In mid-September 2026, overseas reports circulated claiming that Wen Jiabao hopes to push the agenda after the Fifth Plenum further, from the top leader's departure toward restarting political system reform. Another account says conservative forces within the Party have hit the brakes on this. At present, no official document has confirmed any of it.
According to Kyodo News, citing sources familiar with US-China relations, Beijing sent word to Washington in mid-September 2026 that if the United States approves new arms sales to Taiwan before the scheduled US-China leaders' meeting, the Chinese side might cancel the encounter, with only about ten days left until the meeting expected by the outside world.
On September 14, an indiscriminate knife attack on passersby occurred near the University City in Guangzhou. A man wearing a black mask committed the assault in the street, leaving multiple people injured.
Kyodo News, citing multiple sources, reported that Beijing has signaled to Washington that if the U.S. approves any new arms sales to Taiwan before the upcoming U.S.-China summit, China will consider canceling the meeting.
On September 11, U.S. federal prosecutors in Detroit charged 41-year-old Tianjin resident Di Jin with allegedly collecting information on current and former U.S. government officials regarding U.S.-China relations for Chinese intelligence agencies. According to an FBI investigation, she acted under the direction of Shanghai intelligence officers, using her work at a Beijing think tank as a cover, and was instructed to delete chat records before traveling to the U.S. Her communications involved topics such as "Xi’s team," rare earth elements, U.S. debt, and tariffs.
The People's Bank of China released the financial data for August. New RMB loans nationwide totaled only 60 billion yuan, far below the market expectation of 404.3 billion yuan, and the year-on-year growth rate plummeted to a historic low of 4.9%. Both household and corporate loans experienced sharp declines, reflecting a frozen willingness for private sector investment and consumption.
On September 14, at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles (hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, and David Sacks), Trump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who was on stage, and Huang answered on speakerphone. Trump first teased Huang for being able to build the most complex chips but failing to manage the speakerphone, then addressed the recent opposition surrounding data center construction and AI safety, calling it all a 'scam.' He accused the opponents of 'playing right into someone's hands' and hinted that the opposition might be linked to political forces or China, stating, 'We won't let that happen.' Huang replied, 'You're right, sir, we won't let that happen,' and expressed his commitment to ensuring everyone in the U.S. wins in the AI race. Trump emphasized that the U.S. must beat China in AI innovation, calling data centers 'the oil of the next 20 to 25 years.'
US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall publicly admitted at a conference in National Harbor, Maryland, that the US Space Force currently possesses space control weapons deployed in orbit. This is the Pentagon's most explicit public statement to date regarding the US's deployment of weapons in space, aimed at protecting joint forces from threats posed by hostile adversaries.
China's central bank released August financial data. New renminbi loans nationwide totaled only 59.1 billion yuan, while household loans fell by a net 202.9 billion yuan.
On September 11, 2026, the Hong Kong High Court sentenced leaders of the Alliance for Patriotic Democratic Movements of Hong Kong (ADPL), Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho Chun-yan, to five, six, and seven years in prison respectively for subversion of state power. The Hong Kong SAR government and the Legislative Council subsequently issued statements firmly supporting the verdict and accusing the US, the West, and overseas organizations of slander and smearing. Police Commissioner Raymond Siu warned that there are still hidden criminals. The EU issued a statement saying the trial was politically motivated and warned of damage to Hong Kong's rule of law reputation; the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the abolition of the penalty and demanded that the National Security Law comply with international human rights standards.
According to a Bloomberg report on September 14, as the U.S. and Chinese heads of state are expected to meet in late September, China purchased at least 1 million tons of U.S. soybeans last week, bringing total purchases to over half of its annual commitment. China Gas also signed a 20-year liquefied natural gas purchase agreement, though tensions between the U.S. and China persist in areas such as AI and arms sales to Taiwan.
On September 14, Lei Haichao, director of the National Health Commission, stated at a State Council Information Office press conference that although China's newborn population has declined in recent years, it has remained at the order of magnitude of around 8 million, and there will still be relatively abundant labor resources in the future. This statement was subsequently rebutted by Huang Wenzheng in a published article.
The aggregate financing to the real economy for August announced by the central bank was 1.66 trillion yuan, of which net government bond financing was 1.01 trillion yuan, accounting for 60.8%; renminbi loans to the real economy were only 60 billion yuan, accounting for 3.6%, meaning financing was mainly supported by government borrowing.
Central bank data show that household loans decreased by 202.9 billion yuan in August, of which short-term loans fell by 121.9 billion yuan and medium-to-long-term loans fell by 82.2 billion yuan. Both the short and long ends declined simultaneously, indicating that residents are neither buying homes nor borrowing to finance consumption.
Central bank data show that corporate loans increased by 260 billion yuan in August, of which short-term loans decreased by 160 billion yuan and medium- and long-term loans increased by 320 billion yuan, below the level of 470 billion yuan in new medium- and long-term loans in August last year.
