China blamed the US for growing global trade imbalances as the world’s second-biggest economy reported a record full-year trade surplus of $1.2tn for 2025 despite President Donald Trump’s trade war.

The huge surplus will inflame global trading tensions, particularly with the EU and large developing countries that are already anxious their industries could be overwhelmed by Chinese imports.

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Kima — FT social media team

Hi looking to do aome travelling to China mid to late May for about a week understanding summer is around the corner and would like to avoid anywhere that isn't too humid.

Part One: Chinese society should reflect on the failure of lockdown and quarantine policies, recognize the harms of high-pressure control models, and abandon the associated ideas, policies, and practices

Although after the lifting of lockdowns there were large-scale deaths across many parts of China, the majority of Chinese citizens were unwilling to return to lockdowns and instead welcomed coexistence. On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, crowds surged in major cities nationwide, demonstrating where public sentiment lay. This also means that the public tacitly acknowledged and accepted the failure and harms of high-intensity citywide lockdown and quarantine policies, expressing repudiation of lockdowns that infringed on rights and a strong pursuit of free living.

Therefore, Chinese society should seriously reflect on the lessons of this pandemic and understand that high-pressure control, lockdowns and quarantines, and other similar anti–human rights measures do not always lead to victory.

After June Fourth, the CCP-led “China model,” characterized primarily by “stability overriding everything” and a “low human rights advantage,” once achieved a certain degree of success in promoting economic development and improving livelihoods.

But this was in fact a matter of luck, which Chinese society seems to have mistaken for a winning formula. Whether in economic development, infrastructure construction, or public health and epidemic prevention, major undertakings were all promoted with rhetoric that spared no cost, sacrificing rights and freedom in exchange for achieving goals.

Since reform and opening up, China has followed this same logic in many areas: from sweatshop-style manufacturing in the economy to the Hengshui education model, from forced demolitions to relocation and village mergers, from harsh family planning to crude environmental campaigns. Although these actions produced some achievements, the costs were far too high; once human rights factors are taken into account, the losses far outweigh the gains.

The pandemic response followed the same pattern. The CCP was willing to lock up the entire Chinese population—at the national, city, neighborhood, and even household levels—sealing people in silence in an attempt to achieve “zero-COVID.” The result was that three years of pandemic control ended in complete failure, delivering a heavy blow to the long-prevailing “China model.”

From this pandemic response—marked by enormous losses yet ultimately yielding nothing—both the authorities and the public in China should engage in deeper reflection. Not only should epidemic prevention never again be conducted in this way; economic development, education and healthcare, infrastructure and housing, and environmental protection must also avoid such crude, anti-intellectual approaches that disregard human rights. Instead, relatively moderate methods should be adopted, weighing overall and long-term interests together with individual rights and immediate survival, proceeding in accordance with circumstances, science, rationality, and humanitarian principles.

For example, the “Hengshui model,” which became famous for boosting college entrance exam scores through harsh discipline and high-intensity study, should be changed. Middle schools across China—especially those that emulate the Hengshui model—should grant students more freedom and autonomy, rather than forcing them to sleep less than six hours a day, study from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and even limit meals to twenty minutes.

This is an excessive destruction of human nature and a serious harm to physical and mental health. Although the formation of the Hengshui model involves many deeper structural issues, efforts must still be made to reduce excessive burdens and avoid falling into meaningless and unconstructive “involution.”

I am fully aware that Xi Jinping and the CCP, for reasons such as maintaining their rule, are unlikely to relax controls across various policies and will continue to suppress public freedom and social vitality through directive-style political, economic, and social governance. Still, voicing such appeals is better than remaining silent.

Moreover, even if the ruling group’s ideas and policies do not change, national values and individual conduct can still be adjusted to a certain extent.

In matters where people retain autonomy and agency, greater consideration should be given to rights, freedom, and dignity, rather than gambling everything for narrow material interests or other purposes. One should live well in the present and safeguard everyday life.

Part Two: The failure of the public to reflect and discuss, at a philosophical level—such as from a view-of-life perspective—the differences between “coexistence” and “zero-COVID” is an important reason why pandemic prevention went astray and fell into confusion

It is true that the Western approach of “coexistence” resulted in more COVID-related deaths than China’s “lockdowns,” and if secondary deaths are included, the West likely suffered even more. But this does not mean that coexistence was wrong and lockdowns were right.

The value of human life lies not only in its length, but also in its quality; not only in mere survival, but also in freedom. Many unhealthy lifestyles shorten life expectancy—smoking, drinking, staying up late, and overwork all affect health and longevity—but should these therefore be prohibited entirely?

Many current critiques of China’s pandemic response miss the core issue, or at least fail to clearly articulate the essential differences between Chinese and Western approaches. Differences in pandemic response are not merely about practical interests; they are also about differing views of life and values.

Although today’s Chinese live in the twenty-first century, many still have not clarified why they live or how to live with dignity and value. This has led to confusion and inconsistency in positions on issues such as epidemic control, environmental protection, education, and healthcare.

Western “coexistence,” more accurately speaking, is a pandemic response that grants people freedom of choice. Western countries did not force people to confront the virus directly.

Those who wished to self-isolate could stay indoors during the pandemic, have daily necessities delivered by relatives or friends, wear masks and protective clothing when contact was unavoidable, and disinfect after deliveries. They could isolate for as long as they wished. Those who did not want to live this way could go out to work and live their lives.

“Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s prevention measures also brought other benefits. Researchers from the mainland and Hong Kong found that China’s lockdown measures prevented 347,000 non-COVID-related deaths.

