[US Trending] President Xi's List of Unfinished Projects | New Wolf Warriors: Party Media Is Not the Party's | American Resumes of Fields Medal Winners from China | Taiwan's Economic Strong Comeback | How Long Can China's Two-Speed Economy Last? | Current Situation of Disaster Areas in Hengzhou, Guangxi | Beijing's Lockdown
This episode of US Trending Topics focuses on various recent issues in China. First, the Chinese state media China Daily compared the Philippines to a monkey manipulated by the US and Japan, prompting Philippine President Marcos to summon Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan for negotiations. Jing Quan responded that media behavior is unrelated to the government, which netizens sarcastically called “serious bullshit.” Secondly, Beijing has long controlled the movement of people to maintain security. Villagers in Baoshang Village, Anping Town, Langfang, Hebei discovered that temporary isolation walls were replaced with official isolation walls featuring barbed wire with blades, making entering Beijing harder than going abroad. Regarding international awards, Peking University graduates Wang Hong and Deng Yu won the Fields Medal, which Chinese media publicized in a high-profile manner, but netizens pointed out that while China is the soil for growing good seedlings, overseas is the good soil. At the same time, the program criticized the standards of the official CCP propaganda in promoting international awards for changing depending on its stance. In addition, the program exposed that Chinese supermarkets generally levy a 10% hidden value-added tax, whereas US taxation is straightforward and exempts basic food items. Netizens compiled a list of “unfinished” policies since Xi Jinping took office, covering multiple areas such as the Belt and Road, Xiongan New Area, real estate, and common prosperity. The employment situation is grim; the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched the “National Public Employment Service Map,” but encountered problems such as expired QR codes and no operating permissions. Unemployment is high, and young people feel terrified for the future. Chuanghui Electronics Factory in Ganzhou, Jiangxi oppressed and exploited summer-job workers, settling wages at only one yuan per hour. Social involution is severe, with the elderly fighting over cardboard boxes and scavenging. Many places in China suffered continuous heavy rain and floods, with poor flood control infrastructure, miserable living conditions for disaster victims, and temporary shelters being ordered to evacuate within a time limit. Foreign media reports show that Taiwan’s economic growth is strong, with exports to the US exceeding the Chinese mainland, while China’s economy faces a “dual-speed economy” dilemma where exports become the only engine, domestic demand is sluggish, and structural imbalances worsen. The program also exposed the collapse of the Qilinguan Tunnel on the Hubei section of China’s G59 Expressway, which happened because no steel bars were used. Finally, the netizen interaction session discussed topics such as the C919 domestically produced large aircraft and the Chinese Coast Guard harassing Philippine vessels.
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US Trending Searches lets you hear the voice outside the Great Firewall. Hello friends and viewers, welcome to today's US Trending Searches. I am Qi Xiaotian. First, let's enter the Mobile Phone View of China segment. A new wolf warrior has emerged in China, and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) state media has caused trouble, yet Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan insisted that the party media does not belong to the Party, passing the buck and shirking responsibility. Recently, the situation in the South China Sea has continued to heat up, which is closely related to the Chinese media stoking the flames. China Daily recently portrayed the Philippines as monkeys manipulated by the US and Japan, triggering strong protests from all sectors in Philippine society. On July 21, Philippine President Marcos summoned Chinese Ambassador to Jing Quan and lodged a solemn representation on the matter. Jing Quan subsequently stated in a media interview that media actions have nothing to do with the government. However, China Daily is an official state media outlet directly under the Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee. Ambassador Jing Quan's statement essentially packaged this official-background party media behavior as a private act unrelated to the government, attempting to cut ties between the two. Netizens sighed: The ambassador is talking nonsense with a straight face; such a big country, yet its way of acting is so shameless; always playing rogue with petty cleverness.
As the capital, Beijing has long implemented strict personnel movement controls on surrounding areas to protect its own safety. During the pandemic, temporary isolation walls were built at the border between Beijing and Hebei. After the pandemic ended, some facilities were made permanent, and multiple Hebei villages were fenced into isolated islands. Villagers entering or leaving nearby Beijing territory must make detours or pass through designated checkpoints. On July 20, villagers in Baoshang Village, Anping Town, Langfang, Hebei, found that the authorities replaced the original temporary isolation panels with formal isolation walls topped with barbed wire, equipped with surveillance, concrete blocks, and other roadblocks, intending to permanently cut off the daily passage between the village and neighboring Beijing territory. Villagers gathered at the intersection to protest: Entering Beijing is now harder than going abroad. They said: To prevent unruly citizens from smuggling themselves into the Beijing imperial city.
