NEWS/the week of Jan 3-9, 2026
Current news about China and the Chinese people
NOTE: The news reports below are not in chronological order. There is often a time lag in their reaching the US and in gaining our attention. These reports reflect the opinions of a variety of news sources.
International Relationships
Chinese export controls on Japan / January 9,2026
Earlier this week, China instituted export controls on “dual-use items export” to Japan, in a bid to curb Japan’s “remilitarization” and nuclear weapons acquisition attempts.
Diplomatic and economic tensions surface between China, Japan / January 9,2026
A week in which longtime tensions between neighbors China and Japan ratcheted up economically and politically is drawing to a close with no sign of improvements
Trump's Venezuela raid has created chaos - and that is a risk for China / January 7,2026
It took just a few hours for Donald Trump to upend a relationship that China had been cultivating for decades. Only hours before he was seized in a nighttime raid, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro had been praising his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as "an older brother" with a "powerful message as a leader to the world" during a meeting with senior diplomats from Beijing.
U.S. Navy Supercarrier Is Now Operating In Waters Claimed By China / January 10,2026
The United States Navy's USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), the fifth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, carried out live-fire exercises and a replenishment-at-sea in the South China Sea last week as part of its ongoing routine operations.
Social & Economic News
The viral Chinese app for young people living alone / January 9,2026
Named Are You Dead? the concept is simple. You need to check in with it every two days – clicking a large button – to confirm that you are alive. If not, it will get in touch with your appointed emergency contact and inform them that you may be in trouble.
The luxury fruit cashing in on China's billion-dollar appetite / January 9,2026
Fans have christened it the "King of fruits", but on the internet it has earned a less flattering tag — the world's smelliest fruit — as tourists unused to its odour seek it out with squeamish curiosity.
'Unhinged' or savvy? / January 9,2026
Meet Li Chenggang, who leads China’s trade talks with the US.
The long shadow of the one-child policy / January 9,2026
China pays for its biggest social experiment with a demographic crisis. The low birth rate is one of the greatest headaches for Beijing, which in just 10 years has moved from strict family-planning rules to incentives for having children.