Central bank data show that household loans recorded a cumulative net decrease of 1.03 trillion yuan in the first 8 months of 2026, compared with a net increase of 711 billion yuan in the same period of 2025, as household sector credit swung from positive to negative.
On September 14, 2026, the US Secretary of the Air Force formally acknowledged for the first time that the US military has deployed on-orbit space control weapons, saying they can protect US forces and counter enemy space capabilities when necessary. China's Foreign Ministry subsequently warned the US not to turn space into a battlefield and opposed the weaponization of outer space.
Financial data for August released by the central bank on September 14 showed that the year-on-year growth of the RMB loan balance fell to 4.9%, the lowest value since statistics began.
Aggregate financing in August was 1.66 trillion yuan, down 35% year on year, of which net government bond financing was 1.01 trillion yuan, accounting for 60.8%, while RMB loans to the real economy were only 60 billion yuan, or 3.6%.
Central bank data show that household deposits increased by 6.99 trillion yuan in the first 8 months of 2026, 2.78 trillion yuan less than in the same period a year earlier; over the same period, household loans decreased by a net 1.03 trillion yuan, and the household sector's overall balance sheet shrank by about 8 trillion yuan.
On September 14, Vice Minister of Education Xu Qingsen was parachuted into Fujian, taking office as a standing committee member of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and head of its Organization Department. With this, both the posts of discipline inspection commission secretary and organization department head in Fujian have changed hands within three months.
At a State Council Information Office briefing on September 14, it was announced that the General Office of the State Council has issued a new notice, requiring guidance for large enterprises to reduce the maximum payment period for small and medium-sized enterprises to within 60 days and to standardize payment rules across industries.
The State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) requires central state-owned enterprises to dynamically clear defaults and arrears owed to small and medium-sized enterprises, with cash payment becoming a mandatory requirement. No new bills or notes with terms exceeding 6 months will be issued, and SMEs can report arrears issues to central SOEs and SASAC platforms.
According to an ICIJ investigation based on 4.8 million confidential documents, ICBC's London branch, at the behest of its Beijing headquarters, provided financing for Belt and Road projects and opened accounts for the daughter of Azerbaijan's dictator, Russian oligarchs, and companies linked to Belarus's military-industrial complex.
According to an ICIJ investigation, days after Meng Wanzhou was indicted by the United States in February 2019, ICBC's London branch urgently convened nine employees on a Saturday, bypassing internal compliance procedures to remit more than $1.3 billion in Huawei deposits back to China; compliance officers raised risk warnings, but the Beijing headquarters insisted on proceeding with the transaction.
On September 14, 2026, Trump posted a series of tweets attacking the proposals by Sanders and tech giants for AI regulation and joint China-U.S. controls, saying that the claim AI will destroy the world is a hoax like global warming, that the only one happy about the conspiracies targeting AI and data centers is China, stressing that whoever wins AI wins the future, and claiming he has enormous criminal and regulatory power over AI companies.
On September 14, at a press conference, Lei Haichao, director of the National Health Commission, stated that China's total population is 1.405 billion and that it will long maintain its status as a populous country in the world, while acknowledging that the population has declined for 4 consecutive years and that newborns have dropped from the tens of millions to the millions.
US President Trump wrote on Truth Social on September 14 that Ukraine has agreed not to strike Russian energy targets, and Russia has likewise agreed, but neither government has confirmed any such agreement, and the Kremlin said Trump's proposal is a very good idea.
US liquefied natural gas exporter Venture Global announced an agreement with China Gas, under which China Gas will purchase 500,000 tonnes of LNG per year starting in 2030 for a period of 20 years, bringing the two sides' total long-term purchases to 2.5 million tonnes per year. The agreement was reached on the eve of the US-China leaders' summit.
On the afternoon of September 14, a revenge attack on society occurred at the GOGO New World Commercial Plaza in Guangzhou University Town, Panyu, Guangzhou, leaving multiple people with eye injuries. Guangzhou police announced that evening that they had apprehended a 35-year-old suspect surnamed Li, and that the injured were not in life-threatening condition; eyewitnesses said there may have been multiple suspects, and a warning post circulated by netizens was deleted.
To address the difficulty SMEs face in collecting receivables, the General Office of the State Council issued a special notice, putting forward 10 measures in four areas, requiring large enterprises to shorten the maximum payment period for SMEs to within 60 days, and pushing leading enterprises to honor a “60-day cash payment commitment.”
At 9:00 PM on September 13, 2026, after arriving back in China from India, Xi Jinping was suspected of suffering a sudden stroke or other serious complications and was carried off the plane, sparking widespread speculation and concern regarding his actual health status.
While attending the BRICS summit in India, Xi Jinping suddenly felt unwell, and Indian Prime Minister Modi asked him on-site if he was feeling uncomfortable. After the meeting, Xi Jinping returned to rest and subsequently missed the dinner hosted by Modi. Related reports stated that Xi Jinping suddenly paused during his speech at the summit, and two people on-site asked "Are you okay?"; the program did not provide a hospital diagnosis or an official statement regarding his health condition.
