China in February 2026: the most important developments in society
In February 2026, Chinese society was dominated by preparations for the Lunar New Year. President Xi Jinping visited residents in Beijing and extended holiday greetings to people across the country, stressing family reunions, while authorities stepped up safety measures for holiday travel. Chinese communities in Sri Lanka and Shanghai also held Spring Festival celebrations. Later in the month, a bus sank through the ice on Russia's Lake Baikal during an excursion, killing seven Chinese tourists, and the national weather authority issued a blue alert for a cold wave across central and eastern regions.
Government policy touched daily life in several areas. China issued new labor guidance to protect gig workers on platform economy companies, and a pilot programme in Shenzhen combined child and elderly care in community centers, while another set up daycare centers in rural greenhouses. Families rushed to buy mercury thermometers before a nationwide ban. Officials reported that China's wetland area ranks first in Asia and fourth in the world and that air quality in 2025 was the best on record, and a new national guideline aims to make children fit and happy. Authorities also worked to counter a fall in births, and AI-powered dating apps were reported to complicate that effort.
On the political and cultural front, Beijing condemned the Grammy Award given to the Dalai Lama as anti-China political manipulation. Authorities pursued members of the Zion Church. Exhibits and video evidence of Japanese war crimes in China were shown. In late February, a US institute and OpenAI reported China-linked influence campaigns targeting the Japanese politician Sanae Takaichi, while China's envoy at the UN Human Rights Council rejected the accusations as groundless.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
Click a day in the chart above for that day's brief.