Unverified “Open Letter” Calling for Presidential Term Limits Appears on Obscure Website of Unclear Origin
An open letter claiming to come from students at multiple Chinese universities appeared at about 3 p.m. on October 26 on a website called “Siyuan Lake BBS,” according to Radio Free Asia. The letter calls for restoring term limits for China’s president, pursuing democratic constitutional reform, and protecting space for citizens to discuss national affairs.
Titled “A Joint Appeal from a Group of University Students of the Republic,” the letter is addressed to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and members of the 20th Central Committee’s Fifth Plenary Session. It invokes Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping on democracy and checks on power, and questions the 2018 constitutional change that removed the two-term limit on the presidency. It makes three requests: abolishing indefinite presidential tenure, launching democratic constitutional revision, and safeguarding citizens’ ability to discuss state affairs. The authors say they do not intend confrontation.
The letter lists 14 signatory universities, including Peking University, Renmin University of China and Xiamen University, but provides no individual names or proof of endorsement. By midnight Beijing time on October 27, it had 656 views and one “like.” The author, “Lin Ziyi,” is a Level 1 account whose first post this was.
Radio Free Asia could not confirm the author’s identity, whether the signatories are students, or whether the listed schools were involved. Its checks found that the site’s registration data lists South Korea, with a mailing address in Singapore, while the administrator’s email is hosted on Tencent servers and the contact phone and WeChat are Chinese numbers. The site describes itself as an unofficial forum and uses a “.com” domain. Whether it operates inside China remains unclear.
Source: Radio Free Asia, October 26, 2026
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/podcasts/yataibaodao/2026/10/26/student-protest-xi-bbs/
Chinese Universities in Jiangsu Begin Paying Staff in Digital Yuan
Several universities in China’s Jiangsu Province, including Yangzhou University, Nantong University and Jiangsu Normal University, have recently notified staff that the salaries of permanent employees will gradually be paid into digital yuan wallets.
The People’s Daily reported that the cities of Changshu in Jiangsu and Meizhou in Guangdong had already piloted paying salaries in digital yuan.
The digital yuan is issued by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank. It has the same value as physical renminbi and is legal tender, meaning no organization or individual may refuse it.
The report distinguished the digital yuan from payment platforms such as WeChat and Alipay, describing the latter as tools for “moving money” that must be linked to a bank card before funds can be withdrawn from a bank and spent. The digital yuan, by contrast, is money itself and does not need to be routed through a third-party platform.
Yangzhou University’s notice states that faculty and staff may still choose whether to transfer money in their digital wallets back to their original salary accounts. According to the report, converting funds from a digital wallet back to a linked bank card incurs no fee and arrives instantly, including for transfers between different banks. The digital yuan can also be used through channels such as WeChat and Alipay.
Digital yuan wallets can earn interest. Since the start of this year, China’s six major banks have paid interest on balances in real-name wallets at the demand deposit rate. This shifts the digital yuan from a “cash-type” instrument to a “deposit-money-type” one, brings it under deposit insurance protection, and makes its legal and economic nature similar to that of a bank deposit.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 27, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610270302.aspx
Study Times Commentary: Party Building in Emerging Sectors Must Make Organizational and Work Coverage “Tangible and Effective”
A commentary in Study Times, the Central Party School’s newspaper, argues that a new central guideline on strengthening social work in the new era moves Party building in emerging sectors from strategic planning into policy implementation. The author, who heads the united front department at the Central Party School (National Academy of Governance), says making Party organizational and work coverage “tangible and effective” is the foundation of this effort. He ties it to improving social governance and to national rejuvenation, and notes that Xi Jinping has stressed Party building in new economic organizations, new social organizations and new employment groups since the 20th Party Congress.
The article credits recent progress. By the end of 2025, the Party had 201,000 grassroots organizations in social organizations, which it says essentially meets the goal of establishing them wherever required. Localities have also tried new models, including standalone, regionally joint and industry-wide Party organizations, plus “cloud,” project-based and industrial-chain Party building.
Problems remain, however. Coverage is thin among small and micro enterprises, platform franchisees and frontline outlets, which often have short lifespans. One-person companies built around AI collaboration add difficulty because they have few Party members who move frequently and work remotely. “Pocket” and “invisible” Party members persist. Some organizations exist without meaningful activities, joint branches are weak, and Party work is disconnected from business development.
