After a fire broke out in a dormitory at the Dalian campus of Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, students said the school arranged for personnel to paint over the smoke-blackened walls, compensating them with only one quilt and three free laundry washes, and did not respond to questions about the fire alarm and evacuation.
On September 17, citizens in Shenzhen, Guangdong reported that purchasing knives (including scissors) locally requires scanning a QR code for real-name registration and taking photos for retention, sparking concerns over escalating social control.
On September 17, two students at the Guangzhou College of Commerce and Business had a dispute over dormitory bed allocation. During the conflict, one student brandished a knife at the other multiple times, raising concerns about campus safety.
Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine from the night of September 17 to the early morning of September 18, hitting Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa, resulting in three deaths, multiple injuries, and several fires. Meanwhile, voting began on Friday for the first State Duma parliamentary elections since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Min Zin, director of a Myanmar think tank, was arrested in June while attending an academic conference in Kunming, charged with espionage and endangering state security. His wife, Sylvia, testified before the U.S. Congress on September 17, calling on Trump to secure her husband's release during his meeting with Xi Jinping next week.
On September 18, a large number of depositors in Zhumadian, Henan Province, gathered in the rain outside the municipal petition office to defend their rights, after the company chairman Wang Haizhou failed to fulfill his promise to distribute living expenses before the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. They chanted slogans demanding to "see the mayor" and called for government intervention to resolve the issue.
On September 13, in Aobei Village, Shuikou Subdistrict, Huicheng District, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, multiple villagers gathered at a construction site to stop work, protesting the highway construction project that excavated and leveled Mashan Hill within the village.
On September 16, villagers in Xujiagou Village, Qian'an City, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, protested against environmental pollution and land destruction caused by mining construction. A large number of SWAT police and security personnel gathered at the scene, engaging in physical clashes with villagers during the dispersal, resulting in multiple villagers being forcefully carried away.
On September 12, as Shandong Zaozhuang Tengzhou Urban Construction Group failed to repay the principal and interest of a loan upon maturity, multiple investors gathered at the entrance of the company headquarters for rights defense, demanding an explanation from the company.
On September 14, at a construction site in Beiguan District, Anyang City, Henan Province, multiple workers whose wages had been delayed hung a banner reading "Return my blood and sweat money" at the site and used a megaphone to demand payment from the employer.
Yunnan Jiuji Technology Co., Ltd. (Jiuji Network) internally implements a "Striving Value" system, quantifying employees' overtime hours and daily behavior as core indicators for performance appraisal and daily management.
On September 13, multiple villagers in Guangshui, Suizhou, Hubei Province gathered to protest the local government's forced seizure of land and destruction of forestry without proper consultation.
On September 17, students at Hainan Commercial School reported extreme military training intensity, including 6 laps of frog jumps, 500 squats, and long-distance running daily, which continued even in the rain. Multiple students suffered leg injuries and were unable to walk after training, and some students chose to drop out as a result.
On September 14, families of multiple victims in Lishui, Zhejiang, held portraits of the deceased and went to the headquarters of Lishui Public Transport Group Co., Ltd. to conduct rights defense. The family members stated that their father was killed after being struck by a bus while performing road work. Nearly three months after the incident, the bus company has yet to provide a clear response, prompting the family to visit the company to demand accountability.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold talks at the White House on September 24, which will be the second in-person meeting between the two heads of state in 2026, with trade, security, human rights, and Iran expected to be the focus of the discussions.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold talks at the White House on September 24. This will be the second face-to-face meeting between the two heads of state this year, drawing attention from bipartisan lawmakers in Congress regarding national security, trade, human rights, Iran, and other issues.
The permanent representatives of five countries—Palau, the Marshall Islands, Saint Lucia, Belize, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—jointly wrote to the United Nations Secretariat, arguing that UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 does not exclude Taiwan from participating in the United Nations, and calling on all parties to engage in dialogue to prevent the Taiwan Strait from escalating into a wider conflict.
