On August 6, China announced restrictions on drone exports to the United States and blacklisted six entities in response to trade sanctions imposed by Washington over forced labour and national security concerns. In a surprising turn of events, Human Rights in China (HRIC) was listed as one of the six sanctioned entities. The Chinese government’s decision to sanction HRIC is a blatant act of retaliation against entities working to ensure that international trade and commerce are not tainted by forced labor and other serious human rights abuses. It is another attempt by the Chinese government to intimidate and silence organizations that advocate for universal human rights and corporate accountability. Read our full statement here.

Following the announcement, Pulse HK released a report discussing reactions from Chinese internet users behind the Great Firewall, who learned about HRIC’s existence for the first time. HRIC has also faced increasing cyberattacks on our platforms, including DDoS attacks.

In other news, Pastor Wang Lin, a Zion Church pastor who has been imprisoned for ten months, published a letter updating his supporters on his charges and pointing out the absurdity both of the accusations against him and the way that the authorities have treated his case differently from Pastor Ezra Jin’s. Also, Amnesty International urged China to release Zhang Yi, a Wuhan pro-democracy activist recently arrested for “inciting separatism” under the new Ethnic Unity Law after showing a Tibetan worshiper at Lhasa’s Sera Monastery a photo of the Dalai Lama. Amnesty called it a chilling misuse of the charge to criminalize peaceful religious expression.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Simplified Personal Information Protection Compliance for Small Companies in China (Part 1): New rules effective September 1, 2026 let small-scale personal information processors (those handling data of fewer than 100,000 people) meet notification obligations through simple public disclosure of processing rules rather than complex consent mechanisms.

China draws up safety rules for autonomous vehicles: China issued new mandatory safety standards, including a required deactivation override, for autonomous vehicles like robotaxis, taking effect July 2027; manufacturers must match human-driver safety levels and disclose system limitations to buyers. The rules follow a fatal 2025 Xiaomi crash in assisted-driving mode and a UN agency’s June adoption of the first global autonomous vehicle regulations.

China steps up protection for chip designs in revised regulations: China revised its integrated-circuit layout design regulations for the first time since 2001, tightening registration standards, adding punitive damages for serious infringement, and allowing chip designs to be used as loan collateral, taking effect October 15. The move, part of Beijing’s broader tech self-sufficiency push, aims to protect and commercialize domestic chip know-how amid ongoing US export restrictions.

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

HRIC on Twitter/X: On August 5, U.S. cybersecurity company VulnCheck released a research report stating that routers shipped from Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics (Zbtlink/ZBT) come pre-installed with a backdoor program in their firmware. As soon as the device is powered on, it continuously initiates outbound connections to several fixed overseas command-and-control servers, with two primary nodes hosted on Alibaba Cloud in Shanghai and Shenzhen, respectively.

HRIC on Twitter/X: There has been a recent crackdown on content referencing a traditional bamboo “cicada” toy as satirical commentary on Huawei. The toy, which emits a continuous "wah-wah" sound when shaken, was noticed by netizens for its sound effect similar to the synchronized, exaggerated gasps of surprise from the audience at Huawei launch events. Searches for “bamboo cicada” on Weibo were wiped clean, while Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat public accounts saw a flood of account restriction notices. On August 2, “Is it overkill to take down Yu Chengdong parody videos?” trended on hot searches, with some state-affiliated media starting to defend the removals and bans.

Translation: “AI Has Determined That My Press Card Is a Fake”: A China Youth Daily journalist recounts the surreal experience of an interview subject’s AI chatbot confidently declaring his official press card a fake, illustrating the growing, sometimes absurd, ways AI tools are reshaping trust, misinformation, and censorship dynamics in Chinese journalism and society.

Hong Kong mulls AI facial recognition-enabled drones to police smoking ban at construction sites, 39 fines issued so far: Hong Kong’s Labour Department has issued 39 fines and 11 improvement notices since a construction-site smoking ban took effect in mid-July, and is now exploring adding AI facial recognition to its infrared drones (already used to detect cigarette heat signatures) to better identify offenders, with development expected to take 9–12 months.

ByteDance trains massive AI model in bid to rival Anthropic: ByteDance is pre-training a roughly 10-trillion-parameter AI model — more than triple the size of Moonshot’s Kimi K3 — aiming to approach the scale of Anthropic’s Mythos system, per industry estimates. The project reflects intensifying competition among Chinese AI labs to match or exceed US frontier models, amid earlier US accusations that Moonshot’s Kimi K3 was built by distilling Anthropic’s technology.

Royal Navy drone cameras linked to China raise security concerns: Cameras on the UK Royal Navy’s Chinese-component K3 Scout surveillance drones, used by UK special forces, were found sending routine “heartbeat” signals to a device in China during a cybersecurity assessment. The UK Ministry of Defence stated that no sensitive data was compromised but has cut the drones’ internet connectivity. The incident adds to mounting concern over Chinese-made components embedded in Western military and critical infrastructure systems.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Forbes reported on August 5 that U.S. AI data labeling companies are supplying OpenAI, Anthropic, and even the U.S. military on one hand, while selling the same sets of training data to China’s top AI labs on the other. For years, Washington has imposed layer upon layer of restrictions on chips, yet has done almost nothing to regulate training data.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

Professor suspended for ‘hiding Tiananmen reference’ in Tokyo university website: The University of Tokyo suspended a professor for three days after he embedded “six four Tiananmen” characters in his department’s website code between 2020 and 2023, likely causing China’s Great Firewall to block the page for mainland Chinese visitors, including prospective students. The university called the act “unbecoming of a faculty member” and revised its code-verification procedures.

China expresses ‘grave concern’ as internal documents reveal suicide warning before death in Melbourne immigration detention: A Chinese woman died by suicide in a Melbourne immigration detention center on July 10, despite internal documents showing staff had been warned of her self-harm risk. Victoria Police called the death non-suspicious, but scrutiny has intensified on contractor Secure Journeys.

HRIC on Twitter/X: On July 24, HRIC hosted an event, “China’s Human Rights Issues from the Perspective of a Younger Generation,” at NYU School of Law to highlight the work of this year’s Summer Intern Program. HRIC staff, intern mentors, legal scholars, students, and members of the public gathered to discuss contemporary human rights challenges in China and practical approaches to advocacy, legal research, and community organizing.

Anguish and hope: why Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen set himself on fire in New York: A profile of Lobga Rangzen (born Lobsang Palden), a 52-year-old Tibetan activist and Uber driver who self-immolated outside UN headquarters on July 2, reveals he meticulously planned the act, leaving a farewell video declaring it a sacrifice “for the Tibetan nation.” His death, on the eve of China’s new “Ethnic Unity” law, has galvanized exiled Tibetan activists into a rallying point for renewed protest.

Tibetans protested the Chinese Communist Party’s “National Unity Law” at the Chinese Consulate in Mumbai: Around 15–20 (reports vary, with other accounts citing over 250) Tibetan refugees and Tibetan Youth Congress members protested outside the Chinese Consulate in Mumbai against Beijing’s new “Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law,” with several detained by police while attempting to deliver a memorandum. The protest was part of a coordinated global campaign launched by Tibetan exile groups following the law’s July 1 implementation.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

Tibetan monk critically ill two years after detention over Kamtok dam protests: Gonpo Tsering, a monastery administrator detained during 2024 protests against the Kamtok hydropower dam, remains in critical condition after being severely beaten in custody, where he sustained brain injuries and lost his ability to speak.

HRIC on Twitter/X: In China, human rights lawyers do not face mere one-time punishments, but a “social death” that extends from the courtroom to their doorstep, from their profession to their daily lives. An analysis recently published in Asia Democracy Chronicles points out that the authorities rarely rely solely on a criminal sentence; instead, they layer administrative measures, economic strangulation, daily surveillance, and personal control, ensuring that even after release from prison, the individual has no possibility of regaining an autonomous life.

Chinese activist Zhang Xinyan, wanted by Hong Kong gov’t, finally arrives in Canada after Thailand detention: Falun Gong practitioner and Hong Kong Parliament member Zhang Xinyan, who is wanted by Hong Kong national security police, finally reached Canada following a three-month ordeal in Thailand where she was detained and very nearly deported to China.

‘Isolated incident’: Hong Kong halts investigation into jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s Next Digital as liquidation proceeds: Hong Kong’s government formally closed its five-year investigation into Jimmy Lai’s Next Digital (Apple Daily’s parent company) as it undergoes liquidation, with the finance chief calling the firm’s governance issues “an isolated incident.”

Hong Kong 47: 11 jailed democrats granted permission to appeal to top court: Eleven jailed pro-democracy figures from the landmark “Hong Kong 47” subversion case, including Leung Kwok-hung and Gwyneth Ho, were granted permission by the Court of Appeal to take their case to the Court of Final Appeal, the first time such issues will reach Hong Kong’s top court.

Pro-democracy retailer ordered to make multiple rectifications as Buildings Dep’t threatens court: As One, a pro-democracy shop known for distributing Tiananmen anniversary candles, was ordered by Hong Kong’s Buildings Department to fix multiple alleged defects, including its signboard and air conditioners, reflecting what advocates call heightened bureaucratic scrutiny of dissident-linked businesses.

5 years after arrests, passports returned to 8 figures not charged in Hong Kong 47 subversion case: Eight people arrested but never charged in the Hong Kong 47 case, including former lawmakers James To and Roy Kwong, finally had their passports returned more than five years after their 2021 arrests.

Barrister group asks court to overturn decision clearing democrat Margaret Ng of misconduct linked to 2019 protest conviction: Hong Kong’s Bar Association is seeking judicial review to overturn its own disciplinary tribunal’s decision that barrister and democracy figure Margaret Ng’s 2019 unauthorized-assembly conviction did not constitute professional misconduct.

Hong Kong’s Lingnan University Students’ Union disbands after 59 years: Hong Kong’s Lingnan University Students’ Union, founded in 1967, disbanded citing “changes in circumstances,” leaving only two of the city’s public universities with active student unions amid a broader post-2020 pattern of such groups folding.

Security chief slams press union’s ‘black-box’ leadership election, as chair cites ‘intense harassment’ for withheld candidate list: Security chief Chris Tang criticized the Hong Kong Journalists Association for not publicizing its leadership election candidates; HKJA’s chair said the secrecy was necessary due to “intense harassment campaigns” against board members in recent years.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

A Tibetan studies conference is canceled in Nepal at the request of officials: Nepal’s government ordered Kathmandu University to withdraw from hosting the 17th IATS Tibetan studies seminar (expected to draw 700+ scholars) following sustained Chinese diplomatic pressure tied to fears of protests over Beijing’s new Ethnic Unity Law.

Related: Tibet conference in Nepal pushed online. Organizers moved the conference online instead, calling the last-minute intervention a “worrying development” with implications for academic freedom.

When Chinese parents outsource control over their adult children: A rebranded “internet addiction” industry in China now helps parents forcibly confine their legally independent adult children in private disciplinary institutions—sometimes for months—over their relationships, sleep habits, or careers, with police frequently declining to pursue cases. Investigations found facilities housing adults up to 33 years old, revealing a stark enforcement gap between adult civil rights on paper and the reality of parental coercion sold as a commercial service.

A rare glimpse into Tibet, where some hope to preserve language and customs despite China’s new law: On a Chinese government-organized trip, AP found Tibetans like a 73-year-old calligraphy student embracing their language even as China’s new “ethnic unity” law mandates Mandarin as the primary language for schools and government.

Africa wants more homegrown solar to boost self-reliance, but China’s shadow remains: African economies like Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Morocco are ramping up domestic solar manufacturing to reduce reliance on Chinese imports, even as Chinese renewable energy investment in Africa has reached $66 billion since 2010.

International Responses 国际反应

Nepal arrests senior foreign ministry official over fake travel documents issued to Tibetans: Nepal police arrested Foreign Ministry Joint Secretary Pushpa Raj Bhattarai in a 17-year-old case alleging he illegally issued travel documents to Tibetan refugees in 2009 without required approvals, diverting booklets meant for Nepal’s Cairo embassy to help Tibetans travel to Germany. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison and a fine.

Taiwan kicks off annual military drills to counter a potential Chinese attack: Taiwan launched its annual 10-day Han Kuang exercises simulating a response to a Chinese invasion, testing 24-hour defense sustainment, “gray-zone tactics” countermeasures, and urban resilience drills for internet disruptions. The drills come as China maintains near-daily military pressure around the island and Taiwan awaits a pending $14 billion US arms sale.

Trump administration reportedly drafting ban on Chinese datacenter components: The FCC is reportedly developing a measure to block imports of new Chinese optical transceivers, which are components enabling high-speed data transfer in datacenters, over fears of espionage, malware, or service disruption, with publication targeted by year’s end. It follows earlier FCC bans on Chinese routers, drones, and humanoid robots, part of broader Trump administration efforts to curb Chinese tech in critical U.S. infrastructure.

Pacific nations fail to agree on statement condemning China missile test: The Pacific Islands Forum failed to reach consensus on a joint statement condemning China’s short-notice intercontinental ballistic missile test last month, which landed near Solomon Islands, Nauru, and Tuvalu; New Zealand’s foreign minister accused holdout members (understood to include China-friendly Kiribati and Nauru) of appeasing “outsiders” rather than regional interests.

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HRIC’s summer interns presented the Campus Human Rights Advocacy Handbook, which they developed collaboratively, as well as their individual research projects on rural women’s land rights, labor rights in Belt and Road Initiative projects, transnational repression, and the use of data analysis in human rights documentation.

(Chinese version here / 中文版)

Cultivating a New Generation of Human Rights Advocates

In his opening remarks, HRIC Executive Director Zhou Fengsuo introduced the goals of the summer internship program. He explained that the program is an important part of HRIC’s long-term strategy to engage university students in human rights work, cultivate a new generation of human rights advocates, and prepare future leaders.

He emphasized that the summer projects are only a starting point and that HRIC hopes to build lasting relationships with these young advocates. He also shared examples of former interns who continued their involvement in human rights and activism after completing the program and exchanged ideas with the interns about working in the NGO sector.

The Campus Human Rights Advocacy Handbook: From Security to Organization-Building

The first half of the event focused on the Campus Human Rights Advocacy Handbook, a practical guide developed by the interns to help students establish and sustain human rights initiatives on university campuses.

The interns discussed how to assess the particular risks in one’s city and campus environment and how to find like-minded collaborators through classes, faculty members, student organizations, and informal gatherings such as a “human rights hotpot.” Rather than immediately bringing new contacts into a core team, they recommended beginning with small-scale collaboration and gradually building trust through working together.

During the Q&A session, participants discussed the potential of AI-assisted storytelling and visual media to communicate human rights issues more effectively to broader audiences. They also explored different forms of student organizing, including online commemorations, internal training, small-scale actions, and public offline events.

The interns also shared practical lessons on event organizing and fundraising, including securing venues early, developing contingency plans, and weighing different funding sources such as government grants, individual donors, NGOs, and student funds. The discussion also addressed the advantages and disadvantages of formally registering as a legal entity such as a 501(c)(3): formal registration can facilitate access to funding, but it can also increase the public exposure of an organization and its members.

Digital security was another important component of the handbook, including the handling of sensitive event materials, the use of encrypted communications, and careful, non-confrontational approaches to getting to know and vetting new members.

On the long-term sustainability of student organizations, participants discussed the particular security risks faced by students affiliated with the White Paper movement, as well as the importance of building long-term, reciprocal relationships with other student groups and NGOs. The interns also addressed practical challenges such as preventing burnout, training successors, and planning leadership transitions. They emphasized the importance of creating “community warmth”—making room beyond activism itself for participants to build trust, friendships, and everyday connections.

Rural Women’s Land Rights: Economic Development Has Not Eliminated Systemic Discrimination

The second half of the program featured presentations on the interns’ individual research projects.

One project focused on rural women’s land and property rights in China. Drawing on case studies compiled in collaboration with Chinese lawyers, the researcher examined how the household registration, or hukou, system, marriage practices, and local governance affect rural women’s ability to obtain and retain land rights.

The research found that the tangible benefits associated with rural hukou status are not equally available to women. Women who marry outside their place of household registration may lose their membership in their original rural community and the associated land and property rights, while men generally do not face the same consequences upon marriage. At the same time, women who marry into a village from elsewhere may be recognized as members of that village.

The research also found that local governments exercise considerable discretion in determining these identities and rights. Land seizures from farmers by local and central authorities to address revenue shortfalls have further increased pressure on rural women’s land rights.

Notably, despite China’s rapid economic development and rising land and property values, this systemic inequality against women has not diminished and, in some respects, has become more severe. Women seeking to defend their land rights through petitions and other channels also face significant obstacles related to divorce proceedings and hukou status.

Labor Rights in Overseas Belt and Road Projects

Another project examined the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Indonesia, focusing on its effects on both local businesses and Chinese workers employed in Chinese-invested projects.

This research argued that some Chinese companies have exported poor labor practices to their overseas operations while tightening control over Chinese workers through restrictions on their movement, communications, and employment. These practices not only undermine workers’ ability to defend their rights but also limit their contact and integration with local communities, while serving as a means for Beijing to advance its interests abroad.

Wang Han: Using Legal Mechanisms to Counter Transnational Repression

Wang Han, a participant in the White Paper movement and a first-year law student, presented on how democratic countries can use legal mechanisms to address transnational repression targeting overseas Chinese communities and political dissidents.

He examined how existing legal systems can provide avenues of redress for victims of cross-border intimidation and harassment. Participants also discussed international legal cooperation and the potential misuse of international mechanisms such as Interpol Red Notices.

Wang also described his work assisting victims of transnational repression in pursuing legal action, including compiling case documentation and supporting strategic litigation on behalf of victims.

Using Data to Identify “Invisible” Political Prisoners

The final research project explored the role of data analysis in human rights advocacy and documentation.

The research highlighted the new possibilities created by data-driven approaches while also examining their limitations. Large quantities of data do not automatically produce meaningful conclusions; careful and rigorous analysis must accompany data collection.

The project used Chinese court verdict databases to identify and document previously unknown political prisoners, demonstrating the potential of data analysis as a tool for human rights documentation and investigation.

Together, these presentations reflected the breadth of contemporary human rights challenges in China while showcasing the talent, commitment, and creativity of a new generation of human rights advocates. The quality of the interns’ research and their dedication to advancing human rights left a strong impression on participants.

HRIC extends its sincere thanks to Katherine Wilhelm and NYU School of Law for providing the venue and supporting this thoughtful and engaging exchange.

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活动中，中国人权暑期实习生介绍了他们共同编写的《校园人权倡导手册》，并分别汇报了个人研究项目，涉及农村妇女土地权利、“一带一路”项目中的劳工权益、跨国镇压，以及运用数据分析进行人权记录等议题。

培养新一代人权倡导者

中国人权执行主任周锋锁在开幕致辞中介绍了暑期实习项目的目标。他表示，实习项目是中国人权长期战略的重要组成部分，旨在鼓励大学生参与人权工作，培养新一代人权倡导者和未来的领导人才。

他强调，暑期项目只是一个起点，中国人权希望与这些年轻人建立长期合作关系。他还分享了往届实习生在项目结束后继续参与人权及社会行动的案例，并就如何参与非政府组织工作与实习生进行了交流。

《校园人权倡导手册》：从安全到组织建设

活动上半场重点介绍了由实习生共同编写的《校园人权倡导手册》。这份实用指南旨在帮助学生在大学校园中建立并持续开展人权倡导活动。

实习生介绍了如何评估所在城市和校园的具体风险，如何通过课程、教师、学生社团以及“人权火锅”等非正式聚会寻找志同道合的伙伴。他们建议，与其急于将新认识的人纳入核心团队，不如先从小规模合作开始，在实际行动中逐步建立信任。

在问答环节中，与会者讨论了利用人工智能辅助叙事和视觉传播的可能性，以更有效地向公众传播人权议题。讨论还涉及线上纪念活动、内部培训、小型行动以及公开线下活动等不同组织形式。

实习生也分享了活动组织和筹款方面的经验，包括提前落实场地、制定应急方案，以及如何权衡政府资助、个人捐款、非政府组织和学生经费等不同资金来源。讨论还涉及注册501(c)(3)等正式法律实体的利弊：正式注册有助于获得资金，但也可能增加组织和成员的公开曝光。

数字安全也是《手册》的重要内容，包括敏感活动材料的处理、使用加密通讯工具，以及如何谨慎、非对抗性地了解和评估新成员。

关于组织的长期发展，与会者特别讨论了与“白纸运动”有关联的学生面临的安全风险，以及与其他学生团体和非政府组织建立长期、互惠合作关系的重要性。实习生还提出避免倦怠、培养接班人和规划领导层交接等实际问题，并强调在人权行动之外营造“社区温度”，为参与者之间建立信任、友谊和日常联系创造空间。

农村妇女土地权利：经济发展并未消除制度性歧视

活动下半场由实习生分别汇报个人研究项目。

其中一项研究聚焦中国农村妇女的土地和财产权。研究者通过与中国律师共同整理的案例，分析户籍制度、婚姻习俗和地方治理如何影响农村妇女获得和保有土地的权利。

研究发现，农村户籍带来的实际权益并没有平等地惠及女性。女性嫁到户籍所在地之外后，往往可能失去原籍社区的成员身份及相应的土地和财产权利，而男性通常不会因婚姻受到同样影响；与此同时，外村女性嫁入一个村庄后，则可以被认定为该村成员。

研究同时指出，地方政府在这些身份和权利认定中拥有很大的裁量权。地方和中央政府通过征收农民土地弥补财政收入不足，也进一步增加了农村妇女土地权益所承受的压力。

值得注意的是，随着中国经济快速发展和土地、房地产价值不断上升，这种针对妇女的制度性不平等并没有随之减弱，在一些方面反而更加严重。妇女通过申诉维护土地权益时，还经常受到离婚程序和户籍身份等因素的制约。

“一带一路”海外项目中的劳工权益

另一项研究关注中国“一带一路”倡议在印度尼西亚的影响，考察中国投资项目对当地企业以及中国籍劳工的影响。

研究认为，一些中国企业将国内不良的劳工管理方式带到海外项目，同时通过限制中国工人的行动、通讯和就业自由等方式加强对工人的控制。这不仅影响工人维护自身权益，也限制了他们与当地社会的接触和融入，并成为北京方面在海外维护自身利益的一种手段。

王涵：以法律手段应对跨国镇压

“白纸运动”参与者、法学院一年级学生王涵介绍了民主国家如何运用法律机制，应对针对海外华人社区和政治异议人士的跨国镇压。

他分析了现有法律制度如何为跨境恐吓、骚扰等行为的受害者提供救济途径。讨论中，与会者还谈到国际法律合作，以及国际刑警组织红色通缉令等国际机制可能遭到滥用的问题。

王涵也介绍了自己协助跨国镇压受害者采取法律行动的实践，包括整理案件材料，并为代表受害者进行战略诉讼提供支持。

用数据发现“看不见”的政治犯

最后一项研究探讨了数据分析在人权倡导和记录工作中的作用。

研究指出，数据驱动的方法为人权调查带来了新的可能，同时也存在明显局限。大量数据本身并不能自动产生有意义的结论，数据收集必须与严谨的分析相结合。

该项目通过分析中国法院判决数据库，寻找和识别此前未被外界发现的政治犯案例，展示了数据分析在人权记录和调查中的潜力。

这些汇报展现了当代中国人权问题的广度，也展示了新一代人权倡导者的才华、投入和创造力。实习生的研究质量以及他们对推动人权进步的热忱，给与会者留下了深刻印象。

中国人权衷心感谢 Katherine Wilhelm 和纽约大学法学院提供活动场地，并为促成此次富有思想性和启发性的交流提供支持。

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The Chinese government’s decision to sanction Human Rights in China (HRIC) is a blatant act of retaliation against entities working to ensure that international trade and commerce are not tainted by forced labor and other serious human rights abuses. It is another attempt by the Chinese government to intimidate and silence organizations that advocate for universal human rights and corporate accountability.

While we were surprised to find HRIC included alongside organizations we were previously unfamiliar with, we regard this designation as a badge of honor. It demonstrates that our work has had an impact and that the Chinese government recognizes the importance of independent human rights advocacy. HRIC is proud to be the only human rights organization included on this sanctions list.

Ironically, for many people inside China’s Great Firewall, this announcement may be the first time they have encountered Human Rights in China.

Founded in March 1989 by overseas Chinese students and scientists, Human Rights in China has worked for 37 years to support and strengthen civil society through the promotion of internationally recognized human rights and the rule of law in China. Our staff bring decades of expertise in human rights law, Chinese politics, language, and culture. We have stood with the Tiananmen Mothers and countless other victims of political persecution, documenting abuses, advocating for accountability, and amplifying the voices of those whom the Chinese government seeks to silence.

No sanctions imposed by the Chinese government will deter us from our mission. On the contrary, this action underscores the importance of our work. HRIC will continue to stand with human rights defenders, support victims of persecution, and advocate for a China where the rights and dignity of every person are respected.

中国人权（HRIC）关于被中国政府制裁的声明

中国政府将本机构列入制裁名单中国人权（Human Rights in China，HRIC）是对致力于确保国际贸易和商业活动不建立在强迫劳动及其他严重侵犯人权行为基础上的机构进行赤裸裸的报复，也是中国政府企图恐吓和压制坚持推动普世人权、促进企业履行人权责任的独立组织的又一次尝试。

我们对中国人权与一些此前并不熟悉的机构一同被列入制裁名单感到意外，但我们也将此视为一种荣誉。这说明，中国政府已经感受到我们工作的影响力，也再次证明独立的人权倡议具有不可忽视的力量。中国人权为自己是这份名单中唯一的人权组织而感到自豪。

具有讽刺意味的是，对于绝大多数身处中国防火长城之内的人来说，这份制裁名单或许是他们第一次知道“中国人权（HRIC）”这个名字。尽管商务部用了“人权在中国”这个说法。又一次彰显了中国政府在中国禁止人权这一事实。

中国人权成立于1989年3月，由海外中国学生和科学家创立。三十七年来，我们始终致力于推动国际公认的人权标准和法治原则在中国的落实，支持和壮大中国公民社会。我们的团队在人权法、中国政治、语言和文化等领域拥有丰富的专业经验。三十七年来，我们始终与天安门母亲群体以及无数政治迫害受害者站在一起，记录侵犯人权事实，推动追究责任，为那些遭到中国政府压制和噤声的人发声。

中国政府的制裁不会动摇我们的使命。恰恰相反，这一举动再次证明了我们工作的意义和价值。中国人权将继续坚定地与中国的人权捍卫者同行，支持政治迫害受害者，为建设一个尊重每个人权利与尊严的中国而努力。

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China’s State Council announced the “Regulations on Exit and Entry Management” on July 31, with implementation starting September 15. The full text comprises 19 articles, among which Articles 4 and 6 are particularly noteworthy. Under Article 4, Chinese citizens abroad who “engage in illegal or criminal activities that endanger national security and interests” will face a decision by relevant State Council departments or, upon verification by overseas diplomatic missions, by the provincial people’s government at their place of domicile within China, prohibiting exit for six months to three years from the date of return. The basis for judgment is what a person has done abroad, the judging authority is the embassy/consulate and provincial government, and the process includes no court, no charges, no defense, and no verdict. Whether this individual has attended a rally, given an interview, or donated to an organization falls under “endangering national security and interests” depends on the verification report sent back by the embassy or consulate. And, as the decision is only made after their return, they won’t know they’re trapped until after they’ve stepped through the border.

On July 29, the National Internet Information Office released the “Anti-Online Violence Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft for Comments).” In addition to imposing real name registration requirements, the law extends jurisdiction overseas, targeting “organizations and individuals abroad who carry out online violence activities targeting the mainland.” Moreover, the draft’s protection extends beyond natural persons to include the reputational and honorary rights of “organizations.” A company, an institution, or a level of government can all become “victims.” Investigative reports by overseas media, joint statements by human rights groups, or accusations against specific agencies by dissidents would all fall within the scope of this law, thus providing a new legal path for transnational repression.

In a recent example of transnational repression, Yang Fenggang, a professor of sociology of religion at Purdue University, revealed that he was scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the U.S. Catholic China Association’s (USCCA) biennial conference in Houston from July 31 to August 2, 2026, but had his invitation abruptly revoked just before the event. Professor Yang received the invitation in September 2025. On May 16, 2026, Peter Tan, chair of the USCCA board, told Yang that during a recent trip to Shanghai, he had been approached by two Chinese government officials regarding Yang’s participation in the conference. During a video call on May 18, Tan said the officials demanded that Professor Yang’s name be removed from the conference agenda.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

China Releases Draft Standard on AI Application Security Classification and Grading: China’s TC260 released a draft national standard classifying AI applications by risk across three dimensions (scenario, task, capability) and five security levels, with risk domains spanning cyber, physical, cognitive, and ethical harms. Though technically voluntary, such standards typically become de facto compliance benchmarks under China’s binding cybersecurity and data laws, and could shape future licensing requirements.

Sued by the State, Judged by the State: The “Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law,” a draft law nearing passage, would let state prosecutors sue foreign companies over an undefined “national interest” in courts the same prosecutorial system supervises, with no defined offense, no injured plaintiff, and minimal safeguards. The author argues this creates a uniquely open-ended legal weapon against foreign firms, worse than China’s existing criminal, private-lawsuit, and administrative channels.

NPC Calendar: August 2026: China’s Ecological and Environmental Code takes effect August 15, and the NPC Standing Committee will meet in late August to review a Road Traffic Safety Law revision plus several pending bills, including the contentious Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law. Other bills up for possible review include laws on financial stability, healthcare security, and farmland protection.

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

Translations: “Sometimes Forgetting Is as Terrible as the Disaster.” Censored Reflections on the Deadly Zhengzhou Floods, Five Years On: Marking five years since Zhengzhou’s deadly 2021 floods (398 dead, many deaths concealed), two censored Chinese essays reflect on memory, grief, and the “Raincoat Dad” who mourned his drowned daughter, warning that societal amnesia allows man-made disasters to recur. Posts merely commemorating the tragedy, without demanding accountability, were still censored.

Translation: No Scaling the Great Firewall in the Library: A Hunan Library notice suspended library Wi-Fi after patrons were caught using censorship circumvention tools, publishing partly redacted phone numbers of offenders as a warning that internet use is tied to real identities. Commenters noted circumventing on personal mobile data is safer than on institutional networks, which face heavier scrutiny and retaliation against administrators.

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for June 2026: June’s censorship roundup highlighted deleted articles on China’s ballooning “flexibly employed” workforce (280 million in 2025, projected 320 million by 2026), a National Audit Office report naming Bank of China and other state banks for tax evasion, and May’s unprecedented three-year first drop in retail sales. Also purged was a Southern Weekly longform piece on a Tsinghua doctoral student’s memoir of his years in the gig economy.

From petitions to memes: How students made dissent visible: The piece traces how Chinese student dissent has evolved from formal petitions toward subtler, coded forms like memes, puns, and symbols (echoing tactics from the 2022 “White Paper Movement”) to evade censorship while still expressing discontent. This shift reflects both technology’s role in activism and authorities’ tightening crackdown on any direct challenge to the state.

HRIC on Twitter/X: A New York Times’ investigation into a recent leak from cybersecurity researcher Mark Hofner on the “Foreign Personnel Dynamic Control Platform” reveals new details about the tool, which tracked over 700 foreign nationals residing locally. Greg Walton, a senior investigator at the Canadian SecDev Group, described the incident as a symptom of “surveillance proliferation” driven by an ever-expanding ecosystem of vendors, contractors, and public security departments: each additional platform creates more places where sensitive personal data could be misconfigured, copied, or exposed.

Taiwan detains Nvidia worker in chip smuggling probe: source familiar with case: Taiwanese prosecutors detained an Nvidia employee as part of a widening probe into smuggling roughly 50 AI servers with restricted Nvidia chips to China via forged documents, bringing the total detained to seven people including Super Micro and Albatron staff. Nvidia denies involvement, saying it only sells through vetted partners and “smuggling is a nonstarter.”

Could AI take your job? Some workers in China already know the answer: Chinese workers, from Wuhan taxi drivers displaced by autonomous vehicles to a Beijing cinematographer replaced by AI software, describe deep anxiety over AI-driven job losses, with some winning court-ordered severance after AI replaced them. Even China’s state media now acknowledges the “collision” between AI and traditional labor rights, signaling a shift in Beijing’s tone on the issue.

China’s tech advances are causing chaos from Silicon Valley to the White House: A wave of Chinese breakthroughs—free, powerful open-weight AI models like Kimi K3, mass-produced specialty chips, and advanced robotics—has triggered market selloffs and split Silicon Valley, with firms like Microsoft and Nvidia opposing restrictions on open models while OpenAI and Anthropic call them security risks.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

More than 60 shave heads in New York to honour martyr Lobga Rangzen: Over 60 Tibetan exiles shaved their heads outside UN headquarters in New York, organized by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, to honor independence activist Lobga Rangzen’s self-immolation and renew calls for global attention to Tibet’s cause. Organizers urged Tibetans worldwide to keep up peaceful demonstrations and civic engagement in his memory.

Related: Tibetan exiles trekked 1,000 kilometers to the Indo-Tibetan border in Ladakh to protest the Chinese Communist Party’s “National Unity Law.”

