China

A small file change caught Big Attention. On October 9, 2025, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued Announcement No. 61 of 2025, introducing new export controls on overseas shipments of rare-earth related materials that contain Chinese-origin components. The regulation clearly states that exports for military purposes will, in principle, not be licensed. While the policy content itself drew headlines, one detail surprised many observers: The annex to the announcement was not a Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) or PDF file. It was released in .wps format — the proprietary file format of Kingsoft WPS Office, a Chinese-developed productivity suite. ...

Recently, a highly popular GitHub repository — ChinaTextbook — has compiled PDF files of textbooks for all educational stages in China, from primary school, junior high school, senior high school to college. Those in need can download them directly. This is a remarkable project. In the author’s project description, the reasons for creating ChinaTextbook are mentioned: Although domestic educational websites have provided free resources, the access to information for the majority of ordinary people is still limited. Some people take advantage of this situation and sell these resources with private watermarks on Taobao. To address this issue, I plan to centralize and open-source these resources to promote the popularization of compulsory education and eliminate educational poverty between regions. ...

China’s EV indursty is still developing fast after years. Xiaomi joint the competition a little bit late, but the first and the most popular EV model SU7 has shown its strong competivity. Most of Chinese had a positive expection on EV future, while the Xiaomi SU7’s serious accident on March 29th caused 3 deaths, and it has become a hit on Chinese EV indurstry. Before this incident, almost every EV maker in China emphasized its advanced driving assistance system, but the safety risks associated with this feature were briefly mentioned. This caused ignorance among Chinese EV users. ...

Let’s talk about the internet’s favorite chaos agent, iShowSpeed. Last week, he dropped into China for a livestream tour. And people who watched his livestream suddenly realized they had been deceived for a long time. Speed’s first stop was Shanghai. Shanghai, the most advanced and the most internationalized city in China, is often considered the first stop of a trip in China. Within minutes of hitting the streets, he was ambushed by fans blasting Sunshine Rainbow White Pony on saxophones, a Chinese pop song that sounds… let’s say linguistically adventurous to English ears. Lucily, Speed was famous for his reaction to the song, and he has long been accustomed to the N word homonym in this song. ...