American seismologist Chen Youlin, detained in China, has been designated by the U.S. as "wrongfully detained." The White House stated that resolving cases of detained U.S. citizens has always been a top priority for the president.
US President Trump said on September 19 that the US-Iran conflict is entering a critical point, that he will make a major decision on whether to launch large-scale military action to completely eliminate the Iranian regime, and that he expects to meet with Gulf state leaders during the UN General Assembly next week to discuss action against Iran.
In his program on September 19, 2026, Hu Liren stated that Xi Jinping has continued high-pressure purges within the party this year, arresting over 1.2 million officials at all levels.
On September 19, Hong Guangyu, a former reporter for the Beijing Science and Technology Report and a popular science author on food safety, was taken away across provinces in Xiamen by the Zhongshan Branch of the Dalian Public Security Bureau. He was criminally detained on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble and is currently being held at the Dalian Detention Center. Netizens exposed the incident on September 24, and his family confirmed it.
On September 19, 2026, the media outlet The Irrawaddy published a report titled “Guangxi’s Deadly Floods and China’s Propaganda Crisis.” The article points out that the Guangxi region has recently suffered severe flooding, raises questions about the Chinese authorities’ propaganda strategies and information control during disaster response, and analyzes the contradictions between the official narrative and the actual situation in the disaster area, as well as the public opinion crisis they have triggered.
On September 19, Trump expelled CNN, MSNBC, Politico and other media outlets from the White House, after these outlets had refused to sign reporting conditions and had withdrawn from the Pentagon on their own. Secretary of War Hegseth tweeted in support of the decision, saying these outlets endangered military security through false reporting and leaks; the outlets in question reportedly plan to sue the White House on First Amendment grounds.
In the first half of 2026, the number of compulsory winding-up petitions in Hong Kong stood at the highest level since 2021. In May 2025, there were 949 personal bankruptcy petitions, the most in any single month since mid-2020.
A business outlook survey conducted in Hong Kong for the third quarter showed that only 10% of 570 large companies were optimistic about the economy in the next quarter.
Lee Chih-kang expressed gratitude to friendly nations for their support, called on the United Nations to find an appropriate way to admit Taiwan's participation, and said that Taiwan hopes to contribute on issues such as sustainable development.
According to a British maritime agency, another tanker was struck by shell fire in the Strait of Hormuz in the early hours of September 19; Iran claims the attack targeted a vessel attempting to illegally transit the strait.
According to comments, New Hope Group founder Liu Yonghao (Liu Yonghao) was once China's richest man; the group is now burdened with over 80 billion yuan in debt, a debt-to-asset ratio exceeding 70%, and is mired in a severe debt crisis.
According to comments, governments across China charge fees for graves on the grounds that land belongs to the state; graves whose owners don’t pay are bulldozed as ownerless graves, and families of the deceased are being made to pay everywhere.
On September 19, an intern at Luoping County People's Hospital exposed that they were not given a holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival and was threatened in a group chat by a leader surnamed Luo, who said he would make them "die."
On September 19, an LED advertising truck produced through crowdfunding by supporters in Nagoya, Japan, cruised through the downtown area and held a candlelight memorial at Hisaya Odori Garden, calling for justice for abused animals.
On September 19, Ronald Balimwezo, Mayor of Kampala, Uganda, inspected the Salaama Road drainage construction project, questioned the construction quality, and demanded that China Railway 18th Bureau demolish and rebuild it. The contractor subsequently completed the rectification.
On September 19, a Bilibili blogger posted a video claiming that Lucky Cup staff earn a monthly salary of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, with no days off each month and 15 hours of work per day, equivalent to an hourly wage of about 8.89 yuan, lower than the price of a 9-yuan drink in the store, sparking heated discussion among netizens.
Great Wall Fund announced on September 19 that the fund has risen nearly 23% since its inception, but its net asset value fell below 50 million yuan for 50 consecutive business days, triggering contract termination; just over a year after its establishment, it entered liquidation and redemptions were suspended.