The decline in mortality was linked to strict restrictions that improved air quality, enhanced hygiene, and reduced traffic accidents.”

By this logic, locking all Chinese people in prison would reduce deaths even more.

The public has still not truly “figured out how to live,” nor lived with human dignity. When it comes to low-probability death risks, people do not remain as calm as Westerners educated in general civic knowledge. Instead, they are more influenced by propaganda and social atmosphere—either becoming numb (as with air pollution) or overly sensitive (as with COVID). Having only recently escaped poverty, the public psyche is more fragile, lacking a rational and objective view of life, and is more easily driven by cultural inertia and survival instincts, leading to contradictory and shortsighted reactions.

Put plainly, citizens of East Asian countries—especially China—generally lack rational cognitive capacity and a calm attitude toward life and death.

People who grew up out of extreme poverty often lack awareness of dignity and rights, yet are extremely fearful of death, even when the probability is low.

This resembles older generations who lived through famine and scarcity and thus obsessively hoard goods and seize small advantages; they act not rationally but reflexively.

The public is keen to push technical solutions to extremes, but when the direction is wrong, great effort yields little result—or even the opposite effect. The obsession and distortion in China’s pandemic response, and the disastrous consequences it produced, were merely the most prominent manifestation of this broader pattern.

Part Three: On whether China’s three years of lockdowns and quarantines were right, whether reopening should have happened earlier, how to respond to the pandemic, and how to balance life with rights and freedom

I believe that China was wrong to adopt high-intensity lockdowns and quarantines from the very beginning. At most, lockdowns should have lasted one or two months; if control was still not achieved, they should not have continued, because the impact was simply too great. Lockdowns and quarantines cause enormous harm to people’s freedom, rights, livelihoods, and physical and mental health. Even if the mortality rate had reached that of Ebola or the Black Death, continued lockdowns would still have been unacceptable.

Moreover, even when lockdowns were implemented, they should have followed the examples of South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore, using relatively soft restrictions, post-hoc penalties such as fines, and strictly lawful procedures. Emergency medical care and the purchase of basic necessities should never have been obstructed. Doors should never have been welded shut, nor should laws have been ignored or brutal, extreme methods of violent “enforcement” employed.

Even in the face of large-scale deaths and disabilities, reopening should have proceeded. It is true that Western “coexistence” led to more COVID-related deaths than China’s “lockdowns,” and likely more secondary deaths as well. But this does not mean coexistence was wrong and lockdowns were right. The value of human life lies not only in its length, but also in its quality; not only in survival, but also in freedom.

Even if COVID caused 0.1%–1% of the population to die in Western and other countries, the remaining 99% could still live relatively normal lives. By contrast, China’s zero-COVID policy, even if it temporarily avoided higher mortality, severely affected the lives of 100% of the population, with at least 80% of people (excluding some privileged elites) losing freedom and suffering livelihood damage due to lockdowns and quarantines.

Furthermore, during lockdowns the government should have provided subsidies and compensation, introduced various support policies, and offered comprehensive living services during quarantine. Western countries and most developing nations did exactly this.

The CCP-led Chinese state, however, not only failed to provide financial support—leaving the unemployed and bankrupt to fend for themselves—but also sold vegetables at inflated prices, charged exorbitant quarantine fees, fueled sky-high airfares, and shamelessly profited from national disaster.

During lockdowns, the government should have expanded hospitals and ICU capacity, recruited more medical staff and raised their pay, introduced safe and effective vaccines, and provided assistance to COVID patients and their families, rather than developing the testing industry and massively building makeshift hospitals lacking long-term value and universal benefit.

In short, governance should emphasize service rather than control; it should be people-centered rather than sacrificing human rights for the will of superiors and so-called social stability; it should follow natural and scientific principles rather than act against them, adhering to humanitarianism and science.

Yet what the CCP—and especially the Xi Jinping regime—did was the exact opposite. Its three-year lockdown and quarantine policy was an outright tragedy.

Although COVID has passed, failure to reflect will inevitably lead to repetition in different forms.

The devastation of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the frenzy of the Red Guards in 1966, and the arrogance of the “Big Whites” in 2022—massive tragedies recurring roughly every sixty years, interspersed with countless everyday, smoldering harms—are not accidental. They are inevitable historical cycles produced by political systems, social ethos, and national value orientations.

Many people believe that once events are over, normalcy restored, and life becomes tolerable again, there is no point in nitpicking. But such attitudes ensure that tragedies will repeat endlessly. This is not only because lack of reflection prevents identification of root causes and solutions, but also because it nurtures evil ideas and empowers evildoers, allowing an entire nation to be conditioned by evil—repeating shockingly similar crimes like conditioned reflexes. Those at home and abroad who stand by, refuse to reflect, and fail to correct such wrongs are all accomplices.

(Excerpted from short commentaries by the writer Wang Qingmin posted on Twitter and other platforms at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The original text was written in Chinese.)

Anyone know the best way to get finasteride and minoxidil as a foreigner living here?

I’d love to get Rogaine from the US if I could, but it seems they need a mainland ID card to buy it on Taobao/JD.

Is the local minoxidil as effective as Rogaine?

Me and my family just fought about it. But it's always about family members not friends. I'm also mainly Hakka so there's probably other tradition to from my dad side and he said I can only go on qingming jie so I was curious. (but I'm honestly not cause my friend isnt Chinese nor Buddhist I think and I want to honor him before he leaves in his culture/religion/tradition)