The author proposes balancing four relationships: commonality and individuality, locality and workplace, mobility and fixity, and online and offline activity. He also urges ongoing surveys to build dynamic data on members, smoother online transfers of membership ties, identity markers for mobile members, and evaluation incentives. Coverage should be tailored by organization type: large firms can establish their own organizations, smaller ones can form joint branches, and one-person companies can rely on parks, buildings or neighborhoods. He also notes that many workers in these sectors were born in the 1990s and 2000s, which opens room for new approaches.
Source: Study Times, October 23, 2026
https://www.studytimes.cn/llsd/202610/t20261023_93464.html
China’s Land Sale Revenue Falls 27.9 Percent in First Nine Months as Property Slump Deepens
China’s Ministry of Finance released new statistics today showing that income from state-owned land use rights transfers fell 27.9 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2026, as the prolonged property downturn sharply reduced demand for land.
National government fund budget revenue dropped 18.6 percent over the same period. Central government fund revenue rose 12.4 percent, while local governments’ own fund revenue declined 22.3 percent, with land sale income making up the steepest part of that fall.
Property-related taxes also weakened. Deed tax revenue, which is levied when land or real estate changes hands, fell 14.5 percent year on year.
Land sale revenue has now declined every year since 2022, and this year’s full-year outlook is unlikely to be bright. Local governments have long relied on land finance as a major source of income, and the weak property market has dragged down both the volume and price of land sales. The resulting loss of revenue is adding to the fiscal pressure on local authorities.
Tax revenue, often viewed as a barometer of China’s economy, grew 6.1 percent nationwide in the first nine months. Among the four largest tax categories, domestic value-added tax rose 6 percent, domestic consumption tax fell 4.1 percent, corporate income tax grew 7.1 percent and individual income tax climbed 14.1 percent. Stamp duty on securities trading surged 65.1 percent, boosted by active capital markets.
Li Nan, deputy director of the ministry’s Financial Department, said today that the ministry will prepare policy reserves, focusing on key areas such as household consumption, private investment and improving the balance of supply and demand. It will also strengthen forward-looking research, expand its policy toolbox and continue promoting long-term coordination between fiscal and financial policy.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 23, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610230173.aspx
U.S. Forces Japan Bans BYD Vehicles From Kadena Air Base Over Security Concerns
U.S. Forces Japan has announced that, starting October 26, vehicles made by Chinese automaker BYD will be barred from entering Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, citing security concerns. The move follows earlier U.S. restrictions on the use of Chinese electronic devices at military bases and major military facilities, which were introduced to protect military secrets.
Korean media, citing a U.S. Forces Japan official, reported that the ban applies to all private vehicles, contractor vehicles, taxis, delivery trucks and commercial vehicles. The goal is to prevent sensitive information from the base from leaking through the cameras and sensors built into electric vehicles.
Internally, U.S. Forces Japan believes the measure could be extended to other major American bases in Japan, such as Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture, and possibly even to U.S. bases in South Korea.
Analysts say the restriction is intended to keep information about the various military operations conducted at Kadena from being exposed, including details about the U.S. Air Force fighter jets, transport aircraft, radar systems and munitions stationed there.
China’s Foreign Ministry has previously stated that Beijing firmly opposes what it describes as the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and drawing up discriminatory lists to unjustly suppress Chinese companies. It has urged Washington to correct its approach, arguing that such discriminatory measures serve no party’s interests. The ministry said the United States should abide by market economy principles, stop interfering with normal economic and trade cooperation, and safeguard the stability of global industrial and supply chains. It added that China will take necessary measures to protect its legitimate rights and interests.
Source: Sputnik News, October 24, 2026
https://sputniknews.cn/20261024/1073767600.html
China’s Elderly Dependency Ratio Overtakes Child Ratio for First Time, Reshaping Education and Consumer Sectors
China’s elderly dependency ratio surpassed its child dependency ratio for the first time in 2025, according to the China Statistical Yearbook 2026 compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics. The country had 212.76 million people aged 0-14, or 15.1 percent of the population, and 223.65 million aged 65 and above, or 15.9 percent. The overall dependency ratio stood at 45.1 percent, with the child ratio at 22 percent and the elderly ratio at 23.1 percent.
The elderly ratio has climbed steadily, from 15 percent in 2016 to 20.8 percent in 2021 and 22.8 percent in 2024, when the child ratio was 23 percent.
