On December 31, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced quota restriction measures on beef imports from countries including Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and the United States, imposing an additional 55% tariff on beef imports exceeding the quota.
The Eastern Theater Command announced the start of military exercises involving the army, navy, air force, and rocket force. The next day, it issued navigational warnings for live-fire shooting areas, followed by the announcement of the completion of the exercises.
Entrusted by Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Wang Yang summoned 22 Politburo members for talks. At the democratic life meeting, Xi Jinping faced 11 rounds of stern criticism, with multiple members directly pressuring him on the spot to resign and take responsibility.
Just forty-five days after the closing ceremony of the National Games, Guo Yonghang was removed from his posts as a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CCP and Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee, with the central authorities announcing he will be reassigned.
A report by Rhodium Group dated December 22, 2025 estimated that China's real GDP growth in 2025 was between 2.5% and 3%, roughly half the officially announced rate.
On December 17, 2025, China's National Health Commission (NHC) publicly solicited opinions on the Blood Donation Law (Draft Amendment for Public Comment), proposing to raise the upper age limit for blood donation from 55 to 65 and to shorten the minimum interval for whole blood donation from 6 months to 90 days.
The U.S. has sold $11 billion worth of key weapons to Taiwan, with another approximately $14 billion in arms sales approved but not yet completed.
Sources claim that Zhang Youxia is being held at the Central Guard Bureau base in Gu'an, Hebei and is on a hunger strike; the authorities only announced on January 24, 2026 that they had opened a case for review and investigation against him.
Former Air Force Commander Chang Dingqiu reportedly died of a sudden heart attack while undergoing detention and interrogation by the military discipline inspection commission, with no official announcement made.
Zhang Youxia was secretly placed under control and arrested in December, and the news was made public the following January.
According to estimates in the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics' "2025 Report on the Fiscal Conditions of Provinces, Cities, and Counties," in 2024 the average fiscal self-sufficiency rate of the country's 2,774 county-level areas was about 38%, with the lowest county at only about 1%.
From late 2025 to early 2026, Xi Jinping promoted several generals in the Central Military Commission: Zhang Shengmin as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Shuguang as secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, Wang Gang as commander of the Air Force, Yang Zhibin as commander of the Eastern Theater Command, and Han Shengyan as commander of the Central Theater Command, all promoted to full general.
In 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi publicly mentioned the San Francisco Treaty, implying that Taiwan's status has remained undetermined since that treaty, and emphasized Japan's concern over Taiwan's security, provoking a strong reaction from Beijing.
Amid tensions with China in the South China Sea, the Philippines has opened bases close to Taiwan to U.S. military deployment, in response to the security situation in the Taiwan Strait.