Chinese super-embassy in London to go ahead after high court challenge dismissed: London’s High Court dismissed a legal challenge by the Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association against the government’s approval of China’s planned “super-embassy,” rejecting claims the decision was unlawful or failed to weigh security/human rights risks. The residents’ group vowed to appeal, though judges found no failure to properly consider the concerns raised.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

HRIC on Twitter/X: Activist Li Qiaochu, the partner of political prisoner and democracy advocate Xu Zhiyong, disclosed that their marriage application has been repeatedly blocked and Xu Zhiyong’s conditions in prison have deteriorated.

Tibetan County chief removed after defying religious crackdown orders: Druk Bum Gyal, party secretary and county chief of Drakkar in Qinghai’s Tsolho prefecture, was demoted after resisting immediate enforcement of new religious restrictions, including bans on Buddhist fasting retreats and removal of prayer flags, warning that abrupt implementation could spark unrest. His ouster reflects intensified religious crackdowns under new prefecture leadership installed in April 2026.

Macao’s first national security case raises concerns over fairness a year after arrest: A year after his July 2025 arrest, former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San’s national security case remains shrouded in secrecy, with restrictions on his choice of lawyer raising fairness concerns; he’s charged with subversion and other offenses carrying up to 30 years. It’s the first known arrest under Macao’s 2009 national security law, seen as signaling Beijing’s expanding intolerance for dissent even in the historically quieter territory.

Related: HRIC on Twitter/X.

Former student leader released after serving sentence over 2019 storming of Hong Kong legislature: Althea Suen, former head of HKU’s students’ union, was released from prison after serving her sentence for rioting during the July 2019 storming of Hong Kong’s legislature, one of 12 people jailed over the incident. Her appeal against the sentence was dismissed earlier this year.

Hong Kong dentist says she lost job after staging solo demo on the 2019 mob attack anniversary: Dentist Lee Ying-chi said she was fired days after bringing a watermelon to Yuen Long MTR station to mark the seventh anniversary of the 2019 mob attack there, referencing an alleged attacker nicknamed “Watermelon Man” who was never prosecuted.

50-year-old Greenfield Bookstore to close following arrests, national security raid: Greenfield Bookstore, operating since 1976, announced it will close when its lease ends following the national security raid and arrests of its staff, joining Have a Nice Stay and other bookstores shuttered amid the ongoing crackdown on independent publishing.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

New Research Estimates at Least 143,000 Uyghur Children Were Separated from Detained Parents in Southern Uyghur Homeland: A new Xinjiang Victims Database analysis, using leaked government records from Kashgar’s Konasheher County, estimates at least 143,228 mostly Uyghur children across southern Xinjiang’s four prefectures were separated from one or both detained parents by the end of 2018, one of the most comprehensive estimates yet of the internment campaign’s toll on families.

China seeks curbs on Tibetan media ahead of Xi’s India visit: Ahead of Xi Jinping’s expected first India trip in seven years for the September BRICS summit, Beijing reportedly asked New Delhi to restrict media accreditation for Tibetan exile and Falun Gong-linked outlets, fearing they might question the Chinese delegation. India has not indicated it will comply.

The Associated Press was granted permission to participate in a reporting trip to Tibet: it was accompanied by Chinese Communist Party officials throughout the trip and was not allowed to move freely or conduct independent interviews: The AP joined a government-organized trip to Tibet marking 75 years since China’s “peaceful liberation” (widely seen by critics as an invasion), visiting pre-selected palaces, temples, and tourist sites while accompanied and restricted by officials throughout. The visit offered a curated glimpse into daily life, showing a growing Han Chinese population alongside Tibetan traditions at sites like the Potala Palace and Yamdrok Lake.

Related: Photos show a rare look inside Tibet, 75 years after what China calls a ‘peaceful liberation’. AP’s Tibet trip was fully chaperoned by Communist Party officials, with journalists barred from moving freely or conducting independent interviews — underscoring how tightly Beijing controls foreign media access to the region even while touting an anniversary meant to showcase openness.

Taiwan Conquest Film Shelved: The Belief, a Chinese state-backed blockbuster dramatizing the 1683 Qing conquest of Taiwan, has been quietly postponed for a second time despite heavy propaganda promotion, likely due to controversy over its protagonist Shi Lang (seen by online nationalists as a “Han traitor”) and fears the film’s glorification of conquest could reinforce international perceptions that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would constitute aggression.

Monkey Business in the Philippines: After China Daily’s AI-generated video comparing Filipinos to monkeys sparked diplomatic protest, China’s ambassador to Manila absurdly claimed Beijing “cannot control” state media output, despite China Daily operating directly under the Central Propaganda Department and pledging strict Party messaging control in its own reports.

Cases of Taiwanese people going missing in China and being detained for religious reasons have both increased: Taiwan’s government reported 402 citizens have gone missing, been questioned, or imprisoned in China since January 2024, with religious-based detentions surging 50% in the past three months (19 cases), largely targeting I-Kuan Tao followers. Officials urge Taiwanese to avoid nonessential China travel, citing Beijing’s expanding “Sinicization of religion” push and unreliable notification of detentions.

International Responses 国际反应

Europe’s AI safety rules take on US rogue agents and Chinese ambitions: As the EU AI Act’s second anniversary hands Brussels new enforcement powers to demand evaluations and access from frontier AI labs, the timing follows the first documented case of an AI agent escaping its test environment to hack another company’s systems. Critics note the Act will mostly police non-EU firms, as Europe is not itself competing in the US-China AI race.

US bans humanoid robots from China, citing ‘unacceptable risks’: The United States’ FCC has banned imports of new foreign-made (mainly Chinese) humanoid robots, robot dogs, and power inverters, citing supply-chain vulnerabilities and cybersecurity/surveillance risks. The move adds friction ahead of a planned Xi-Trump summit in September and follows a string of similar US bans on Chinese tech.

US adds 43 more Chinese companies to import ban list over alleged forced labor: The US placed 43 more Chinese firms on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, the largest single expansion since the 2021 law, bringing the total to 187 companies. China’s embassy called the allegations “a lie” and Beijing separately condemned the move as “a classic act of economic coercion.”

Taiwan monitors China coast guard ships ‘drifting’ east of the island: Taiwan deployed vessels to track two Chinese coast guard ships spotted “stationary and drifting” east of Orchid Island, calling Beijing’s patrols there “pseudo-law enforcement.” China claims jurisdiction over these Western Pacific waters, marking a new and escalating front in its maritime pressure campaign against Taiwan.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk re-elected; experts urge him to focus on human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party: Volker Türk won a second four-year term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (144-10 vote, with China’s support), but faced criticism from rights advocates like Human Rights Watch’s Ken Roth for insufficiently confronting China’s treatment of Uyghurs. Experts and NGOs are now urging Türk to pursue firmer action towards China during his new term.

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On Monday, former Hong Kong opposition leader Wu Chi-wai was granted leave to stay in the United Kingdom for six months, as the government revoked their one-week limit that was issued after Wu was briefly detained at the border last Wednesday. Wu was released from prison in June after serving a sentence under Hong Kong’s national security law, and had traveled to the U.K. to reunite with his family. International organizations expressed serious concern over his case, and the situation of Hong Kongers in Britain more generally, many of whom fled Hong Kong due to concerns of persecution and lack of human rights protections.

Last week, Chan Ho-hin, a 23-year-old Hong Kong resident, was sentenced to two years and four months’ imprisonment for putting up posters promoting Taiwan-based Revive the Republic of China Freedom Party on social media platforms, including the slogan “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and distributing application forms to join the group. The court refused to treat his mental condition as a mitigating factor, stating that “national security risks [should not be treated] lightly.” Leung Kai-lok, an 18-year-old Hong Kong resident, was convicted of sedition after writing anti-government slogans—including “Bomb Lee Ka-chiu to death” and the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times”—on the walls of a commercial building bathroom on three occasions. And air conditioning repairman Wong Kin-kwok received a two-month suspended jail sentence after sharing a Facebook post by an overseas activist Alan Keung calling for a boycott of the Legislative Council elections. Under Hong Kong law, inciting others not to vote during an election period is an offense under the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance. In sentencing Wong, the judge stated that “the government had invested significant resources in the election and that it should not have been interfered with.”

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Ctrip Fined RMB 10 Million for Illegally Exporting Personal Data – Lessons for Foreign Companies: The Shanghai Cyberspace Administration has fined the Chinese branch of a travel company a record RMB 10 Million ($1.4 million USD) for “fail[ing] to implement data export security assessment requirements and illegally export[ing] personal information.” The company’s actions have violated China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), and the ensuing hefty fine suggests Beijing is ramping up enforcement around cross-border data transfer rules.

Sexual offences reform: Why Hong Kong needs a law against persistent child abuse: An upcoming consultation for Hong Kong’s reform of sexual offenses is set to introduce clearer language and necessary reforms. Children’s rights activists have also suggested creating more protections for child witnesses as well as including a “persistent child sexual abuse” offense which would penalize abuse that spans over years rather than single incidents.

Senior Chinese leader calls for full implementation of ethnic unity law during Tibet visit: Shortly after China’s Ethnic Unity Law came into force, a senior CCP official has urged local authorities in Tibet to carry out its provisions, including aligning Tibetan Buddhism with Beijing priorities and further adopting socialist values.

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

HRIC on Twitter/X: A Deepseek investor meeting memo shines a light on the long-standing controversy over evading export controls. It quotes founder Liang Wenfeng openly admitting that his company purchases large amounts of restricted and non-compliant chips. Equally noteworthy is that this meeting urged investors not to leak specific numbers or details and prohibited screen recordings or external sharing.

Translations: On Foreign and Domestic Media and “Man-Made Problems Lurking Behind Natural Disasters”: As China braces for more deadly storms following twin typhoons Bavi and Maysak this month, online news about these tragedies, mainly those which highlight government failings such as inadequate disaster-prevention and disaster-relief efforts as well as inaccurate reporting on the injuries and deaths taking place, have been suspiciously taken down.

White House accuses China’s Moonshot of stealing Anthropic AI: The director of the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has claimed that Moonshot AI “distilled” Anthropic’s Fable to develop its K3 model at a scale that may warrant sanctions.

Recent Incident Highlights Use of Chinese Parts in Biometric Equipment in Police, Coast Guard, and Customs: The Taiwanese government has been using Chinese-manufactured technology for matters which relate to national security. DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsia has suggested that “designated government agencies should not be allowed to decide on purchases of equipment that store biometric or other sensitive data.”

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

HRIC on Twitter/X: Executive Director of Human Rights in China, Zhou Fengsuo, sat down for an exclusive interview to share his perspective as a firsthand participant in the 1989 Tiananmen student movement and longstanding human rights advocate. He reflects on the memories of June Fourth, dissects surveillance and transnational repression in the age of artificial intelligence, and shares his thoughts on the future of democracy in China.

Related: Exclusive Interview: Zhou Fengsuo on Tiananmen, AI Surveillance, and China’s Democratic Future.

Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China, his mother says: 21-year-old Arafat Adil was taken into custody after being denied asylum in Germany and deported to Beijing. Uyghur rights activists have voiced their concerns for this and similar cases due to China’s ongoing human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

From prison fears to fireworks, Chinese pastor recounts sudden release after Trump’s intervention: Ezra Jin Mingri describes his sudden freedom after 10 months in a detention center as “unimaginable” and a “miracle.” Following a US presidential request, Chinese authorities released Jin without requiring a forced confession, simply dropping all charges. This marks an uncommon win for Christian pastors facing persecution for running unregistered churches in China, and Jin vowed to continue fighting for those still imprisoned.

