Current Affairs on ByF (BaiFan) · Daily Deep Think

The Economist, November 15, 2025

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0800

The Economist cover, November 15, 2025

Haven’t had time to read it yet — dropping the link here first.

Download this issue of The Economist

EPUB format

TE-2025-11-15.epub

China's Official 2026 Holiday Schedule

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0800

The General Office of the State Council has officially released the schedule for public holidays and swapped workdays in 2026, covering New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Qingming, Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day.

Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Certain Holidays in 2026 (Telegram [2025] No. 7)
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To the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and to the ministries and commissions and agencies directly under the State Council:

Gold Market Trends: Precious Metals Amid Global Uncertainty

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0800

Is the gold bull catching its breath, or is it over?

Gold is generally considered a safe-haven asset, typically shining when the economy runs too hot or too cold.

By Xu Xiaoqing Chief Macro Strategist, Dunhe Asset Management Co., Ltd.

Since the start of 2025, gold has climbed steadily from around $2,600 an ounce, at one point approaching $4,400 — a peak gain of nearly 69% for the year. But from October 20, it slid to as low as $3,900 within six trading days, a drop of 11%. Either this gold bull market has ended, or this is merely a pause for breath.

Light and Fatigue in the Short Drama Factory

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0800

Light and Fatigue in the Short Drama Factory

The yellow earth of the Bailu Plain in Xi’an had been beaten into sticky mud by relentless, cold rain. Thirty-odd crew members huddled under a draughty, faux-antique colonnade, squatting on their heels while shoveling down souring thirteen-yuan boxed meals of stewed cabbage and fat pork. Before the downpour had fully slackened, director Wang Jing ground her cheap cigarette stub into the mud and rasped an order across the courtyard: the call sheet demanded twenty-two scenes wrapped before dawn; miss one, and not a single soul on set would close their eyes tonight.

Twilight of the County Towns: The Silent Curtain on Demographic Drain and Fiscal Retreat

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0800

Across more than two thousand Chinese county towns, an irreversible systemic hemorrhaging is underway. This is no cyclical economic dip, but a physical contraction engineered by the dual forces of demographic siphon pumps and the receding tide of land finance.

The speed of the unraveling outpaces expectation. Once heralded by grand developmental narratives as the “sponge of urbanization,” the county seat has neither caught the retreating urban youth nor stabilized the foundations of rural society. With the tides of speculative momentum fully ebbed, all that remains is a hollow, decaying shell.

Buffett's 2025 Shareholder Letter: Farewell and Legacy

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:00:00 +0800

Selected cover of the Berkshire shareholder letter

To My Fellow Shareholders:

I will no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual meeting. As the British would say, I’m “going quiet.”

Sort of.

Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend. He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure.

When the World Reshuffles: The Economist, Nov 8, 2025

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 20:00:00 +0800

The Economist cover, November 8, 2025: Rebalancing the World

The Economist has always excelled at using polished prose to gloss over savage fractures, dressing up the disintegration of the postwar free-trade architecture and superpower zero-sum warfare as a dignified “Rebalancing the World.” Peel back the magazine’s glossy rhetoric, however, and one confronts an unyielding reality: the high priests of globalization are boarding up their doors, tariff iron curtains are slamming down, and major economies are locking each other in a death grip over industrial subsidies and zero-sum geopolitical spheres.

Trump vs the New NYC Mayor: Prelude to a Political Storm

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:00:00 +0800

The President’s Contradictory Posture
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In public, President Trump has spent weeks deriding Zohran Mamdani as an extremist, a communist, and a threat to New York City. He has also insisted that he is “much better looking” than the 34-year-old Mamdani.

But in private, according to two people who disclosed the president’s remarks on condition of anonymity, Trump has described the New York City mayor-elect as a talented politician — sharp-minded and quick with an argument.

