano craze. Now that they’re grown up, they are taking a more practical and personal approach to nurturing the artistic talents of their kids, rather than pushing them to learn an instrument for its own sake.

How Chinese Netizens Navigated the Lunar New Year (February 27, 2024, The World of Chinese)
Despite challenges like packed trains and nosy relatives, young Chinese used creative ways to ensure a peaceful Lunar New Year at home.

Economics / Trade / Business

Hong Kong axes all property curbs to revive sector, boost growth (February 28, 2024, Radio Free Asia)
Hong Kong announced Wednesday it is scrapping all property curbs to revive a faltering housing market, increasing spending to boost tourism and strengthening efforts to lure back foreign capital.

Travel / Food

What’s Causing the Lapsang Souchong Tea Shortage? (February 22, 2024, Sixth Tone)
The infamously smoky tea is increasingly hard to find. That’s not likely to change anytime soon.

US allows China to boost passenger flights to 50 per week as summer travel season nears (February 27, 2024, CNN)
Washington will allow Chinese airlines to further increase their direct passenger flights to the United States, as it takes another step in gradually restoring aviation services that had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and an air travel dispute between the two countries. From March 31, Chinese carriers will be able to fly 50 weekly round trips to and from the United States, up from 35 currently, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) said in a statement Monday.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

The Risky Business of Hong Kong Journalism (February 26, 2024, China Media Project)
Four years after the national security law upended Hong Kong’s media landscape, journalists in the city have reached a new equilibrium to move forward — but with more security legislation on the horizon, that could all be about to change again.

Language / Language Learning

Outlier Chinese Character Masterclass review: Understand more, learn faster, remember longer (February 26, 2024, Hacking Chinese)
Regardless of whether you like them or not, becoming literate in Chinese requires an effective strategy for learning characters.

Pray for China

February 29 (Pray for China: A Walk Through History)
On Feb. 29, 1856, French Catholic missionary Auguste Chapdelaine (马赖) was executed in Guangxi. His death was cited by France as a reason to join Britain in the Second Opium War. After he was canonized in Oct. 2000, Chinese authorities announced that a museum would be built to document Chapdelaine’s crimes against the Chinese people. Pray for Christians in Guangxi to overflow with the love that covers a multitude of sins. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8