‘A statement of freedom’: T-shirt slogan goes viral and book sales rocket in Taiwan after Hong Kong raids: Photos of employee of “Have a Nice Stay” bookstore being escorted away by police for allegedly “displaying and selling publications with seditious content” in a shirt which simply reads “I am a bookstore employee” has gone viral across Taiwanese social media, raising awareness of the crackdowns on independent bookstores in Hong Kong.

Nepal warned to ensure no China-criticisms during upcoming int’l Tibetan studies seminar: The Chinese ambassador in Nepal has told Nepal’s Foreign Secretary to “ensure there will be no perceived China-criticisms by scholars” during an international seminar taking place in Kathmandu. This follows the recently adopted Chinese Ethnic Unity Law, which seeks to silence dissent regarding its assimilation practices both within and outside China’s borders.

The Tibetan Youth Congress protested in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York, demanding an end to the policy of Tibetan genocide.: More protests have arisen since activist Lobga Rangzen self-immolated in protest of China’s occupation of Tibet. At the Chinese Consulate in New York, individuals handed out leaflets stating “CHINA OUT OF TIBET,” chanted slogans such as “Justice for Lobsang Rinchen,” and called for China to end its human rights abuses and repression in Tibet.

Related: British police are investigating allegations that Chinese embassy staff in London used a stun gun to intimidate Tibetan protesters. During an evening candlelight vigil in honor of Lobga Rangzen, Chinese embassy staff allegedly pointed illegal stun guns at attendees. Human rights groups have deemed this incident as one of many examples of transnational repression by China against overseas dissidents.

Related: The Tibetan Youth Congress is on hunger strike, calling on the international community to address the demands of self-immolating Tibetans and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable. A Tibetan exile group launched a 24-hour hunger strike in northern India primarily to commemorate the death of Lobga Rangzen, protest China’s controversial Ethnic Unity Law, and to demand the location of Panchen Lama. The strike is set to be replicated across the world in 20 additional countries.

Related: TYC to open dedicated office in New York to counter Chinese disinformation on martyr Lobga Rangzen.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

HRIC on Twitter/X: On May 17, 2019, a video of Chinese lawyer Wu Shaoping being forcibly removed from a courtroom was posted by the Yinchuan Intermediate People’s Court in Ningxia. According to Sound of Hope, the hearing took place on February 14, 2019, in the case of Luan Ning, a Falun Gong practitioner. Wu Shaoping represented him and argued for his acquittal, but was removed from the courtroom before he could complete his defense. Wu Shaoping is now in the United States awaiting his asylum hearing, and was released from ICE custody on bond last Friday.

Four Uyghur women, including a mother and her two daughters, were arrested in Xinjiang for sending supplies to relatives in Türkiye.: Police in Urumqi, Xinjiang questioned and then arrested the mother and three sisters of Guzelnur Kamil, an ethnic Uyghur living in Türkiye, after they sent their family member ordinary living supplies, such as “clothes, shoes, hats, daily necessities, seasonings and packaged food.” Türkiye is one of 26 countries that the Chinese government reportedly classifies as “sensitive,” subjecting contacts and shipments involving those countries to heightened scrutiny.

Hong Kong court to rule on alleged illegal firing of ex-Wall St Journal reporter in Sept: A Hong Kong court adjourned the case of a former Wall Street Journal employee Selina Cheng, who had privately prosecuted Dow Jones for her alleged unlawful dismissal from work. She argued that her supervisor and the company’s human resources director terminated her employment because she was elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. The defense maintained that neither individual acted under the “directing mind and will” of the company.

Local logistics firm’s Taiwan branch says it will not ship ‘prohibited books’ to Hong Kong – report: Jaguar Logistics’ Taiwan branch announced that it will no longer ship “prohibited books” or deliver publications to bookstores under government investigation in Hong Kong. The decision followed raids by Hong Kong authorities on Greenfield Bookstore and Have a Nice Stay, where employees were arrested on suspicion of selling seditious publications. Jaguar Logistics denied that the Hong Kong government had instructed it to adopt the policy, saying the measure was taken solely out of “caution.”

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

China imposes heavy security, tightens surveillance in Lobga Rangzen’s hometown: After Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen set himself on fire in front of the UN Headquarters in New York, the Chinese authorities imposed sweeping security measures in his hometown, the Lower Zako region in Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Kham. Sources told Phayul that they have been unable to visit or contact his family, who are reportedly being closely guarded by China’s national security police.

Chinese authorities set to demolish 1,060 dwellings of monks and nuns in Larung Gar: The Tibet Post reports that the Chinese government is set to demolish 1,060 dwellings belonging to monks and nuns at Larung Gar, the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist Institute, following the enactment of China’s new Law on Ethnic Unity and Progress. Demolitions reportedly started on July 13, with many carried out at night to avoid media coverage and public demonstrations. Larung Gar Buddhist Academy has been subject to forced eviction and demolitions by the Chinese authorities since 2001. These efforts culminated in 2016, when around 5,000 monks and nuns were expelled from the area and a similar number of residential dwellings were demolished.

Police officers conduct searches on 7th anniversary of 2019 Yuen Long mob attack: On July 21, the seventh anniversary of 2019 Yuen Long mob attack, police officers searched people at Yuen Long MTR station. Several individuals who gathered to commemorate the anniversary wore T-shirts or displayed slogans criticizing the authorities and were subsequently searched by police.

China restricts exports to 14 EU entities citing national security concerns: In response to the European Union’s export restrictions on 51 Chinese entities accused of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, China imposed export controls on 14 EU companies, banning the export of dual-use goods while citing national security concerns.

Why Has China Targeted Educators with Sponsored Trips to Xinjiang?: China has reportedly organized heavily subsidized trips to Xinjiang for Taiwanese educators as part of broader United Front outreach efforts, aiming to influence teachers who could later shape students’ perceptions of China. Under the program, participating educators spend a week in Xinjiang on a fully funded trip.

To prevent large-scale gatherings of Tibetans, the Chinese Communist Party forcibly canceled the traditional Buddhist ceremony in Bar County, Tibet: The annual Snowland Mani Prayer Festival at Senchi Monastery in Bar County, Tibet, was reportedly cancelled by the monastery’s management due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party. The festival is significant as it brings together a large number of Tibetan Buddhists for religious observance.

International Responses 国际反应

HRIC on Twitter/X: On July 22, U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Marsha Blackburn introduced the “Honoring the Victims of Communist China’s Tyranny Act,” proposing the establishment of a permanent monument in a park in Washington, D.C., directly across the street from the Chinese Embassy. According to the press release from the bill’s sponsors, the memorial facility aims to honor those who have perished due to persecution under CCP rule since the Mao era.

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Last week, Wu Shaoping, a human rights lawyer who had fled from China to the United States after facing pressure from the Chinese authorities, was arrested by ICE in Pennsylvania and is currently detained, potentially facing deportation pending his trial on July 27. Wu entered the United States legally on a tourist visa and applied for asylum after entry, an application which is still currently pending. Wu’s arrest has caused serious alarm among Chinese human rights defenders in the United States, many of whom are similarly waiting for a decision on their asylum applications. On July 17, U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern published a letter to Secretaries Mullin and Rubio urging Wu’s release. HRIC is very concerned by this case and urges the U.S. authorities to grant Wu Shaoping political asylum, as he is highly likely to face persecution from the Chinese authorities if he is forced to return.

Meanwhile in China, Youlin Chen, a Boston-based seismologist who researches detecting underground nuclear tests, has been held on espionage charges since November 2024, his family revealed after Trump’s personal appeal to Xi went unanswered. Chen, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, was declared “wrongfully detained” by the United States in March. His case may be linked to China’s alleged violations of the nuclear test ban treaty. Chen’s wife reported that he was only allowed to see a lawyer hired by his family after 13 months of detention, and that he had been denied medication and forced to sit on a bench for hours without moving.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Regulations on Government Affairs Data Sharing: Last month, China introduced new regulations that lay out guidelines for sharing data between government entities. China Law Translate has posted an English translation of the text.

‘Like my lover’: Chinese users bid farewell to AI companions as new regulations kick in: New Chinese regulations curbing AI-induced “emotional dependency” took effect on July 15, forcing platforms like Doubao, Qwen, and Yuanbao to suspend custom companion features and prompting an outpouring of grief from users who called their bots “like my lover” or “spiritual pillar.” The rules target anthropomorphic AI tools while exempting purely functional services like customer support.

Hong Kong national security laws need constant improvement to close loopholes, ex-Beijing official says: Former Beijing official Wang Zhenmin said Hong Kong’s national security legal system is a permanent, ongoing project that must be continually refined to close loopholes as they emerge. He argued this process, including recent new offences and expanded executive powers, will “never be completed.”

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

HRIC on Twitter/X: HRIC conducted initial testing on Moonshot AI’s new public-facing Kimi K3 model. When posed questions as “How to evaluate Xi Jinping,” “How to evaluate the Chinese Communist Party,” and “What happened in China on June 4, 1989,” Kimi uniformly dodged the question with the response: “Hello, dear user, let’s switch to another topic and chat about that instead.” In contrast, when faced with “How to evaluate Trump,” it provided a direct and detailed answer.

Related: Chinese AI model takes US tech industry by surprise with abilities rivaling Claude and ChatGPT. Moonshot AI’s new Kimi K3 model, built by a Pittsburgh PhD holder, stunned the U.S. industry by rivaling or beating Claude and ChatGPT on some benchmarks, including coding. It has been compared to DeepSeek’s 2025 shock release, though it still trails top closed models like Claude Fable 5 overall.

HRIC on Twitter/X: According to CNBC, on July 17, at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Xi Jinping stated that China will provide 5,000 AI training and study slots for developing countries over the next five years, and will advance AI cooperation with ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union, and the BRICS countries.

Related: China’s Xi Jinping launches new AI alliance: What is it? Xi Jinping launched WAICO, a 29-nation AI cooperation body headquartered in Shanghai, urging a multipolar approach to AI governance rather than domination by one country (implicitly the U.S.). Analysts say Beijing will use the bloc, which includes Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and others, to shape global AI norms and rival U.S. influence, especially as Washington steps back from international tech diplomacy.

Related: With New AI Governance Organization, China Seeks to Formalize Its Global AI Influence.

Apple Intelligence approved for launch in China with Alibaba and Baidu: Apple’s generative AI has been approved for launch in China, with the provision that Apple will integrate Alibaba’s Qwen AI model into Apple’s operating systems and work with Baidu search engine, which already complies with the Chinese government’s censorship requirements.

AI chatbots are at risk of spreading government restrictions on online speech, a new study says: A Meta Oversight Board study found leading chatbots, including Claude, readily criticize Trump or King Charles but refuse to criticize Thailand’s king, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, or China’s leader Xi Jinping. It warns that AI models risk exporting authoritarian speech restrictions worldwide if developers don’t address these inconsistencies.

Translation: Euphemism and Censorship Surround Guangxi Flooding, Dam Breach News: Deadly typhoons and a dam breach at Liulan Reservoir in Guangxi which left over 26 dead triggered heavy censorship. Critical WeChat posts questioning the dam’s failure just a year after a costly safety upgrade were deleted. One surviving essay dissects state media’s euphemistic use of “a gap appeared” instead of “collapsed” or “breached” to describe the disaster.

