On January 31, 2026, France's General Directorate for Internal Security arrested 4 suspects involved in the case in the southwestern department of Gironde, charging two of them, Chinese wireless engineers, with attempting to install a large antenna system to intercept Starlink and military satellite data.
A document from a U.S. House select committee singles out the China-Iceland Arctic Science Station in Kárhóll, Iceland, warning that the facility appears to be conducting dual-use research on the territory of a NATO ally and that its potential military applications have drawn Washington's attention.
After news broke that Pokémon would hold an event at Yasukuni Shrine, CCTV.com published an article on January 30 titled 'Stepping on the historical red line three times! Pokémon is a repeat offender in "worshipping ghosts",' claiming that in 2016, it had set a game challenge location inside Yasukuni Shrine.
In January 2026, an open letter allegedly written by Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission, to Xi Jinping circulated on overseas social networks, in which he set out his positions on disputes over the system of responsibility of the chair of the military commission, policy toward Taiwan, and policy toward Russia.
The claim that DeepSeek trained a top-tier model for $5.6 million, along with its technical report, has upended Nvidia's $589.1 billion market capitalization.
On January 25, 2026, the front page of the PLA Daily convicted Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli over the filing of their case, with the charge being a serious violation of the system of the Chairman of the Military Commission assuming sole responsibility; overseas disclosures claim that the Ministry of National Defense belongs to the civilian system, and that it is the perpetrator convicting the victim.
The Ministry of National Defense announced that Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli are suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and have been placed under investigation; a PLA Daily editorial subsequently stated that the two seriously trampled upon and undermined the system of the CMC chairman's responsibility.
On January 24, 2026, the Ministry of National Defense announced that Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, Chief of the Joint Staff Department, were suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and had been placed under case investigation.
Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were officially announced to be investigated for “seriously trampling and undermining the Chairman’s responsibility system of the Central Military Commission”, indicating intense power struggles at the top.
On January 24, 2026, Han Song quietly resigned from his position as a member of the Xinjiang CPPCC.
Following the near-perfect U.S. military operation in Venezuela in early January, a large number of high-ranking PLA generals have disappeared, including top-level commanders. During the Two Sessions in early March, only 6 out of 26 generals appeared in public, and 4 out of 6 military members of the Central Military Commission have been purged in recent months, indicating severe political turmoil within the military.
Between late 2025 and early 2026, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were plotted against and confirmed to be taken down. Subsequently, in late August 2026, the National People's Congress explicitly relieved Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli of their positions as deputies to the NPC and members of the Central Military Commission, among other posts, drawing external attention to the rift between the military and the central leadership.
Reports that Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli had run into trouble broke the earlier private pact in Zhongnanhai and triggered subsequent political turmoil.
Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, member of the Central Military Commission, were involved in an incident at the Central Party School. Subsequently, the Ministry of National Defense officially announced their investigation on January 24, and on January 25, the front page of the PLA Daily convicted them of "severely trampling on the Chairman of the Central Military Commission responsibility system."
On January 24, 2026, the Ministry of National Defense announced that Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, Chief of the Joint Staff Department, are suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and that the CPC Central Committee has decided to place both under investigation.
On January 24, 2026, the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of National Defense announced that Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, Chief of the Joint Staff Department, are suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and have been placed under investigation.
Zhang Youxia was arrested in December last year. More than half a year has passed since the related case came to light, drawing widespread attention from the outside world.
The video claims that Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were arrested in January 2026, without providing a specific date or official confirmation.
On January 24, the Political and Legal Affairs Commission's official newspaper Legal Daily reposted a video from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rebutting UN experts' "forced labor" remarks. Hundreds of netizens sarcastically mapped it onto their own experiences of working overtime, and the comments section was subsequently cleared out, leaving only emojis.
On January 24, a netizen had their account banned for publishing a post containing Xi Jinping's latest taboo nickname "diormywhoo".
On January 23, Zheng Xinxin, Deputy Director of the Xintai Community Residents' Committee in Lanxi Town, Lanxi County, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province—a CCP member and veteran—real-name reported Party Branch Secretary Li Chunhong. The report alleges issues including drawing a salary without working, excessive unauthorized expenditures, irregular recruitment of Party members, falsification of Party branch meeting records, and illegal manipulation of the re-election process.
A netizen took a photo showing what appeared to be plainclothes personnel gathering outside the entrance of Zhang Youxia's residence. At the time, observers speculated that the personnel involved might be conducting an inspection or taking Zhang Youxia away.
After returning to her hometown in Guizhou, Xiao Wei (online name "Xiao Wei is not Xiao Wei"), a mainland spouse deported from Taiwan, has been actively defending the rights of local residents, live-streaming to denounce local government extravagance, and publicly challenging the local village committee to a debate in her live-stream.
On January 21, a Beijing netizen used a Huawei Fit 2 smartwatch to test a 'Nailong' doll, and heart rate and blood oxygen data appeared on the screen. Previously, Huawei watches had also displayed heart rates when testing oranges and bananas, leading netizens to joke that 'Nailong has come back to life.'
According to sources outside the Great Firewall, Zhang Youxia, the first vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, the Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, were both in trouble and arrested on January 20.
After Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were absent from the opening ceremony of the seminar for provincial and ministerial-level officials on January 20, 2026, reports emerged that they had run into trouble. On January 24, the Ministry of National Defense announced that both had been placed under case investigation.
The UK Labour Government has officially approved China's construction of a large embassy at the Royal Mint Court mint near the Tower of London, sparking concerns among overseas dissidents regarding intelligence gathering and intimidation.
An overseas source inside the system claimed that on January 20, 2026, while a provincial- and ministerial-level seminar was in session at the Central Party School, a secret force raised by Wang Xiaohong, disguised as Party School staff, carried out a surprise attack on Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli; this version cannot be verified, but neither of the two has appeared in public since.
On January 20, 2026, the Office of the Central Special Mechanism for Combating Formalism and Reducing Burdens at the Grassroots Level, together with the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced: from 2022 to 2024, 34 above-designated-size industrial enterprises in Shuangjiang County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province, cumulatively falsified their reported output value by 3.5 billion yuan.
Rumor has it that on January 20, 2026, the day an incident involving Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli occurred at the Central Party School, Cai Qi briefly took control of the two men: Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin and Director of the Central Guard Bureau Zhou Hongxu.
On January 19, 2026, the National Bureau of Statistics announced: at the end of 2025, the country's total population was 1,404.89 million; during the year, 7.92 million were born and 11.31 million died, a decrease of 3.39 million, marking negative growth for the fourth consecutive year; the population aged 60 and above was 323 million, accounting for about 23%.
China's statistical department announced that the nominal GDP for 2025 is approximately 140 trillion yuan, a figure used to estimate the economic losses caused by information control.
The China Center for International Economic Exchanges has been transferred in full to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, with Vice President Peng Jinhui in charge of the handover work.
As more and more laughable segments from "Great Nation Craftsmen" emerged, netizens one after another imitated them and shot videos, delivering mocking reenactments of content such as "how to use a vernier caliper" and "the emergency stop button."
According to the video, the Beijing Garrison Command held a plenary session of its party committee on January 14.
Official media reports on January 14, 2026 showed that Tang Fangyu has succeeded Jiang Jinquan as director of the Central Policy Research Office; Jiang Jinquan is currently deputy director of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress.
China Labor Watch has released an investigative report stating that while the art toy Labubu became a global hit in 2025, workers at its Chinese contract factories face harsh conditions such as low wages and excessive overtime, creating a sharp contrast with the brand Pop Mart's commercial success.
In January 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce revised its rules, changing exports of Nvidia H200 chips to China to case-by-case review; the Chinese side subsequently still has not approved the purchase.
On January 12, 2026, the grassroots online community Li Community released its 2025 annual report, compiling digital action projects covering reducing the burden on middle school students, records of workers' excessive overtime, and cross-border fraud verification, along with more than 20,000 submissions from the public.
On January 12, procurement documents released by Henan Medical University showed that the school spent 550,000 yuan to build a student comprehensive profiling analysis platform. The platform conducts non-intrusive collection and intelligent analysis of students' daily behavior, academics, mental health, and financial aid information, and includes functions such as dynamic tracking of key students and four-level grid management.
On January 11, in the Da Shanghai City mall in Zhengzhou, a girl was surrounded and harassed by a group of people for cosplaying a character from "My Hero Academia." She was verbally abused, her wig was ripped off and burned, and she was forced to sing the "March of the Volunteers." Two other girls accompanying her were also surrounded.
On January 11, an 8-meter-tall Marilyn Monroe statue inside the Central Avenue tourism and culture shopping center in Dalian, Liaoning, was quietly removed. Netizens posted comparison photos of the scene on Xiaohongshu (RedNote) and Douyin, and mall staff claimed they only noticed it when they arrived for work that day.
On January 10, the Myanmar government announced that, as of January 9, all illegal buildings in KK Park used for online fraud and gambling activities had been completely demolished, including 148 buildings in Zone 1, 62 buildings in Zone 2, and 425 buildings in Zone 3, totaling 635 illegal structures.
On January 9, a large number of villagers from Wendong Village, Xinqiao Town, Jingjiang City, Jiangsu Province, gathered in front of the local town government to defend their rights, as their collective land had been requisitioned by the town government, and issues regarding pension insurance and compensation for the land-lost farmers had not been properly resolved.
On January 7, 2026, a working group from the Ministry of Public Security escorted Chen Zhi, a ringleader of a cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate, back to China from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Ministry of Public Security announced the news on January 8.
Host Liu Wen once spoke up for food delivery couriers and questioned Meituan's high commission rates. On January 6, she posted a video stating that her consumer fraud rights defense failed to receive compensation; instead, she was ruled as defaming, with the court issuing a prejudgment and sentencing her to apologize for one month and pay 500,000 RMB without her knowledge.
The State Administration for Market Regulation summoned the photovoltaic industry association and six leading companies for talks over industry collusion to raise prices, ordering a halt to self-imposed production and price limits, which caused polysilicon futures to hit the limit down.
Yang Hong, Deputy Director of the Guizhou Health Commission, was investigated on January 5, 2026.
Justin Sun proposed to Jing Tian in the Maldives and plans to buy a home in Hong Kong, with a bride price of about 30 million RMB.
There have been claims that generals including Li Zuocheng proposed a plan to bring the 38th Army's heavy units into Beijing, impose air traffic control, and declare martial law in the capital, only to be blocked by Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao; this claim has no public reports to corroborate it.