Falling birth rates and population aging are reshaping many sectors, particularly education. Facing enrollment shortages, some kindergartens are experimenting with combined child and elderly care, and many have been converted into nursing homes. In July, a project to convert the idle campus of a public kindergarten in Changzhou into an elderly care facility was signed, the city’s first such case. Similar conversions have occurred in Jinan and in Jinhua, Zhejiang, where a 25-year-old kindergarten became a community nursing home in 2023.
Teacher-training colleges are also shifting focus. In 2025, Guangzhou Preschool Teachers College added majors in smart health and elderly care services to help fill a shortage of qualified workers.
Urbanization has further left many rural primary and secondary schools empty, and a significant share of these have been turned into nursing homes, elderly care centers and senior canteens. Hebei Province recently issued a plan covering the management and reuse of idle school buildings.
In April, media reported that senior universities and elderly care institutions were recruiting teachers in fields from singing and calligraphy to AI applications, video production and drone operation. A report by the platform Xingqu Dao found that hobby-related spending has become a leading consumer category for older people, who are willing to pay for belonging, for feeling needed and for having someone waiting for them, giving rise to what it calls a “belonging economy.”
Source: Yicai, October 25, 2026
https://www.yicai.com/news/103408153.html
China’s Robotics Sector Splits Between Bankruptcies and Booming Capital
China’s robotics industry is experiencing a sharp divide, with more than 20 companies going bankrupt, dissolving, liquidating or shutting down business lines over the past 19 months, even as funding surges and dozens of firms line up for stock listings.
According to public reports and court announcements, the closures between February 2025 and September 2026 span at least 11 different fields. Recent cases include Yinghe Robotics, which was once valued at US$500 million and counted Meituan and ByteDance among its shareholders. A Shenzhen court accepted a creditor’s liquidation petition in July, and the first creditors’ meeting was held on Oct. 19. In September, pool-cleaning robot maker Zhicheng Power faced a creditor-initiated restructuring petition. In May, Shenlan Robotics (Shanghai), which owed over 23 million yuan (about US$3.2 million) in back wages and was once valued at 14 billion yuan (about US$1.97 billion), entered liquidation. In 2025, CloudMinds’ liquidation was accepted, while its parent once had a peak valuation above 20 billion yuan (about US$2.8 billion).
Meanwhile, robotics financing in the first eight months of 2026 reached 124.51 billion yuan (about US$17.5 billion), double the 2025 full-year total. By July, 50 robotics firms had entered the listing process.
Commentators argue that a technology bubble and a capital bubble have both been exposed. Many companies, they say, rely on continuous fundraising rather than positive operating cash flow, leaving them vulnerable when capital tightens. The result is a split in which high-quality firms keep raising money and going public, while weaker projects collapse.
An October report from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology noted that despite rising attention from investors and policymakers, the embodied intelligence sector faces bottlenecks in scaling applications and building stable profit models, with a clear gap between demos and real delivery. It predicted the market would complete its first round of shake-out over the next two to three years.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 21, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610210323.aspx
China Launches Online Campaign Targeting Military-Related Content, Including Posts on Service Hazards
China’s top internet regulator and other agencies have announced a two-month campaign, starting in October, against “improper marketing and hype” in military-related online information. Radio Free Asia reported that earlier official cases show the targets extend beyond fraud, fake news and vulgar marketing to include content officials deem “negative,” such as accounts discussing service hazards, soldiers’ illnesses and one-sided readings of military policy.
In November 2025, the Cyberspace Administration of China cited some online accounts for posting content on the dangers of serving in certain places and diseases contracted in the military, labeling it “poorly oriented.” The notice did not say whether the claims were false, and RFA could not find the original posts.
China’s military news outlet said the campaign enforces rules on spreading military information online, with platforms acting as “gatekeepers” through content review and account verification. The notice does not explain how veterans can discuss injuries, stress or resettlement difficulties without being accused of damaging veterans’ image. A 2023 Hunan provincial report said local governments lacked jobs, funds and staff to meet veterans’ expectations, turning grievances into petitions.
Researcher Du Zhenyi of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research said the rules signal that all military speech is controlled by the Communist Party and restrict outside analysis of the military. Fellow researcher Bryce Barros said content making the army look weak could be seen as threatening social stability.
The campaign also covers AI-generated fake stories, fake soldiers selling goods on livestreams, leaks of sensitive information and bogus recruitment-exam training.
Source: Radio Free Asia, October 21, 2026
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/2026/10/21/pla-online-information/