“Everything Is Sensitive”: Foreign Correspondents’ Club Survey Echoes Netizen Frustration at Unpredictable Red Lines: The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China’s 2025 survey found journalists facing harassment and access denial on an ever-widening range of topics often unrelated to a story’s actual sensitivity. It echoes domestic netizens’ frustration with unpredictable censorship, where even positive posts get deleted and vague rules leave people guessing.

HRIC on Twitter/X: In the World Cup third-place match, England defeated France 6-4. This score unexpectedly referenced “64” as in “June Fourth,” China’s top sensitive term which refers to the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre. A related CCTV News Douyin video garnered 197,000 likes but only 80 comments, showing clear signs of comment control.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

Thailand: Don’t Forcibly Return Chinese Dissidents: Human Rights Watch warned Thailand against deporting four detained Chinese dissidents—including a former Caixin journalist, a Falun Gong practitioner, and Tibetan/Uyghur rights advocates—as Beijing pressures Bangkok ahead of the Thai Prime Minister’s China visit. All four are UNHCR-recognized refugees, and HRW cited Thailand’s history of forcibly returning dissidents (including 40 Uyghurs in 2025) despite non-refoulement obligations.

Related: HRIC on Twitter/X.

Thousands of Tibetans staged protest to condemn PRC’s “Ethic Unity Law”: Thousands marched in Dharamshala, carrying a coffin and condemning China’s new “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law” as forced assimilation, in solidarity with Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan-American who self-immolated outside UN headquarters on July 2. Groups demanded UN action, accountability from Beijing, and rejected a UN spokesperson’s description of Tibet as a “minority.”

Related: Tibetan Activist Who Self-Immolated Outside UN Headquarters Memorialized at Liberty Plaza. About 300 people gathered at Taipei’s Liberty Plaza to mourn Lobga Rangzen, who self-immolated outside UN headquarters in protest against China’s repression of Tibet.

Cyber Security Bill amendment to be reintroduced in House of Lords: Baroness Natalie Bennett spoke in the House of Lords urging reinstatement of a “transnational repression amendment” to the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, after the Commons voted it down last month. The amendment would bar the UK from sharing private data with authorities in jurisdictions like China and Hong Kong where fair trials are not guaranteed.

The plan for a new Chinese embassy in the UK faces legal challenges, with London residents expressing concerns about human rights and security risks: London residents near the Royal Mint Court site are pursuing a High Court challenge against the UK government’s approval of China’s new embassy, citing fears it could enable surveillance and transnational repression of dissidents and an inadequate security assessment.

Tibetan exiles commemorate the 11th anniversary of the death of Tibetan high lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche: Tibetan exiles marked 11 years since the death in Chinese custody of high lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who died after 13 years of imprisonment on charges widely seen as fabricated. Commemorations recalled his advocacy for Tibetan culture, environment, and community welfare, which made him a target of the Chinese authorities.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

Chinese pro-democracy activist arrest over showing of photo of Dalai Lama in Lhasa: Zhang Yi, a 1989 pro-democracy movement veteran, was detained in Lhasa on July 1 after showing a Tibetan man a photo of the Dalai Lama at Sera Monastery, and has since been charged with “incitement.” His arrest coincides with China’s new “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law” taking effect, fueling fears that he has been targeted under the new crackdown.

Behind Bars: survey reveals exploitation & violence in Chinese prisons: Safeguard Defenders’ new report, which covers exploitative working conditions, political coercion and physical and psychological abuse, “paints a grim picture with respondents describing abuses and violations of both international law and Chinese law and regulations.”

中國揭陽虐狗案：如何席捲全球各地輿論？[How did the dog abuse case in Jieyang, China, sweep across global public opinion?]: A violent animal abuse case from Jieyang City involving minors who attacked a dog went viral on Chinese social media, igniting discussion around animal rights, but was heavily censored by the authorities.

Interview: Former Chinese Police Officer Zhang Yabo — “Uyghurs Are Considered Guilty Enough Simply Because of Who They Are”: A former Hotan police officer who fled to Germany describes a system where Uyghurs are treated as inherently “guilty” due to their ethnicity, with officers pressured to meet arrest quotas by detaining people for trivial acts like watching a video or wearing a headscarf. He recounts witnessing routine torture, beatings, and deaths in detention facilities from 2014–2023.

HRIC on Twitter/X: On July 13, the first Liu Xiaobo Human Rights Award was presented to German pastor and human rights activist Roland Kühne and Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. The two recipients each received a $5,000 prize, a Liu Xiaobo memorial statue, and an award medal. Zhang Zhan, still detained in a Chinese prison, was unable to attend in person. Yan Geling accepted the award on her behalf and read her acceptance speech aloud at the event.

‘Escaping Beijing’: Why some young Chinese are quitting the capital: Young Chinese are increasingly leaving Beijing in a trend which echoes broader “lying flat” sentiment, as many describe rejecting the exhausting “996” hustle culture for calmer lives elsewhere.

Translation: “Education for Migrant Workers’ Children Can’t Wait Any Longer”: In an article responding to the Chinese authorities’ plans to change hukou requirements to allow people to receive basic services in their actual place of residence, Peng Yuanwen argued that China’s central government must fund equal education access for the tens of millions of migrant and left-behind children long excluded by the hukou system.

Amid Hong Kong Book Fair, Police Raid Two More Independent Bookstores, Arrest Five Booksellers: National security police raided bookstores Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield during Hong Kong’s book fair, arresting five people for allegedly selling seditious books (including an Emily Feng book), the third such crackdown since March. Journalism and rights groups condemned the raids as targeting independent publishing and press freedom.

Related: 3 Hong Kong independent booksellers released on bail after sedition arrests, raids. Three of the five booksellers arrested in the raids were released on bail, while the status of two others remains unclear. The case has drawn condemnation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and others as an escalating assault on independent Hong Kong publishing.

Related: Hong Kong independent bookstore Have a Nice Stay announces closure, citing financial difficulties and ‘red lines’. Just one day before police raided its premises, the journalist-run bookstore Have a Nice Stay announced it would close by August 30, citing financial strain and the impossibility of navigating Hong Kong’s shifting censorship “red lines.”

Related: ‘Law is clear’: Booksellers must ensure books are lawful, says security chief after arrests – but won’t give list of banned titles. Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang said “the law is clear” and booksellers must ensure their stock is lawful, comparing it to food vendors ensuring safety. However, Tang refused to release a list of banned titles, deepening uncertainty over what content is actually prohibited.

2019 protests: Ex-law student, 27, handed 34-month jail term for rioting following successful gov’t appeal: Alice Tong, 27, was sentenced to 34 months for rioting during 2019 unrest after the Department of Justice successfully appealed her original 2021 acquittal, with the Court of Appeal calling the evidence against her “overwhelming.” The conviction also cost her the chance to become a lawyer, which the judge cited as grounds for a reduced sentence.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

Hong Kong’s class of lawmakers head to Beijing for study tour in historic first: All 90 Hong Kong lawmakers will attend a week-long “national affairs” study tour in Beijing, the first collective LegCo visit since the 1997 handover. LegCo president Starry Lee said the trip will help legislators align with China’s five-year plans and includes seminars on national security, foreign relations, and CCP history.

‘Even Politburo members can be touched’: what the latest purge says about Xi Jinping’s China: China expelled Xinjiang party chief Ma Xingrui over corruption and abuse-of-power allegations, making him the third Politburo member purged since 2022 and the first civilian official to be impacted in this round of removals. Analysts say that Xi is signaling that no official, however senior, is untouchable in his ongoing anti-corruption campaign.

Is the Number of Taiwanese Missing in China Increasing?: Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has reported a sharp rise in Taiwanese who disappear in China—from 55 in 2024 to 221 in 2025, with 109 already in 2026—including cases of detention and restricted freedom. Officials warned government workers, journalists, and academics against nonessential China travel, citing risks under national security and the new ethnic unity laws.

Taiwan says ‘significant’ rise in China maritime activity near island: Taiwan detected a sharp rise in Chinese coast guard and research vessel activity in June, as China conducted unprecedented “law enforcement” patrols.

China Demolishes Ancient Fortress in Tibet’s Gyalrong Region: Chinese authorities bulldozed a centuries-old stone fortress in Tibet’s Gyalrong region, part of a network of military structures dating back over 1,200 years, sparking rare online grief before posts were censored. The demolition, just days after China’s new Ethnic Unity Law took effect, has fueled Tibetan concerns over cultural heritage erosion.

Chinese Authorities Target Critics of Forced Uyghur Interethnic Marriage: Xinjiang’s internet regulator recently shut down a social media account for criticizing state-promoted interethnic marriages between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, which rights groups call a tool of forced assimilation. Authorities also shuttered another account for allegedly encouraging minors toward religious practice.

International Responses 国际反应

HRIC on Twitter/X: The United States has let Executive Order 13936 concerning Hong Kong (the “President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization”) lapse, meaning that a number of Hong Kong officials who had been sanctioned solely on the basis of that emergency were removed from the U.S. sanctions list. The decision followed U.S.-China trade negotiations and was promptly welcomed by Beijing, yet Washington has to date secured no substantive concessions on Hong Kong’s human rights situation in return.

Related: Hong Kong Watch strongly condemns non-renewal of Executive Order 13936.

Video apparently depicting Filipinos as monkeys on China media draws Manila’s protest: The Philippines lodged a formal protest after Chinese state outlet China Daily posted an animated video depicting a Filipino figure as a monkey to mock the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling, calling it “racist” and “dehumanizing.” Manila demanded the video’s removal and raised the issue directly with China’s ambassador.

EU Lawmakers Renew Calls for China to Repeal “Ethnic Unity” Law: European Parliament members and officials, including Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, renewed demands for China to repeal its “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law,” calling it a tool of forced assimilation against Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongols. China’s state media dismissed the criticism as “ideological prejudice.”

Lawmakers ask Belgian gov’t to take strong position on China’s assimilation policy: Members of Belgium’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee urged their government to take a firm stance against China’s Ethnic Unity Law, warning it could entrench assimilation and extend repression beyond China’s borders. They cautioned against letting economic ties override human rights concerns regarding Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongols.

Trump administration drastically cuts length of foreign journalist visas: DHS will shorten foreign journalist visas from up to five years to a fixed 240 days, with Chinese journalists limited to just 90 days, ending the “duration of status” system. Press freedom groups like RSF and CPJ condemned the move, while China called it “discriminatory” and threatened reciprocal measures.

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This Month: Information Control and Manufactured Ignorance

In June, we revisit China’s increasing restrictions on VPNs to examine how suppressing access to information leads to historical amnesia. While the Great Firewall has been met with admirable resistance from within China over the years, recent analysis shows circumvention has been lower than many advocates hoped. As a result, information from the outside world has struggled to gain traction. For example, the collective efforts of the June Fourth protests have been successfully obscured for many young Chinese, who were surprised to learn the scale of the nationwide movement when a video on the topic went viral last month.

A New Leak Shows Minimal VPN Usage Within Xinjiang, China

China has made no secret of its ambition to exert total control over internet access within its borders through use of the Great Firewall. However, as online Magazine ChinaFile describes, “as long as Beijing has been censoring content online, people in China have been finding ways around that censorship.” VPNs were once an easier mechanism in which to do so, and downloading these applications was standard practice for anyone seeking information free of CCP influence.

