Unsurprisingly, the first fire of 2026 was lit up by the USA. On the third of January, I believe, most people’s attention worldwide was given to Venezuela, since their dictator-president Nicolas Madura was snatched up by the the US task force from pentagon and transferred to New York City over night. It is a huge slap in the face to China indeed because on the same day in the afternoon, before Maduro was kidnapped to the US, he just met Chinese special envoy. We common Chinese don’t know what they were talking about, but we do realize that Chinese government lost on this game. And the oil deal between the Chinese government and Venezuela was unsurprisingly over. But personally, I’m happy for Venezuela people, and I assure you a lot of Chinese people feel this way. What else can you do when a dictator is down, celebrate of course. The sun will continue to rise and fall, the earth will continue spinning. Nobody is irreplaceable. Especially we don’t give a single fuck to a dictator.

A week later, people’s attention switched to manifestation in Iran, another country of oil and dictator. The world paused to see if Trump would really take his words into action under his smug vibe from Venezuela. But it turned out just bluffing in the end. What Trump really fooled is the Iranian people who summoned up courage to stand up to their vicious government and lost their life. Till this moment I write, Iranian people are still fighting and suffering. But the media spotlight has already moved on to Greenland on 16th January when Trump threatened to use force to invade Greenland and tried to back down the Europe by his beloved tarif. And the European Union finally realized that if you continue to ignore this retard in order to keep your dignity, then this stupid head with the most power in the world would take your decent silence as an agreement. So the lesson is that if you know you fight with a pig, you should be ready to smear your body with shit, any hesitation is stupid. France got this lesson hard, but finally it jumped into the battlefield.

If you know anything about Chinese YinYangBaGua, you’d know that the year of 2026 is a year of Fire, which usually means violence and war. So when I saw the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)’s action on Taiwan the day before the New Year’s Eve, I took it seriously. Immediately I messaged my Taiwanese friend to think about a plan B. She asked me in return, why don’t you mainlanders resist, I told her that people who resisted had been in jail. The work of propaganda over 5 years has shown its effect now on the net, you can only see nationalists’ feverish support. And what’s worse, I can tell you this, if the war breaks out tomorrow, most mainlanders won’t be surprised at all, which means, sadly, people are mentally prepared, or in another word, accept it.

I’ve always been thinking about the question since I entered university : what’s wrong with China ? I read a lot of peoples viewpoints, Chinese and foreigners, dead and alive, and I also asked some in person. But I’ve never got a clear answer on it. At least not clear enough for me. Because a clearly defined problem comes up with a clear solution trajectory, which I haven’t seen in any of them. But one thing that I’m sure is that this problem of China can only be solved by local Chinese people who still count China as their home.

Chinese people who’s thinking about this question like me are pretty aware of the current image of China, such as the outrage burst out towards Shein’s first permanent physical store opened up in Paris on November fifth. Unlike other fast fashion, Shein was unanimously viewed as the lowest brand, a lot of French I know never hide their disdain on Shein, and on the same kind of brand like Temu. Me, as a Chinese studying in Paris, I totally get why they think like that, and I don’t want defend Shein and Temu at all even though they break into the world market for the first time as Chinese brands from mainland. I don’t feel proud of them, neither do I feel shame. As a foreigner living in Paris over two years, I’m impressed by the eco-fever here in the Europe which I believe is out of good initiative, a sense of mission. But I have to say, they don’t see the real problem which divides them. The gap between the rich and the poor goes to extreme after the Covid. Why can’t you simply see it. People lining up to the opening of Shein in Paris, being accused of buying Shein trash could only feel the hypocrisy of their accusers on the other side of the streets, mainly from bourgeoise class, with good education or good family background, manifesting for the ecology. Both of the sides is the victim of this capitalism whose outcomes are predicted long time ago. I don’t have a solution for you because China’s mode is definitely not the answer. But I hope you can understand why some Chinese business feel the hypocrisy of Europeans’ reactions towards Shein or Temu. They would simply say it’s not them who create so many poor without choice in your country. Just be aware. Understanding is the first step for solution.

