Daily briefs · archive
Past daily briefs from Chinese-government sources, most recent first. Each entry links to the full brief as it was published that morning.
FRIDAY · JUN 12, 2026
THURSDAY · JUN 11, 2026
WEDNESDAY · JUN 10, 2026
TUESDAY · JUN 9, 2026
MONDAY · JUN 8, 2026
SUNDAY · JUN 7, 2026
SATURDAY · JUN 6, 2026
FRIDAY · JUN 5, 2026
THURSDAY · JUN 4, 2026
WEDNESDAY · JUN 3, 2026
TUESDAY · JUN 2, 2026
MONDAY · JUN 1, 2026
SUNDAY · MAY 31, 2026
SATURDAY · MAY 30, 2026
FRIDAY · MAY 29, 2026
THURSDAY · MAY 28, 2026
WEDNESDAY · MAY 27, 2026
Cities ordered to give migrants the same basic services as locals.
The State Council ordered cities to extend basic public services to migrant families regardless of household registration; the Statistics Bureau reported mainland population at 1.405 billion. Xi Jinping awarded Serbia's Včučić the Friendship Medal, hosted Pakistan's Sharif, and the Defense Ministry rebutted Taiwan leader Lai's May 20 speech.
TUESDAY · MAY 26, 2026
Xi hosts Serbia's president and Pakistan's premier in Beijing.
President Xi awarded Serbian President Vučić the Friendship Medal during a Beijing state visit and concluded a four-day visit by Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif. The defense ministry rebuffed Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te's May 20 speech. Huawei unveiled a new chip-design principle. The State Council published mineral-resources enforcement rules.
MONDAY · MAY 25, 2026
Beijing publishes critical-minerals rulebook governing extraction and overseas operations.
The State Council issued mineral-resources rules covering strategic deposits and overseas operations, effective June 15. Xi met Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif on a state visit. The Stats Bureau released 2025 population data with urbanization at 67.74 percent. The defense ministry condemned Lai Ching-te's May 20 inauguration-anniversary speech.
SUNDAY · MAY 24, 2026
Xi orders nationwide safety push after Shanxi mine kills 82.
Xi ordered a nationwide accident-prevention push after a Shanxi coal-mine explosion killed at least 82. Xi and Putin signed a joint statement deepening their strategic partnership in Beijing. The statistics bureau reported April industrial output up 5.6% as property investment fell 13.7%. The anti-corruption commission opened a case against trade-union deputy chief Xu Liuping.
SATURDAY · MAY 23, 2026
Xi orders nationwide accident-prevention drive after Shanxi coal-mine explosion.
Xi's day is commandeered by a Shanxi coal-mine gas explosion that killed dozens; his directives are out within hours. The Putin state visit, fresh from this week, is the foreground — today's leader-level work is an emergency the diplomacy cannot displace.
FRIDAY · MAY 22, 2026
China to provide public services where people live, not where they’re registered.
Beijing spends the day rewiring its own social contract — a State Council order tells cities to give permanent residents public services no matter where their household is registered. It reads as generosity, but it lands the week a census confirms a shrinking, graying nation — the answer to a question those numbers keep asking.
THURSDAY · MAY 21, 2026
Xi and Putin extend the 2001 friendship treaty in Beijing.
The Chinese readout from Putin's visit lands this morning without mention of the Power-of-Siberia-2 pipeline that had been the trip's pre-billed prize. Beijing treats the omission as a non-event — which is itself the day's signal.
WEDNESDAY · MAY 20, 2026
Xi and Putin extend China-Russia friendship treaty in Beijing.
Putin walks into the Great Hall a week after Trump did, and Xi gives him the longer agreement. The pageantry looks equidistant; the paperwork — a treaty extension on its 25th birthday and joint statements declaring a multipolar world — does not.
TUESDAY · MAY 19, 2026
China's investment falls as April data show weak demand at home.
Beijing is looking at an economy where investment has turned negative and consumption is barely moving — and its answer is an employment plan and a full year's lawmaking calendar, not a demand fix. It is governing the slowdown as a problem of administration, not stimulus.
MONDAY · MAY 18, 2026
China’s economy slows in April as consumer spending nearly stalls.
Beijing is hosting the world’s presidents — Trump just left, Putin lands tomorrow — yet its own statisticians chose today to put the harder number forward. April retail grew 0.2%, the weakest reading since 2023, and the bureau says plainly what the summit glow obscures: supply is strong, demand is weak.
SUNDAY · MAY 17, 2026
Xi article puts manufacturing at the core of the next five-year plan.
The summit's deliverables are all on the record now. The text Beijing chooses to foreground instead is a decade of Xi's remarks on the real economy, collected into the Party journal and closing on one instruction — meet external pressure by building harder at home.
SATURDAY · MAY 16, 2026
China and U.S. agree on a ‘stable’ relationship after Trump’s Beijing visit.
Trump is back in Washington calling the visit historic; the line Beijing keeps repeating is its warning about Taiwan. Days after the cameras leave, Putin lands — and the week reads less like a U.S.-China reset than like Beijing choosing which guest defines it.
FRIDAY · MAY 15, 2026
Trump invites Xi to Washington as his China visit closes.
Trump flies home from Beijing, and the summit’s signature product is a name: “constructive strategic stability,” a frame meant to hold three years. The same morning, the Party’s flagship journal carries Xi’s new statement on the real economy — proof that Beijing’s first agenda was always the one at home.
THURSDAY · MAY 14, 2026
Xi tells Trump Taiwan is a red line at Beijing summit.
Trump came for warmth and a trade-deal photo; Xi opened with the Thucydides Trap and made him hear the Taiwan line first. The day’s substance — “constructive strategic stability” framed as guidance for the next three years, with Taiwan in “fire and water” language — was Xi’s to set.
WEDNESDAY · MAY 13, 2026
China’s first AI rulebook lands as Trump visits Beijing.
Beijing meets Trump’s state visit from a posture of internal consolidation. The day’s AI rulebook and 14-bill lawmaking slate advance Xi’s “new quality productive forces” doctrine, while a new carbon-assessment regime locks 30/60 emissions targets into cadre evaluation.
TUESDAY · MAY 12, 2026
Trump arrives Wednesday for first US state visit in nine years.
Beijing welcomes Trump’s state visit from internal consolidation — the AI agent rulebook, 14-bill 2026 lawmaking plan, and 13.7% growth in tech-innovation loans operationalize Xi’s “new quality productive forces” doctrine as 15th Five-Year Plan groundwork, even as April inflation ticks up and the foreign ministry hardens on Paraguay and Japan.