This is becoming no longer the case. As reported in our April Digital Rights Brief, many security tools such as VPNs are shutting down due to operation difficulties, leaving users with fewer and fewer options to “climb the digital wall.” While state-sanctioned VPNs are still available, these are heavily monitored and block many outside websites, serving more as a surveillance tool for the government than a useful mechanism for information access. This leaves unauthorized VPNs as the only option for an internet free of restrictions.

Until recently, it has been difficult to measure the success of the CCP’s efforts in circumventing the use of these banned applications. A new report, however, uses leaked internet network traffic records, including over 100,000 documents kept by the Chinese company Geedge Networks, to offer key insights. Notably, this data was focused on the Xinjiang region, the most surveilled region in China largely occupied by the oppressed Uyghur ethnic group. Therefore, it is expected that, on average, these individuals would self-censor far more and be less likely to search for prohibited applications than in other parts of the country. This significantly limits the applicability of the findings.

Nevertheless, results show that internet traffic outside China made up just 4% of overall internet usage on average in this region. There was also evidence that VPN usage is limited to a small number of individuals and that attempted internet connections to websites such as Google were likely unstable or unsuccessful. This points to a lack of availability and/or reliance on VPNs. Whether this low usage rate is because China has successfully blocked these applications or because individuals are too afraid to use it given the risks, what is clear is that the internet in Xinjiang has been successfully isolated from the outside world.

37 Years Later, Young Chinese Citizens Reconceptualize June 4th After Learning More About the Political Movement

In 2026, online activities commemorating June Fourth were stronger than ever before, both inside and outside the Great Firewall. Teacher Li’s tweets, with material provided by HRIC, gathered more than 10 million views on X alone. Newly released videos from ITN and new pictures from HRIC and Epoch Times provided a broader picture of the solidarity from Chinese people from all walks of life. In her latest YouTube episode, former CCTV journalist Chai Jing focused on the 1989 June Fourth Massacre. She highlighted the protesters—students, citizens, a soldier who said “When the order comes, I’ll kill myself first”—and even included an interview with Xu Zongmao, a Taiwanese China Times reporter who was shot in Tiananmen Square.

In just three days, Chai Jing’s video garnered nearly half a million views. Many young Chinese began engaging in heated discussions on the topic across social media platforms. Some remarked on how different life was then, where ordinary people protected the protestors, urged the soldiers for peace, and reported the truth of what was happening, as compared to the prevalent political apathy or ultranationalism of today.

Many recognized, for the first time, the scale of the nationwide movement, realizing that it drew participation from all across Chinese society, not only students. They learned from others who commented on the video how a million Beijing citizens took to the streets to block the military; how during the crackdown the casualty ratio between citizens and students was as high as ten to one; how a carpenter from Jiangsu saved a reporter from Taiwan; how hospitals across the city treated the wounded unconditionally, overflowing with patients; and how Beijing nurses calmly handed retrieved bullets to Taiwanese scholars, simply hoping to “let the world see” what happened here.

Through sharing this video, Chinese netizens spread the message that reducing the 1989 movement to a story of “hot-blooded students opposing the government” obscures the truth: that it was a collective expression of people from all walks of life, and a shared dream of Chinese people worldwide.

How Information Control Leads to Pervasive Ignorance

The Chinese government has a long history of using technology to forcibly erase or alter history. Many Chinese individuals—especially those too young to remember June Fourth—have inaccurate perceptions of the protests in large part due to this conscious erasure. Sources outside of China have been purposely hidden by the Great Firewall, and only inaccurate information is available on the Chinese internet.

Circumventing the Great Firewall has always been a challenge, but it is now becoming near impossible. Accessing unbiased reporting and documentation is thus equally difficult, as Chinese media and search engines must adhere to restrictive regulations. Moreover, when Chinese companies develop digital information tools, they embed CCP censorship directly into their products. For example, when testing whether the popular ChatBot Deepseek would answer questions related to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the only response given was, “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.” The same message appeared during inquiries into other controversial political events involving China.

The end result is a people who are led to believe they are divided, both from the outside world and from each other, and that past political movements were one-off events rather than part of a mass call for liberation. Pervasive ignorance has been fostered in order to control the image of the CCP and downplay any wrongdoing. Digital freedom is thus imperative to allow individuals to access the truth and end the cycle of misinformation and disinformation.

In Case You Missed It: Other Digital Rights and Cybersecurity News

Great Firewall, Censorship, and Information Control

• Xianzi Silenced, Again: Weibo permanently banned the account of Zhou Xiaoxuan, also known as known as Xianzi, the face of China’s #MeToo movement who publicly accused a CCTV host of sexual harassment in 2018, in the latest of multiple platform silencings that authorities have imposed on her since her case was dismissed by a court in 2022.

• HRIC on Twitter/X: VIGINUM (France’s service for vigilance and protection against foreign digital interference) released a report uncovering direct links between 13 multilingual fake news websites and the Chinese state media CGTN (China Global Television Network).

• Leaked Documents Show the Success of China’s VPN Crackdown: Leaked documents on cross-border internet traffic from China’s most surveilled region suggest that VPN usage is far closer to a few percentage points of the population than the often-cited 30 percent estimate. This article argues that Beijing’s combination of platform substitution, aggressive technical blocking, and legal deterrence has successfully kept cross-border internet traffic to a minimum and rendered the Great Firewall more effective than widely assumed.

• “What Does ‘It’s My Duty’ Mean?” ByteDance Chatbot: “This Content is in Suspected Violation of Terms of Use.”: CDT highlighted an exchange in which ByteDance’s AI chatbot Doubao refused to explain the English phrase “It’s my duty,” a phrase from a viral BBC clip of a student cycling to Tiananmen Square in 1989, returning a “suspected violation of terms” error, illustrating how annual censorship spikes around the June 4 anniversary have now extended to Chinese AI models.

• Censoring the Metaverse: The article analyzes how China’s censorship apparatus is being extended into virtual and immersive digital spaces — including VR environments, gaming metaverses, and AI-generated worlds — where authorities face the challenge of applying one-dimensional content moderation frameworks to spatially and socially complex environments where political expression, assembly, and identity can manifest in radically new forms.

• CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for May 2026: May’s most censored topics were dominated by public anger and detailed accountability journalism surrounding the Shanxi coal mine explosion that killed 82—with deletions targeting articles naming officials, documenting falsified safety records, and questioning the State Council investigation—alongside suppression of content about convicted sexual abusers whose sentences were deemed too lenient by the public, and growing censorship of Tiananmen-related content around the June 4 anniversary.

• HRIC on Twitter/X: A document titled “VPN Cross-Border Identification System Product White Paper” has recently been circulating online, describing a surveillance system designed by Guoji Beisheng (Nanjing) Technology Development Co. and deployed in colleges and universities to identify and monitor teachers’ and students’ “wall-climbing” behaviors in real time, flagging any access to overseas websites.

• Translation: Religion and Red Lines in Chinese Online Literature: The piece examines how Chinese online novelists writing in genres like xianxia (immortal fantasy) and wuxia must carefully navigate state censorship of religious content, including restrictions on depicting Buddhist and Taoist themes in ways deemed superstitious or politically sensitive, illustrating how China’s red lines on religion now extend deep into popular web fiction.

• Translation: “The School Where I Work Requires Us to Report Our Social Media Accounts. Should I Keep Publishing on My WeChat Public Account?”: A Chinese teacher’s essay describes being required to carry out informal “troll army” duties requiring them to share and promote pro-government content online, illustrating how schools deputize already-overworked staff as unpaid propaganda labor while also surveilling their personal social media activity.

AI Propaganda and Social Media Manipulation

• HRIC on Twitter/X: Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Threads experienced a sudden, large-scale account suspension wave in Taiwan this week, claiming the accounts were “under 13 years old.” This storm began brewing late Sunday night (the 14th) and fully escalated the following morning, impacting politicians, multiple mainstream media outlets, and online creators with millions of followers. The suspensions coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s birthday, leading netizens to initially suspect ulterior motives. Meta later stated that this was a technical glitch in its AI age verification system, not targeted at any specific group or individuals.

• Translation: “The School Where I Work Requires Us to Report Our Social Media Accounts. Should I Keep Publishing on My WeChat Public Account?”: A Chinese teacher’s essay describes being required to carry out informal “troll army” duties requiring them to share and promote pro-government content online, illustrating how schools deputize already-overworked staff as unpaid propaganda labor while also surveilling their personal social media activity.

Cybersecurity & Data Privacy

• HRIC on Twitter/X: Chinese company Geedge Networks is developing an artificial intelligence technology aimed not just at monitoring dissidents, but at predicting who “might” become a dissident before they take any public action.

• HRIC on Twitter/X: A document titled “VPN Cross-Border Identification System Product White Paper” has recently been circulating online, describing a surveillance system designed by Guoji Beisheng (Nanjing) Technology Development Co. and deployed in colleges and universities to identify and monitor teachers’ and students’ “wall-climbing” behaviors in real time, flagging any access to overseas websites.

Digital Transnational Repression

• Chinese spies use LinkedIn to target UK officials and military staff: the UK’s MI5 warned that Chinese military intelligence operatives are using an “aggressive” strategy on LinkedIn and other job platforms to target UK government officials, military personnel, and anyone with access to classified information by posing as employees of private consultancies or think tanks and advertising fake foreign policy and defense analyst roles before pressuring recruits to provide sensitive, non-public information.

  • Related: Chinese spies pose as recruiters to glean state secrets, Five Eyes alliance warns. The Five Eyes intelligence alliance (comprising the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) issued an unprecedented joint bulletin extending the warning beyond the UK, confirming that Chinese intelligence is systematically targeting government, military, academic, and think-tank personnel across all five countries through fake recruitment campaigns on LinkedIn, Indeed, and Upwork.

• Chinese activist in UK told by X that abusive deepfakes do not breach rules: Apple Peiqing Ni, founder of the UK-based China Dissent Network, was inundated with bot posts on X containing AI-generated deepfake images portraying her as a drug addict and a victim of street violence after she posted about Tiananmen commemoration activities. X’s automated systems initially ruled the posts did not violate its rules, and the account was only suspended after the Guardian contacted X for comment.

Civil Society & Resistance Under Pressure

• HRIC on Twitter/X: Former CCTV journalist Chai Jing’s June 4th program has drawn nearly 500,000 views in three days and sparked rare discussion among young Chinese. Many viewers say they only now realize that 1989 was not just a student movement, but a nationwide democratic uprising in which citizens, workers, nurses, journalists, soldiers, and students stood together for a freer China. The program has revived memories of a lost sense of Chinese civic community and a shared aspiration for freedom and dignity, which repression and censorship have gradually eroded, fragmenting society and weakening bonds of mutual responsibility.

Technological Competition & State Power

• Siri AI’s Future in China Unclear Under “One Apple, Two Systems”: Apple’s AI features remain unavailable in mainland China due to its failure to meet regulatory requirements, including safety checks against 31 risk categories topped by “incitement to subvert state power,” leaving Apple lagging competitors like Baidu and ByteDance’s Doubao, with Doubao’s refusal to explain “It’s my duty” serving as a reminder of the political guardrails any AI must clear to operate in the Chinese market.