Don’t ask a Chinese what’s your dream, instead, you should ask them what’s your fear. Because being able to and being allowed to pursue your dream is such a privilege that only applies to a small number in China. In reality, most is driven by fear. To a Chinese, to fully realize their fear and overcome it is such a big step in their life. Such a step demands courage, which is a rare trait even among all the human beings.

So, to figure out, of which the Chinese people is fear, can give you brighter insight than asking their dream, which is always secondary. For example, on the last day of October, when people in the democratic countries were enjoying the Halloween with spooky or funny costumes, the most sighted costume in every street in the major cities of China was the police uniform, especially in Shanghai, the setting of police car was full fledged in every major gathering spot . Policeman would stop anyone in whatever costume using the same language like, ‘Halloween is a western holiday which is not for China, we don’t celebrate it, go undress yourself right now’. Then the cosplayer would be quote ‘accompanied' by the police to remove their make up. Can you imagine it? On the street of China, what scares people most is not the sight of a devil or monster, but the Chinese policeman. At the same time, our general secretary, Xi Jingping was watching G-dragon’s show in APEC’s banquet with typical unreadable expression on his face. If you know that South Korea’s entertainment industry has been banned over a decade in China, you would understand how Chinese were amused when seeing such a view on the social media.

You should make it personal, whatever it is. This is the latest lesson that Chinese people showed on their action to Chinese government. It can apply to your world as well. Ditch those five w journalistic neutral crap. Every action is initiated by a person, not an institution, nor a company, nor an organization. If you read a news but in the end you don’t find a single person accountable, you’re just fooled by the so-called journalist. The fall of traditional media is often lamented by those soft elites who’s indulged in their good old days of privilege. I don’t like TikTok and all those short videos, neither do I use them. But I am happy to see those traditional media being rejected by the trend of the world.

So imagine when traditional media disappeared, what’s next ? Here’s the case of China, which allows you have a preview. On September 3rd, Reuters accidentally captured and broadcast on live the the conversation between Putin and Xi Jinping walking on the red carpet towards the stage in the forbidden city. Their small chat is about age, as both of them are in their 70s. And they’re joking that with nowadays’ technology, they could live up to 150 years. If they were just two normal grandpa talking on the bench in the garden downstairs your apartment. You’d laugh it out and maybe feel a little pity about these two ignorant old men. But, we all know who they are, we made it personal, at least, on Chinese side, Chinese people dig up an ads of a military hospital in Beijing around 7 years ago, which is about promoting their research on extending the leaders’ life into 150 years old. The blatant ads was took off within a week, as it irritated the non-leaders mass majority. But you can find a clue why Xi Jing pin pinpointed the exact number of 150 in his small chat.

What’s the color for August? In China, I can guarantee you, it’s red. Because historically Japan announced its surrender at mid-august in WWII, ending its invading and colonization in China. Also, the army of Chinese Communist Party , called The people’s Liberation army usually celebrates its anniversary on August first . It’s a month of force and victory. Coincidentally, we did see several interesting fights during this month in China Mainland, starting from August 5th. A school bullying in Jiangyou, a city in Sichuan province, triggered a mass protest in the streets, ending up curfew collaborated by the police and the liberation army. This is a rare scene you could see in China. The last time you can imagine such a view should be in 1989, on the Tiananmen Square. You may wonder why this school bullying made such a difference ? The answer is the image, a short video showing the parents of the victim bend their knees to the ground at the feet of the chief of the police, begging him to give justice to their daughter, and the highlight is, the mother is a mute and the father is disabled. Such a family combination could be viewed as the weakest group in the Chinese society. So in Chinese people’s eyes, the whole family was bullied by this privileged authoritarian system. The gesture to bent their knees at the feet of the power is utmost submissive sign, they’re begging, and they have no defense, but the police and the government shows no mercy only the usual indifference that most Chinese were used to see in common case. This crossed the line. The bottom line of Chinese people’s moral standard. Or, let’s say in another way, it’s how blatantly that they showed in public that they don’t care like the image presenting the parents kneel down at the feet of the chief of the police. And common Chinese people realized that privilege and injustice in such a view which made them surround the government building and protest in the downtown streets. What hyped this protest was coincidentally in the neighbor city, the capital of Sichuan province, Chengdu was holding the World Games 2025, you know China, such a disgrace, a slap in the face. So the government wants to crack it down fast. They did, over night, they beat up everyone in the streets, arrested several and sent them away by camion for pigs. You heard it right, the protesters were standing in the camion, usually for shipping pigs. If you read George Orwell, animal farm, you would understand how sarcastic this view is.