The Rare-Earth War: China's Confidence and Resource Sovereignty

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:00:00 +0800

The Rare-Earth War

The Rare-Earth War
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—— China’s strategic confidence and resource sovereignty amid the reshaping of global geopolitics

Preface
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I studied geology at China University of Geosciences. As an undergraduate, as part of an academic activity organized by the university, I wrote a short paper titled “The Rare-Earth War.” Back then, the “war” was mostly a metaphor in the academic sense, an exploration of the relationship between resource competition and technological rivalry. Many years on, the world has shifted beyond recognition, and the scenarios once argued on paper are now playing out in reality. Taking up the pen again to rewrite “The Rare-Earth War” fills me with emotion.

TikTok Meets Trump: All the Wrong Moves, Somehow Still Alive

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:00:00 +0800

Along the marble corridors of Washington there are no innocent victims—only priced lobbying invoices and bargaining chips laid out on the cutting block. TikTok’s miraculous survival between Capitol Hill and the White House was never a triumph of cross-border corporate virtue; it was an absurd theater of raw power choreographed by Silicon Valley ambushes, K-Street black money, internal corporate purges, and extortion by populist strongmen.

Silicon Valley’s Hidden Daggers and the K-Street Ledger
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Behind the endless congressional hearings, the fingers actually pulling the triggers were rival executives lurking in the shadows.

WSJ Deep Dive: Nvidia Chip Ban, Holiday Travel, Economic Signals

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 20:00:00 +0800

📰 WSJ20251104
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Before we begin: If today’s news had a soundtrack, it would be the tense, quiet hum of a machine spinning up. From Washington’s conference rooms to Wall Street’s trading floors to every one of our own bills, a set of critical switches is being flipped. Today we do more than read the news — we try to hear, behind these events, the sound of an era shifting gears.

The Economist, November 2025: Global Trends and Geopolitics

blog@baifan.site (ByF (BaiFan)) — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 20:00:00 +0800

The November 2025 issue of The Economist sketches a fractured global architecture: an escalating tech war between Washington and Beijing on one side, and defensive contraction alongside balance-sheet recession risks across major economies on the other.

The Economist November 2025 cover - a deep dive into global economic trends

Politics and Diplomacy: Strategic Decoupling Without Departure
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US-China rivalry in semiconductors and infrastructure continues to escalate: new export controls meet supply-chain rerouting and localized component substitution.
Beijing deepens bilateral ties across the Middle East and the Global South through energy and industrial infrastructure pacts.
Domestic governance doubles down on preserving baseline stability amidst external containment.

US-China “decoupling” is like a separation where nobody moves out: they shout about breaking up, but deep down they are still calculating chip allocations.

Current Affairs on ByF (BaiFan) · Daily Deep Think

The Economist, November 15, 2025

China's Official 2026 Holiday Schedule

Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Certain Holidays in 2026 (Telegram [2025] No. 7) #

Gold Market Trends: Precious Metals Amid Global Uncertainty

Light and Fatigue in the Short Drama Factory

Twilight of the County Towns: The Silent Curtain on Demographic Drain and Fiscal Retreat

Buffett's 2025 Shareholder Letter: Farewell and Legacy

When the World Reshuffles: The Economist, Nov 8, 2025

Trump vs the New NYC Mayor: Prelude to a Political Storm

The President’s Contradictory Posture #

The Rare-Earth War: China's Confidence and Resource Sovereignty

The Rare-Earth War #

Preface #

TikTok Meets Trump: All the Wrong Moves, Somehow Still Alive

Silicon Valley’s Hidden Daggers and the K-Street Ledger #

WSJ Deep Dive: Nvidia Chip Ban, Holiday Travel, Economic Signals

📰 WSJ20251104 #

The Economist, November 2025: Global Trends and Geopolitics

Politics and Diplomacy: Strategic Decoupling Without Departure #

Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Certain Holidays in 2026 (Telegram [2025] No. 7)
#

The President’s Contradictory Posture
#

The Rare-Earth War
#

Preface
#

Silicon Valley’s Hidden Daggers and the K-Street Ledger
#

📰 WSJ20251104
#

Politics and Diplomacy: Strategic Decoupling Without Departure
#