In his September 19, 2026 program, Hu Liren said that Liu Yonghao's company, which is in traditional industries such as animal feed, has a debt-to-asset ratio exceeding 70% and book losses that have reached over 80 billion yuan, and said this is the inevitable result of colluding and taking sides with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
An employee who switched from BYD to Tesla posted a video saying that after the job change he gets free food and accommodation, his salary doubled, and his monthly pay exceeds 10,000 yuan, lamenting that life at BYD was hard — sparking heated discussion among Chinese netizens.
The teacher involved complained to the platform, stating that the circulating chat group screenshots were forged and that online bullying has disrupted their life.
From September 18 to 19, several netizens in the comments section described similar experiences, involving late-night service suspensions, customer service claiming they had no authority to handle the issue, and delays of two months without resolution, affecting China Mobile and China Unicom users.
On September 19, a netizen uploaded a Douyin video in which a girl squats in a shabby room eating noodles cooked by her grandmother, with the noodle basin placed on the floor. Bullet comments flooded the screen with phrases like "It's just wrong," lamenting the contrast between poverty-alleviation propaganda and reality.
On September 15, a netizen in Nantong, Jiangsu posted a video showing their body covered in tattoos depicting historical events such as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the founding of the People's Republic of China. Netizens in the comments section joked about their eligibility for the civil service exam, patriotic motives, and the content of the tattoos.
On September 17, Reuters cited sources reporting that, at the request of Saudi Arabia, China privately asked Iran to use its influence to restrain Yemen's Houthi armed forces to prevent their military operations from threatening the Red Sea energy transportation corridor. Iran responded that regional stability depends on US and Israeli policies, and it remains unclear whether Iran will take action.
On September 18, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao published a post on social media mentioning the September 18 Incident and the attack on a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen, triggering domestic public controversy and trending on Weibo. Subsequently, the media outlet deleted the relevant posts from its official website and social media platforms.
The National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice issued an advisory warning foreign students in the U.S. not to act as unregistered foreign agents. Violators face penalties including loss of legal status, deportation, and failure to complete their studies.
On September 17, residents in Guangzhou reported that a local district, in order to suppress the case data of "two fevers," sent personnel to the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital to intercept feverish residents seeking medical treatment across districts. Additionally, parents stated that because their children sought medical treatment in another district, the community organized multiple people to visit their homes for "ideological work," forcibly demanding they return to their own district for testing.
On September 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in an interview with Japan's NHK in Kyiv that China has not remained neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war, and that Chinese-made components are present in the missiles and drones used by the Russian military. Zelenskyy believes that China has massive influence over Russia, yet has seen no pressure from the Chinese side to end the war, and expressed regret that China has not politically stood on Ukraine's side.
On September 14, Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po published an article criticizing the Netflix documentary "Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower" for glorifying crimes. On September 18, the film rose to the number one spot on Netflix's movie charts in Hong Kong.
On September 16, a Bilibili creator posted a video stating that their series investigating whether companies comply with labor laws and implement two-day weekends had been banned by the platform. The platform's customer service refused to provide specific details on the violation, citing content security management, and only requested that the creator adjust the content.
On September 18, the Apple iPhone 18 Pro officially went on sale. Previously, Apple's official Chinese website had marked the release date as 'next Friday the 18th' instead of 'September 18,' which was accused of being an attempt to avoid the anniversary of the September 18 Incident. On the day of release, the comment sections of relevant media reports saw a large number of boycotting remarks such as 'never forget national humiliation' and 'firmly refuse to buy.'
On September 3, a netizen reported that having worked abroad for many years, the village secretary in their hometown demanded through family members to submit information such as departure time, phone number, and working city. After submission, the village secretary further demanded the name of the specific employer, claiming it was for record-keeping according to a document issued by the provincial government.
On September 16, a blogger revealed that tourists at the Qingdao Beer Museum privately stole complimentary specialized glass cups, took photos to show off on social media, and posted tutorials on how to steal them, sparking netizen discussions on the lack of social morality.