US officials have revealed evidence indicating that Iran obtained high-resolution satellite imagery of the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan from Chinese entities before launching an attack on the base in July, which resulted in the deaths of three US soldiers and injuries to four. The US has raised the issue with China, but has been rebuffed. This incident further complicates the backdrop for the US-China summit on September 24th.
When Xi Jinping finished his trip to India and boarded his plane to leave, he was observed to be unable to swing his left arm, with his shoulder twisted and his pace noticeably slow, clearly different from the movements of those accompanying him, sparking outside speculation about his health condition.
On September 13, 2026, South Korea passed an amendment to its criminal law, expanding the scope of the espionage offense from "enemy states" to "foreign or equivalent entities", and it came into force on the same day. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning responded that China consistently requires enterprises to comply with laws and regulations, and also calls on all countries to provide a fair, impartial, non-discriminatory business environment. Statistics from the Korean police show that of the 33 overseas technology leakage cases seized in 2025, 54.5% flowed to China. Previously, a South Korean court sentenced a former Samsung researcher to seven years in prison in April for leaking semiconductor technology to China.
On September 13, State Security Minister Chen Yixin published a signed article in a magazine, listing political security as the primary risk of artificial intelligence and demanding adherence to the Party's comprehensive leadership, warning of overseas AI leakage risks and proposing the establishment of a regulatory platform. On the same day, Anthropic released a report stating that local public security and state security in China had used Claude to monitor residents, rights defenders, and overseas dissenters.
According to a circulating video, while Xi Jinping was attending a meeting in India, Modi asked “Are you okay?” from three or four meters away, after which two staff members walked toward Xi Jinping; Xi waved them off and the staff left. The incident was widely circulated, and another version of the video appeared claiming that Modi asked the question because of an earphone problem.
Footage of Xi Jinping returning to Beijing from India shows him descending the aircraft stairs with his body leaning to the left, his left arm hanging naturally without swinging, only his right arm swinging and waving, and walking slowly and with difficulty. The footage has circulated online and is being cited as one of the grounds for discussion about his health.
Trump said in Ireland on September 13 that he was not worried about Xi Jinping canceling the White House meeting scheduled for September 24 over the issue of arms sales to Taiwan; earlier Kyodo News reported that the Chinese side warned that it would cancel the meeting if the US approved new arms sales to Taiwan before the summit, and Trump said he would hold off on approving an arms sale package to Taiwan totaling $14 billion. Taiwan's foreign minister Lin Chia-lung rebutted the claims, saying they were Beijing's cognitive warfare.
From September 13, rumors spread on the X platform that Ren Zhengfei and Meng Wanzhou's family had fled China, accompanied by screenshots showing that Huawei could not reach Ren Zhengfei internally, surveillance footage of a minivan driving away from the residence, and videos of armed police surrounding Huawei's headquarters; these were later republished by Taiwanese and Malaysian media and spread to Douyin.
Chen Yixin, China's Minister of State Security, published a signed article on China Cyberspace on September 13, incorporating six major risks arising from artificial intelligence into the national security system, placing political security first, and naming the large models of Anthropic and OpenAI for raising the level of weaponization of cyberattacks. This is the first time China's top intelligence agency has systematically expounded on AI risks.
The two-day BRICS summit concluded in New Delhi on September 13, 2026, issuing the New Delhi Declaration, which calls on the Middle East region to exercise maximum restraint, avoid actions that could worsen the situation, and condemns, in neutral wording, attacks on civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities.
On the eve of the U.S.-China leaders' summit, Trump repeatedly stressed that the United States must maintain its lead over China in artificial intelligence, saying that whoever wins AI wins, and posted on Truth Social that there had been a conspiracy around artificial intelligence and data centers, and that the only one happy about it is China.
According to Hu Liren's program True China, before Xi Jinping returned to Beijing from India on September 13, the US White House had already begun rehearsals for Xi Jinping's originally scheduled visit to the US on September 24.
According to multiple media reports, an important agreement that India and China had originally planned to sign during Xi Jinping's visit to India in September was ultimately not signed.
On September 13, Anthropic released its September threat intelligence report, stating that operators linked to local Chinese police and state security agencies had used Claude to assist in monitoring petitioners, rights defenders, and overseas dissidents, with the "Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher" account being one of the monitoring targets.
On the evening of September 13, 2026, Xi Jinping left New Delhi after the BRICS Summit. When boarding the plane, he had no jet bridge assistance and walked up the airstairs on foot; the process was very strenuous, inconsistent with the physical condition of someone in his seventies.
Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit the United States on September 24, 2026, and overseas democracy movement activists plan to travel to Washington to protest at that time; pro-CCP overseas community leaders are also organizing people to go to Washington to wave the five-star red flag, and some democracy activists say they will photograph and submit to the FBI for verification the identities of the relevant people.
Anthropic released a report stating that the company discovered and banned a batch of accounts associated with local Chinese public security and state security departments. These accounts used Claude to collect information, query surveillance databases, and generate daily reports. "Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher" was explicitly listed as one of the targets for stability maintenance and public opinion monitoring.