China's e-waste disposal town transforms into national recycling hub

China's southern town of Guiyu, once plagued by heavy pollution from the treatment of electronic waste, has transformed into a national recycling hub, playing an important role in the country's efforts to develop its circular economy and achieve carbon neutrality.

Located in Shantou City of Guangdong Province, Guiyu, once the heartland of China's e-waste disposal, used to feature numerous family-run workshops where residents dismantled e-waste by hand using the most primitive way. Due to the high costs of pollution control equipment, Guiyu's environment suffered, with air often filled with an acrid stench.

The turning point came in 2015 with the launch of the Guiyu Circular Economy Industrial Park, and informal e-waste businesses began to relocate to the park. The goal is to achieve zero waste in the industrial park -- all components that can be reused are recycled, while the rest is processed for valuable material extraction.

Today, the park has evolved into an automated recycling hub for precise and efficient dismantling, with clear systems in place tracking various types of e-waste.

"We recycle all kinds of items, including keyboards and DVD players. We can accurately track which workshop receives e-waste and the timing of these transfers. We also monitor the sources and destinations of all e-waste," said Zhong Yingshan, director of the management committee at the park.

Guiyu is also home to China's first mobile phone safe recycling and disposal demonstration base, which began trial operations in January. A new device has been introduced that efficiently recycles heavy metals from mobile phone circuit boards for centralized and harmless disposal. Currently, the base processes 12,000 tons of waste circuit boards each year.

In recent years, China has consistently strengthened the top-level design of green and low-carbon development. A series of policies implemented by the government have supported the growth of the circular economy and the resource recycling industry.

To promote the development of the circular economy, China established a centrally administered state-owned enterprise, China Resources Recycling Group Co., in October 2024 in Tianjin. The company established nine new subsidiaries just recently, covering areas such as power batteries, new energy, non-ferrous metals and other resource recycling sectors.

According to China's plan for circular economy development during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, by this year, the resource recycling industry system will be established, with the output value reaching 5 trillion yuan (about 697.3 billion U.S. dollars).

China's resource-recycling industry is evolving from traditional recycling practices to a high-tech, high-quality sector, according to Zhu Liyang, president of the China Association of Circular Economy.

"In the future, government experts and private enterprises will collaborate to promote the upgrading of the resource recycling industry towards greater standardization, higher value and enhanced efficiency," said Zhu.

China's e-waste disposal town transforms into national recycling hub

Japanese people held a rally in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Saturday to oppose Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks about China's Taiwan region and attempts to revive militarism.

At a Diet meeting in early November 2025, Takaichi claimed that the Chinese central authorities' "use of force on Taiwan" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan and implied the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait, which drew strong criticism worldwide.

At the rally, protesters chanted slogans of "Oppose remarks on advocating 'Taiwan emergency' and "Oppose remarks on possessing nuclear weapons."

"To lead Japan towards nuclear armament, [the Takaichi administration] came up with the so-called rhetoric on 'Taiwan emergency.' It is advancing the war under such context. They aim to move toward war step by step by destroying Japan's Constitution and abolishing the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. Therefore, we must strive to prevent war before it happens," said a protester.

At the year end of 2025, Takaichi approved a record 782 billion U.S. dollars budget for the next fiscal year, including the largest defense budget on record.

Earlier in December 2025, the Japanese parliament passed a 118 billion U.S. dollar supplementary budget to fund a new stimulus package, including over 10 billion U.S. dollars for security and diplomacy.

"I think every Japanese is clearly aware that Takaichi's government is a right-wing regime in nature. The Takaichi administration has walked on the path -- bringing defense-related spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product within fiscal 2025 by a supplementary budget. From the perspective of this thoroughly militarized system and approach, I feel a strong sense of crisis," said another protester.

For decades, Japan capped its annual defense budget at around 1 percent of GDP, roughly 5 trillion yen, reflecting its postwar pacifist stance under the war-renouncing Constitution. Since fiscal 2023, Japan's annual defense budget has successively exceeded 6 trillion yen, 7 trillion yen, 8 trillion yen, and 9 trillion yen.

Japanese protest against Takaichi's erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan