According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2026, China's population aged 65 and above reached 224 million in 2025, accounting for 15.9%, exceeding for the first time the share of the 0-to-14 age group at 15.1%; the old-age dependency ratio of 23.1% surpassed the child dependency ratio of 22% for the first time.
At the end of August 2026, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress made a decision to dismiss Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli from their posts.
The provinces of Hunan and Yunnan each held provincial leading cadres meetings, announcing that Wang Zhijun will serve as secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Mo Gaoyi as secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee, while also adjusting the personnel for governors and deputy party secretaries of several provinces.
The eighth round of inspections by the 20th CCP Central Committee has officially begun, with teams stationed at the Ministry of Education and 31 centrally administered universities including Peking University and Tsinghua University.
The 2026 U.S. midterm elections will be held on November 3, with all 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats up for election, determining control of both chambers of Congress.
The White House announced that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a partial ceasefire in Oleshky, which is under Russian control, to deliver humanitarian aid to the area and allow residents to evacuate.
The White House announced that, facilitated by First Lady Melania Trump, Russia and Ukraine reached a partial ceasefire agreement on Russian-controlled Oleshky, effective October 29, to deliver humanitarian supplies and allow residents to evacuate.
The U.S. Department of Commerce's 50% affiliate rule targeting China is scheduled to automatically resume around November 10, overlapping with the timeline of the Huawei case proceedings.
The 2026 U.S. midterm elections were held on November 3, electing 35 Senate seats, all 435 House seats, and governors and state legislatures in 36 states.
According to Yonhap News Agency and Reuters, on October 24 Kim Jong-un arrived in Dandong, Liaoning, via the new Yalu River Bridge, visiting China again after more than a year, and State Council Premier Li Qiang met with him in Dandong.
On October 24, Kim Jong Un traveled by special train across the New Yalu River Bridge to visit Dandong, China, marking a significant development in high-level exchanges between the two countries since the bridge opened.
The Politburo meeting reviewed the comprehensive report on the seventh round of inspections of the 20th CCP Central Committee, decided to remove Shen Xiaoming from the post of Hunan Provincial Party Secretary and Wang Ning from the post of Yunnan Provincial Party Secretary, and parachuted in Mo Gaoyi as Yunnan Provincial Party Secretary and Wang Zhijin as Hunan Provincial Party Secretary.
At a Politburo meeting on the eve of the Fifth Plenary Session, the elders and the faction holding real power placed two pieces of paper demanding resignation or dismissal on the table, forcing Xi Jinping to choose one of the two.
On October 23, 2026, the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee held a meeting to deliberate a comprehensive report on the seventh round of inspections of the 20th CCP Central Committee, covering 36 units of central and state organs.
San'an Optoelectronics issued an announcement stating that it received notice from the family of actual controller Lin Xiucheng that Lin Xiucheng has been approved for arrest by the procuratorate on suspicion of embezzlement of office and misappropriation of funds.
An analysis released by the Brookings Institution on October 23 points out that after the purge of the 44 military members of the CCP Central Committee, only 17 remain in name, with only Defense Minister Dong Jun and Zhang Shengmin still making public appearances.
The United States held midterm elections on November 3, 2026, with the two parties engaged in fierce contests in key Senate and House districts. The results will determine the balance of power in Congress and the policy direction for the next two years.
On October 23, Chinese Premier Li Qiang presided over the State Council executive meeting, calling for accelerating the building of a fertility-friendly society, improving policies on marriage, childbirth, child-rearing and education, optimizing family support measures such as fiscal and tax, social security and housing policies, and striving to stabilize the scale of the newborn population.
U.S. nonprofit organization C4ADS released an investigation report showing that enterprises related to Russia's defense industry are gradually entering China's supply chain, and defense cooperation between the two countries has accelerated and escalated since 2022.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of launching hundreds of drones to attack their respective capitals.
At a meeting commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Long March, Hu Chunhua was unexpectedly absent; after contacting multiple sources, it has been confirmed that Hu Chunhua and his family have gone missing.
October 22 is the deadline set by the Chinese government for declaring historical back taxes on offshore trusts. On that day, Chinese stocks officially entered a technical bear market, with the wealthy selling assets to pay the taxes, triggering selling pressure.
The CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission officially issued a notice announcing that Xia Linmao, member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and deputy mayor of Beijing, is under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Xia Linmao, member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and executive vice mayor, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is undergoing investigation.
On October 22, a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, attended by about 3,000 people. Xi Jinping reviewed the history of the Long March, emphasized the decisive significance of the Zunyi Conference in establishing Mao Zedong's leadership position, put forward five requirements for successfully carrying on the new Long March journey, and stressed the Party's absolute leadership over the military and full and strict governance of the Party.
At 22:33 on October 22, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred in Baqing County, Nagqu City, Tibet, with a focal depth of 10 kilometers.
On October 22, the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission announced that Xia Linmao, member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and executive vice mayor, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation. Xia is an alternate member of the 20th CCP Central Committee, just 4 days before the scheduled opening of the Fifth Plenary Session.
On October 22, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck Baqing County, Nagqu City, Tibet. According to official Chinese government announcements, as of 7 a.m. on the 23rd, the earthquake had killed 16 people and injured 54, including 11 seriously injured.
After Special Envoy Witkoff held separate meetings with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine agreed on October 21 to hold technical-level talks among Washington, Moscow and Kyiv.
Taiwanese prosecutors indicted a suspect who allegedly, at China's instigation, plotted to ram a vehicle into an entertainer, while Taiwan's foreign ministry and the Mainland Affairs Council issued statements condemning cross-border repression.
A meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Long March was held. Footage broadcast by CCTV showed several senior military officers absent from the rostrum, sparking outside speculation about developments at the top of the military.
The Taiwan New Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted five people, accusing mainland Chinese national "K" of offering NT$450,000 to hire someone to stage a fake car crash out of dissatisfaction with Huang Yihao's satire of Xi Jinping, and refusing to pay the NT$200,000 balance because Huang suffered only minor injuries.
On October 21, Microsoft released a report stating that Storm-0940, a hacking group linked to the Chinese government, has been using the AI tool ARTEX since September to breach Microsoft 365 systems with credentials from the cloud backup application of U.S. IT service provider ConnectWise, attacking hundreds of government, military, semiconductor, and think tank organizations worldwide. In some attacks, high-level cloud privileges were obtained in under three hours. ConnectWise has acknowledged the security incident and is restoring services in phases.
On October 21, surveillance footage of the incident in which Taiwanese crosstalk actor Huang Yihao, who had publicly mocked Xi Jinping, was struck by a vehicle was released: a black sedan tailgated his parked scooter and suddenly rammed it. The video also shows photos from the scene, heavily armed police arriving at his door to arrest him, and footage of him being escorted away. All 5 defendants in the case have been indicted.
The U.S. Department of Defense has signed a 10-year F-35 procurement framework agreement with Lockheed Martin, guaranteeing the purchase of at least 850 aircraft over the decade.
Bloomberg named eight Chinese billionaires including Ding Lei, Huang Zheng and Lei Jun, whose overseas trust assets exceed $140 billion, facing a new round of tax recovery and harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party.
On October 20, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have collectively ordered more than 3 million Nvidia RTX PRO 5500 graphics cards, with potential orders worth over $35 billion. Because U.S. restrictions limit exports of high-end AI chips to China, the three companies have turned to this workstation graphics card for AI inference, but Nvidia cannot guarantee supply, and some partners may receive only 5%–10% of the quantity they need.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on October 20, China's GDP in the third quarter grew 4.5% year-on-year, with strong exports surging 36% year-on-year in September, and the trade surplus expected to hit another record.
The Wall Street Journal reported that China's real estate investment fell 21% in the first three quarters of this year, overall fixed-asset investment declined 7.2%, and consumer spending remains weak.
Yemen's Houthi forces fired three ballistic missiles at a government military camp in Shabwa Province on October 19, killing at least 53 soldiers and injuring more than 200 recruits.
The U.S.-Japan "Keen Sword 2027" multilateral exercise held its opening ceremony on Ishigaki Island in Japan, assembling about 58,000 officers and soldiers, and advanced anti-ship and air defense systems will be deployed.
The U.S. Department of War announced on October 19 the completion of preliminary research security reviews of 30 universities, resulting in the termination of more than 80 collaborative partnerships related to entities on the list.
The State Taxation Administration released six implementation details, clarifying standards for lump-sum back taxes and the recovery period on historical trust income from offshore trusts, stepping up tax recovery from the wealthy’s overseas trusts.
The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory for China on October 19, rarely adding a D rating, determining that Americans face a serious risk of being illegally detained in China.
Hu Liren predicts that, given the deterioration of Xi Jinping's health and the enormous pressure from opposition forces within the military and the Party, Xi Jinping will step down from all his posts no later than October 2027 at the 21st Party Congress.
On October 19, the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Putin proposed a trilateral meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping next month to discuss ending the Russia-Ukraine war, and the proposed meeting would not include Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Economic data released on October 19 showed that from January to September 2026, China's real estate development investment fell 20.6% year-on-year, a wider decline than in January–August; national fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% year-on-year; and total retail sales of consumer goods rose 1.1% year-on-year in September, with the growth rate picking up from August.
On October 19, the U.S. State Department updated its travel warning for mainland China, adding a "Wrongful Detention (D)" risk indicator while maintaining Level 2 "Exercise Increased Caution" overall, saying that private messages sent from abroad criticizing the Chinese Communist Party could also lead to detention or deportation, and noting that China has previously imposed exit bans on American minors to force relatives abroad to return.
On October 19, the Asia Society Policy Institute released a report stating that the Chinese Communist Party's 20th Central Committee Fifth Plenary Session will be held in Beijing from October 26 to 29, with the core agenda being the adoption of the "Decision on Several Major Issues Concerning the Continued Comprehensive Strict Governance of the Party." The report said that in 2025, 118,000 officials were disciplined over formalism and bureaucratism; of the original 24 Politburo members, 3 have already been purged; among the original 44 full members of the PLA's Central Committee, only Zhang Shengmin and Dong Jun remain untouched. The attendance rate at this plenary session is expected to be about 77%, which would set the lowest record since the reform and opening up.
On October 19, Trump told reporters outside the White House that he was willing to hold a trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Putin, hoping to focus the discussion on nuclear weapons and denuclearization rather than mainly on Ukraine, and said that if President Xi wished to hold one, he would be glad to attend.