Over the past two days, Chinese media high-profile celebrated Wang Hong and Deng Yu, graduates of the 2007 mathematics department at Peking University, for winning the 2026 Fields Medal. Previously, ethnic Chinese mathematicians Shing-Tung Yau and Terence Tao had also won this honor, but they already held US citizenship at the time of winning; Wang Hong and Deng Yu are the first two mathematicians to win with Chinese citizenship. Wang Hong and Deng Yu won the 2026 Fields Medal. Previously, ethnic Chinese
mathematicians Shing-Tung Yau and Terence Tao had also won this honor,
but they already held US
citizenship at the time of winning; Wang Hong and Deng Yu are the first two
mathematicians to win with Chinese citizenship. When taking the gaokao, Wang Hong originally wanted to study mathematics at Peking University but was transferred to the School of Earth and Space Sciences, only transferring to the math department in her sophomore year. That means she was in the Peking University math department for only three years. After graduating from Peking University in 2011, Wang Hong went to France to study for an engineering degree and master's degree at Ecole Polytechnique and Paris-Sud University, finished her PhD at MIT, went to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for a postdoc, taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and finally was promoted to full professor at New York University. At the same time, she serves as a permanent mathematics professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in France. After Wang Hong and Deng Yu won, their two medals attracted simultaneous celebrations from China, France, and the United States. Chinese media emphasized them as Chinese mathematicians; French President Emmanuel Macron personally called Wang Hong, emphasizing that this is an excellent demonstration of the openness and attractiveness of the French mathematical community. Interestingly, Fields Medalist and Tsinghua University Chair Professor Shing-Tung Yau praised the two young scholars, saying that China has become a hotbed for basic research, and publicly called out and invited the two back to China to teach: Within ten years, a student cultivated locally in China will win a Fields Medal. This sentence itself actually admits a fact: so far, no one has. A netizen said: China can produce good saplings, but the good soil is still overseas. Another netizen said: When the research environment is good, they will naturally return. These two medals are more like a mirror, reflecting not the victory of Chinese mathematics, but the reality of talent mobility. What really needs to be questioned is not which country this honor should be credited to, but what kind of institutional environment, academic ecology, and resource allocation can give talent the opportunity to grow continuously.
Official CCP propaganda regarding international awards is usually: if you can't get the grapes, you say they are sour; if you don't win, you say they are foreign awards that cannot measure Chinese people. After winning, suddenly they can measure Chinese people. After Wang Hong and Deng Yu won the Fields Medal, Beijing Daily quickly published an article of congratulations, calling it the Nobel Prize of mathematics in the headline and emphasizing that this is a historical breakthrough in the development of Chinese mathematics. However, just last October, after no Chinese citizens won a Nobel Prize in natural sciences, Beijing Daily published a commentary titled Whether You Win Foreign Awards Is Not an Indicator to Define China's Development Level, criticizing the outside world for using the number of Nobel Prizes to measure China's innovation capacity and claiming that this practice is adding footnotes to Western superiority. Netizens joked: Standards always change with the stance, it's hard on them.
Many Chinese people do not even know that they are paying taxes every day. This is not due to a lack of common sense among the public, but because the authorities have deliberately downplayed the concept of the "taxpayer": On July 21, a blogger spent 200 yuan at a supermarket and, by requesting an official receipt, discovered that about 10% in invisible value-added tax had been quietly deducted. In 2014, Cui Yongyuan, a famous CCTV journalist, revealed during a speech in the United States that he had been explicitly prohibited from using the word "taxpayer" in his early news reports. In the United States, the taxes people pay are very straightforward: U.S. shopping receipts clearly separate the "item price" and the "sales tax," making tax rates crystal clear to everyone. In addition, the vast majority of U.S. states completely exempt unprocessed basic foods such as vegetables and meat from taxation; even in the few states that do tax them (up to 7%), there are matching tax refund subsidies. In contrast, Chinese supermarkets generally impose an invisible tax of about 10% on daily food items. A Twitter netizen explained why China does not let people see tax rates, saying: The most important thing for taxpayers is to have a certain say in the taxes they pay. If people saw the tax rates, they would have opinions about them, which is one of the reasons "they" are worried.
The Chinese Communist Party has recorded and actively promoted all of President Xi's governance achievements. A netizen decided to also tally up President Xi's unfinished or botched policies to strike a balance. The compilation is titled: "Summary of Xi Jinping's 'New Era Governance Achievements' That Ended Up as Unfinished Projects Since Taking Office." The summary states: Belt and Road: Sri Lanka went bankrupt and its government was overthrown; Pakistan faces bankruptcy. Xiongan New Area: A complete failure and unfinished project. Beijing Stock Exchange: Fizzled out with nothing accomplished. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Massive international debt write-offs, losing every penny. Thousand Talents Plan: Handed over as a spy list. 10 trillion yuan chip project: Key leaders all fell from grace. Real estate: Large areas of unfinished buildings and mortgage boycotts. Poverty alleviation drive: 600 million people still have a monthly income of less than 1,000 yuan. Energy conservation and carbon reduction: Had to be suspended to rescue the economy. Toilet revolution: A large number of facilities abandoned. Hong Kong: Lost its status as an international free port and financial center. Taiwan issue: Peaceful reunification is no longer possible. International relations: Europe, the US, Japan, India, and Australia have become hostile relations. Military generals: Multiple high-ranking Rocket Force generals investigated over corruption suspicions, with their combat readiness and loyalty questioned. Zero-COVID policy: Three years of lockdowns and heavy economic damage. Common prosperity: Heavy regulatory blows against private enterprises, vaporizing giant market caps and collapsing private sector confidence. Double reduction policy: Tutoring industry wiped out overnight, massive unemployment, and educational anxiety unresolved. Population and birth rates: Poor results from the three-child policy, falling birth rates, and accelerating aging. Made in China 2025: Viewed by the outside world as a threat, leading to technological blockades. Platform economy crackdown: Internet investment willingness declined, innovation vitality frustrated. Nucleic acid economy and pandemic prevention industry: After massive investment, the policy pivoted, leaving a mountain of debt. Economic data and local government debt: High implicit debt, real estate drag, and youth unemployment becoming the norm. Ladies and gentlemen, did this summary miss any unfinished policies? Please leave a message in the comments section.
On July 22, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched the "National Employment Public Service Map," which provided employment services for graduates through many channels. However, just one day after its launch, netizens searching for it using software like Amap found that the "QR code had expired," displaying errors such as "no operation permission" and being unable to open. A netizen said: The real unemployment rate now is terrifying; every industry is struggling just to survive. Forget about a job; ordinary people will be doing well just to stay alive. The netizen below shared their job-hunting experience and sighed: "Even factories don't want people.
On July 20, at a flight attendant interview for Guanghui Jintong in Langfang, Hebei, tens of thousands of job seekers in formal attire gathered densely outside the office building, still overcrowded even at 3 or 4 in the morning. Under the pressure of economic downturn, capital's exploitation of bottom-tier laborers has intensified. On July 22, Chuanghui Electronics Factory in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, oppressed and exploited summer student workers, ultimately settling wages at just "one yuan per hour." Such a harsh employment environment and economic situation cannot help but make young people fear for their future.
On July 22, a netizen shared a video of two elderly people fighting over a cardboard box. A netizen sighed in the comment section: "Will we end up like this when we get old?" The netizen said: Now I wake up at 5:30 AM and go downstairs for a walk at 6:00 AM, only to find that the aunties who collect garbage are already sitting across from the trash cans. Early birds get the best spots; society is so intensely competitive that even collecting garbage has become this cutthroat. Another netizen pointed out: Considering domestic involution and food safety, many people might not even last long enough to fight over cardboard boxes.
Parts of China have been hit by continuous torrential rains over the past few weeks, resulting in widespread flooding. However, disaster victims may still need to endure a few more weeks of hardship. According to Reuters, meteorological experts stated that China has entered its peak flood season, and from late July to early August, the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall will increase. Rainfall in most parts of northern China is projected to be 20% to 50% higher than usual. Coupled with poor flood control infrastructure across China, the number of disaster victims will likely only increase day by day. On the evening of July 22, Baoji, Shaanxi experienced heavy rainfall, causing severe water accumulation on multiple roads in the urban area. On July 22, Shijiazhuang, Hebei was hit by torrential rains in various places, which also led to severe water accumulation on the roads. Netizens commented: superficially glamorous and magnificent cities put political achievements above people's livelihoods. In the worst-hit disaster area, the dam-break disaster area in Hengzhou, Guangxi, the People's Liberation Army soldiers finished posing for photos and withdrew last week, but local disaster victims remain trapped in the disaster. On July 23, a netizen in Zhenglong Township, Hengzhou, Guangxi posted a video stating that the area continues to experience heavy torrential rain, and the newly unblocked road has been washed away again. On July 22, in Hengzhou, Guangxi, disaster victims successively spoke out saying that the temporary resettlement site suddenly issued an emergency notice, using loudhailers to announce demands that disaster victims move out within a time limit and forbidding them from returning to the temporary resettlement site. Netizens sighed: this is how "they" love the people.