July 2025. It’s been almost two years since I left China. But I have never been able to distance myself from the Chinese society due to the Internet and the social media. Or more profoundly speaking, since I’m a Chinese, I only care about what’s happening in China. It relates to my interest, my identity, my link to collective memory, thus my relationship with my fellow Chinese. It’s our story, I don’t wanna privileged foreigners or domestic dictator control the narrative, yeah, I can’t help messing up with them. So let me share you my personal Monthly China, on what’s happening and how do we common Chinese feel about it.

To summarize July 2025 in China, I would use one word: Indignation. If you check the dictionary: indignation means anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment.

The funny thing here is that you can see unfair treatment fairly befall on the head of Chinese average person. July started from Kindergarten in Gansu, over 200 children were poisoned by addictive used to colorize their steamed bun. Honestly, I was not surprised at all by this kind of news, food security is never secure in China, which is sort of common sense. But this piece of news keeps bugging on my social media because the local government was so used to cover it up than do their job. So the news like parents of the poisoned children got arrested or their social media got shut down kept alive until a man dressed up as a woman doing free hooker and got laid with more than 1600 Chinese guys in Nanking.

The news of Uncle red occupied the headline in the second week of July because of the hilarious absurdity. Videos and voice record of this suspected gay lied to straight men of every kind, assuring them that he has a vagina went viral. He single-handedly proved to all Chinese women who still have princess dream how stupid and horny their husband or husband-to-be are. It sounds vulgar, but a lot of women just realize that they /the Chinese guy just need a hole. So uncle red simply proved that an asshole also counts. This is a huge slap to Chinese patriarchal society. I can’t help laughing the whole day, and spread that news to my international friends who has Asian fever. While I’m writing, my Portuguese friend told me that this Uncle red outfit has evolved into some funny foreplay between couples on TikTok. Sending gift as watermelon or half bottle of oil, you can only get the punchline if you share the collective memory of Chinese people.

Today, April 10th, BBC China just posted an interview on Chinese’s People responses towards Trump’s Tariffs. None of the interviewees are really worried, to be honest, so am I. I’ll explain it to you as a Chinese myself, and I hope this episode would reach some decision-makers who’re hesitating and tortured by the anxiety and uncertainty.

First of all, I want to mention something interesting about the interview on BBC’s Youtube Channel, the first review showed in the comments section got more that 2000 likes. Surprising, it’s a quote from Chinese classical literature, an essay written by Su Sun a thousand years ago. It’s an essay on how the sates of Qing defeated the rest six sates altogether and established the first unified empire in China’s history . The name of this essay is called ‘On the six fallen states’. And the quote on the comments section is as follows: Cut five cities today, then ten cities tomorrow, only for a calm sleep overnight. Starting to look at the four realms, the Qin soldiers had already reach our boarder. However, our land is limited, but the desire of the Qin is insatiable.

I bet every Chinese would laugh when reading this review. That’s why the moment that Trump threaten to raise 50% more tariffs on China. I instantly preview Chinese government’s answer like most Chinese intellectual would. In the current situation, China, Europe, Canada, and other counties with similar status in term of economic strength are the six states in the essay, and the US is the Qin empire. Do you know what’s the conclusion from the essay ? Why six states were defeated by one state? Su Xun put it directly because each of the six was eager to bribe and lobby Qin not to invade them rather than find alliance among the six and fight direct with Qin to erase the harassment for good.

So you could imagine that China would continue to counter back if Trump keeps his strategy unchanged. Interestingly enough, I found this quote was also used four years ago by some Chinese as a comment on US government’s forcing TikTok sales. It’s kind of the same mentality, so I’ll save my words on it.