Next, we enter the foreign media view of China segment. Amid the current wave of global supply chain reshaping, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are experiencing a profound economic divergence and divergence of fates. According to a recent report by the English-language in-depth business media The Wire China, Taiwan's economic growth rate in the first quarter of this year rose sharply to 15%, hitting a new high in recent years; Taiwan's total export volume of goods to the United States has officially surpassed the Chinese mainland. In sharp contrast to this, economists are questioning China's "two-speed economy" predicament. Stephen Roach, one of Wall Street's former most optimistic economists regarding China's economy, has now become one of its sharpest critics. He recently wrote an article in the Financial Times asking: "How much longer can China's economic operations, which defy history and logic through imbalances, possibly last?" His conclusion is that it cannot last much longer. The article states: China's economy has long continuously broken external predictions of its slowdown, but any economic model ultimately cannot defy basic laws. The latest data shows that China's economy grew by 4.3% in the second quarter of this year, which is not only lower than the growth target of 4.5% to 5% set at the beginning of the year, but also exposes how economic structural imbalances are intensifying. Currently, China's economy has almost only a single engine left—exports. Exports in June this year grew by 27% year-on-year, becoming the main driving force pulling the economy; in contrast, domestic consumption continues to be sluggish, with total retail sales of consumer goods in the first half of June growing by only 1%, and fixed asset investment in the first half of the year even dropping by 5.7%. Although industrial production grew by 5.3%, it mainly relies on external demand support, forming a distinct contrast of "strong production, cold consumption". As early as 2007, then-Premier Wen Jiabao warned that China's economy had problems of being "unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable". Since then, Beijing has successively introduced policies such as common prosperity, supply-side reform, and property deleveraging in hopes of easing structural imbalances. However, problems that truly restrict consumption have not been resolved for many years; the progress of social security reforms such as healthcare and elderly care remains limited, and residents still tend to save money rather than consume, making domestic demand consistently difficult to truly recover. In recent years, Xi Jinping has insisted on developing so-called "new quality productive forces", focusing investment on advanced manufacturing industries such as artificial intelligence, new energy, and electric vehicles, hoping to drive economic growth by enhancing industrial competitiveness. However, when domestic demand remains weak, more and more products can only rely on exports, leading to supply constantly exceeding demand, further intensifying trade frictions with Europe, the United States, and Global South countries, and also increasing the possibility of various countries adopting trade protection measures. China currently accounts for about 30% of global manufacturing value-added, and the United Nations expects this figure to approach 45% by 2030. But the author believes that unlike the United States after World War II—where the industrial advantage of that era was supported by massive domestic consumption—China today is increasingly dependent on export markets. If the global market cannot continuously absorb China's ever-increasing production capacity, this production-centric development model will become increasingly difficult to sustain. The article warns at the end: the 2008 global financial crisis was precisely triggered by severe economic imbalances, and the structural imbalances China faces today are also constantly expanding. If consumption fails to pick up while production continues to expand, what is ultimately tested is not only China's economy, but it may also affect the economy of the entire world. Xi Jinping has always emphasized "developing new quality productive forces", but if the things produced cannot even be afforded by his own people and can only be continuously sold abroad, that is ultimately not high-quality development, but high-risk development. Factories can operate twenty-four hours a day, but wallets around the world will not digest China's production capacity twenty-four hours a day.
Now let's look at a few absurd videos. China's tofu-dreg projects have turned the daily lives of Chinese people into an adventure game. On July 16, the Qilinling Tunnel on the Hubei section of China's G59 Expressway collapsed because no steel rebar was used at all—not a single piece. In the Xulin Tunnel on the Hubei section of the expressway, you can cut corners, but how could it collapse in Chengdu? Inside the tunnel, built in 2000, there wasn't a single piece of steel rebar; the car in front was totaled, and not a single piece of steel rebar was used. It was built by a building materials company—isn't this a complete joke? Netizens joked: The world-renowned infrastructure maniacs, who needs steel rebar to build a tunnel?
Next, this netizen reposted a video of Chinese-style education. Ladies and gentlemen, if you needed to explain to a foreign friend what these students are doing and why they are doing it, what would you say? Please leave a comment in the comment section.
At the end of the show, we enter the netizen interaction segment. Victor Ma commented on the problem-ridden C919, saying: To support domestically produced large aircraft, I strongly recommend that CCP leaders' special planes all use the C919! Brown bear said: You're overthinking it. If it crashes, they can immediately cover it with a black cloth and not announce the model. Of course, they'll just have to block mobile signals within a radius of a hundred miles before the clueless crowd can snap random photos on their phones. rzt commented on the Chinese coast guard harassing Philippine vessels, saying: Have the Philippines hang a large photo of the Tiananmen tank man all over the wrecked ship, and paint the hull number “8964” on the small boats; that way the CCP will be dumbfounded. Today's US trending topics end here. Thank you all for watching. New viewers who like our show, please help by hitting like and subscribing, and help us spread these voices beyond the Great Firewall further. In addition, friends who want to support our channel more can consider joining the membership of China-US Benchmarking. Until next time, see you then!