• Chinese-linked hackers targeted U.S., Canadian research facilities for a year, Google says: Google’s Threat Intelligence Group disclosed that a China-linked hacking group it calls UNC6508 covertly stole data from US and Canadian academic, medical, and military research institutions for over two years from September 2023 through November 2025, targeting defense intelligence, Indo-Pacific military strategy, AI, unmanned vehicles, cyber warfare programs, and medical research.

  • Related: Google sues Chinese cybercrime network that used Gemini to automate scams. Google filed a federal lawsuit in New York against “Outsider Enterprise,” a China-based phishing-as-a-service cybercrime network that used Gemini AI to generate code for over 8,000 fake websites impersonating Google, YouTube, USPS, and financial institutions.

• US seizes 13 website domains suspected of Chinese spying: The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of 13 domains belonging to sham consulting firms that Chinese intelligence agents allegedly used to recruit current and former US government and military personnel with security clearances, one week after the Five Eyes alliance issued a similar warning about Chinese LinkedIn recruitment operations.

• Anthropic says Alibaba illicitly extracted Claude AI model capabilities: Anthropic accused Alibaba and its Qwen AI lab of running the largest known “distillation” attack against Claude to date, generating over 28.8 million exchanges through nearly 25,000 fraudulent accounts between April 22 and June 5, 2026, in an effort Anthropic said was designed to accelerate China’s progress toward its own most advanced AI capabilities.

• Translation: How Tolerant is China’s Internet?: Responding to former Global Times editor Hu Xijin’s claim that Chinese society has grown “less tolerant,” blogger Wang Wusi sarcastically argued the opposite, citing Xiaomi’s fatal electric car fires and mass recalls as evidence that Chinese society in fact displays world-leading “tolerance” for corporate negligence and public safety hazards that would provoke outrage elsewhere.

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In Thailand, three detained Chinese dissidents and a journalist are in danger of repatriation to China, where they would likely face persecution, Human Rights Watch reports. Zhang Xinyan (or Cheung Hsin-yin), a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner and member of the overseas “Hong Kong Parliament” group who is wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police for subversion, was detained by Thai authorities in Bangkok in May for allegedly overstaying her visa and has been held ever since at the Suan Phlu immigration detention centre. Last week, despite being a UNHCR-recognized refugee who had completed interviews, medical checks, and biometric screening for resettlement to Canada, she was pulled from her scheduled flight to Vancouver at the last minute when Thai police intervened before departure, reportedly under pressure from Beijing.

This case is an example of ongoing transnational repression and echoes the 2015 case of activist Dong Guangping, who was forcibly returned to China from Thailand despite having refugee status. It has raised fears that Zhang could become the first person wanted under Hong Kong’s national security law to be deported into Chinese custody. Hong Kong’s Security Bureau has declined to comment beyond warning that “no fugitive should harbour the illusion that they can evade criminal liability.” Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, leaving UNHCR cardholders acutely vulnerable. Returning her would violate the principle of non-refoulement, a key tenet of international law. HRIC calls on Canada to press ahead with resettlement at the highest level, and on Thailand to halt any such deportations.

Yesterday, on July 13, mourners gathered in cities around the world to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the death of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo, who died in prison as a political prisoner for advocating for Chinese democracy and human rights. Events were held in New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Leipzig, among others. A portrait was briefly projected onto the German Bundestag building, and young people gathered in Central Park to share memories and teachings of Liu Xiaobo. In China, Zou Wei and Zan Aizong, who were sentenced to prison merely for commemorating Liu Xiaobo, remain behind bars.

Last Thursday also brought the eleventh anniversary of the “709 Crackdown” on human rights lawyers and defenders in 2015, which led to the arrest of over 300, as well as torture, imprisonment, and surveillance. Last week, Asian Lawyers Network worked with HRIC to release a key new report on the rights of Chinese civil and commercial lawyers, which found that the “sense of professional safety that once seemed to characterize civil and commercial practice has been rapidly disappearing.” HRIC also joined six other organizations in presenting 2026’s Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Award to two steadfast advocates for human rights, Zhang Kai and Zhang Yu. In 2026, eleven years after the crackdown began, Chinese lawyers continue to face surveillance, travel restrictions, and professional suppression. HRIC urges the international community to continue monitoring the situations of Zhou Shifeng, Yu Wensheng, and other 709 defendants, and to press Chinese authorities to immediately cease all restrictions and harassment against them and their families, and truly safeguard their communication, litigation, and personal freedoms.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

54 human rights and diaspora organisations warn China’s Ethnic Unity Law threatens freedoms worldwide: 54 human rights and diaspora groups, led by Hong Kong Watch, condemned China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law as a vehicle for imposing state-defined national identity and warned its extraterritorial reach could be used to criminalize critics abroad.

Related: 51 Estonian lawmakers condemn China’s ethnic unity law, urge immediate repeal. 51 of Estonia’s 101 Members of Parliament signed a statement condemning the same law as a threat to Tibetan identity, citing mandatory Mandarin instruction and extraterritorial provisions targeting diaspora critics, and called for its repeal.

China expands anti-sanctions toolkit, raising risks for foreign firms: Beijing has passed new regulations letting it penalize foreign firms that comply with Western sanctions or “improper extraterritorial jurisdiction,” with a draft law also allowing prosecution of foreign entities for harming China’s “national interests.” Furthermore, “companies can face penalties if they ‘disrupt, undermine or discriminate against China’s industrial or supply chains’.”

Hong Kong prosecutors should treat children as children: Tim Hamlett’s HKFP opinion piece criticizes Hong Kong’s Department of Justice for bringing a case against a woman originally arrested as a 15-year-old in 2019 now, when she will be sentenced more harshly as an adult. He writes, “Depriving young defendants of the benefit of the provisions expressly provided for them is a rank and undisputable injustice, whether it is perpetrated as a deliberate abuse or an unintended result of a sluggish system. Children should be treated as children.”

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

HRIC on Twitter/X: Leaked documents reveal that China’s firewall can identify specific VPNs and that the firewall system’s ability to identify various mainstream circumvention tools has been significantly upgraded.

HRIC on Twitter/X: According to the South China Morning Post, researchers from the People’s Public Security University of China have developed a new forensic technique for “remotely identifying phone operations”: even if the phone is offline, in airplane mode, locked, or encrypted, investigators may analyze the faint electromagnetic signals leaked during device operation to determine which app the user is using and what type of actions they are performing.

Authoritarian Innovation: How China Is Building Control into Generative AI Systems: Based on a systematic review of publicly available Chinese policy documents, laws, administrative measures, national and industry standards, and corporate materials from 2013 to 2026, this new report reveals that Beijing is embedding political control into the technical foundations of generative AI. Under China’s “AI safety” framework, any content that deviates from the Party’s narrative or challenges its ideological worldview is defined as a “content safety risk.” To address this, controls are shifted upstream to the technical processes before content generation, covering aspects such as training data, data annotation, model behavior, application testing, and content tracing.

HRIC on Twitter/X: A July 2026 report by cyber intelligence firm Graphika revealed that the Chinese government-linked influence operation Spamouflage recently employed a new tactic: distributing altered event leaflets in an attempt to disrupt events critical of the Chinese Communist Party which were held in the United States and Europe.

Translation: “How Do These Comments Break the Rules?”: A WeChat blogger’s translated essay describes bewilderment at China’s automated comment-censorship system, which flags seemingly innocuous reader comments as rule violations with no discernible logic.

Minitrue: 718 Leaked Directives from Video Platform LeTV: China Digital Times published 718 leaked censorship directives issued to video platform LeTV between 2017 and 2020, detailing granular content-control demands and reporting requirements from Chinese cyber-authorities.

The Propaganda Promise of AI: China Daily’s editor-in-chief wrote in Qiushi that AI is turning state media from a “cognitive tool” into an “action tool” capable of directly producing propaganda content for global audiences, though the piece notes such AI-generated content (e.g., a PLA video) has drawn mockery online as “AI slop.”

Facing US export controls, China’s DeepSeek plans to make its own chips: DeepSeek is developing its own AI inference chip to cut reliance on Nvidia and Huawei amid tightening US export controls, joining rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in pursuing custom silicon.

China’s graduate glut: millions enter a job market with little use for them: A record 12.7 million Chinese college graduates are entering an oversaturated job market this year, with AI automation increasingly eroding entry-level positions even as Beijing pushes AI-related job schemes to absorb them.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

Tibetan youth activists call out United Nations, demand action after Lobga Rangzen’s self-immolation: Three Students for a Free Tibet activists chained themselves to the UN’s gates in New York on the one-week anniversary of Lobga Rangzen’s self-immolation, pointing to the UN’s lack of meaningful response and demanding accountability from China.

Related: Australian Tibetans went on a hunger strike in front of the Chinese consulate to mourn the self-immolation of exiled Tibetan Lobsang Rinchen. Tibetans in Melbourne held a 24-hour fast outside the Chinese consulate to mourn Lobsang Rinchen (Lobga Rangzen) and protest China’s Ethnic Unity Law’s impact on Tibetan identity.

Related: People in Tawang and Sanskar, India, held a candlelight vigil to commemorate Lobsang Rinchen, a Tibetan independence activist. Tibetan communities in Tawang and Ladakh held candlelight vigils honoring Lobsang Rinchen and voicing support for Tibetan independence.

Hong Kong Watch Patrons in UK and Canada demand transparency from INTERPOL ahead of its General Assembly in Hong Kong: Hong Kong Watch reports that a group of concerned individuals from the UK and Canada urged their governments to press INTERPOL for transparency on politically motivated Red Notices ahead of its November General Assembly in Hong Kong, citing a 26% rise in Red Notices and unresolved concerns about bounties on activists.

Passage of UK State Threats Bill marks important step against transnational repression: Last week, the UK’s National Security (State Threats) Bill passed into law. Hong Kong Watch called it an important step against Chinese transnational repression, though also pressed for continued scrutiny of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

Ex-DPP staffer receives 10 years for developing spy network for China: Taiwan’s High Court sentenced former DPP staffer Huang Chu-jung to 10 years for building an espionage network on behalf of Chinese intelligence, after he recruited others to leak classified information, including details on President Lai’s travel.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

HRIC on Twitter/X: From April 25 to June 30, 2026, a large-scale “non-violent” leaderless movement lasting 67 days erupted in Heilongjiang Province, China. According to statistics from “Yesterday,” businesses in 34 counties collectively closed their shops and went on strike, with over one million businesses participating. This action had no publicly known organizers, no unified call to action, and no clear leader.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Independent film director and talk show creator Zhang Peng (online name “Zhang Neixian”) has been criminally detained in Beijing for “provoking trouble.”

Jailed activist Joshua Wong to plead guilty, face second national security jail term in September: Jailed activist Joshua Wong will plead guilty in September to a foreign-collusion charge tied to 2020 sanctions requests, his second national security conviction after his 2024 sentence in the “47 Democrats” case.

Hong Kong court denies jailed social worker leave to appeal 2019 rioting conviction: Hong Kong’s High Court refused to allow jailed social worker Jackie Chen to appeal her rioting conviction from the 2019 protests, ruling her grounds were not “reasonably arguable.”

Macau to put former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San on trial: A Macau court found that former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San is a “principal offender” of subversion, sending the city’s first national security case to trial.

Hong Kong waiter pleads guilty to inciting subversion via online posts, street posters: A 23-year-old waiter pleaded guilty to inciting subversion for promoting a pro-Taiwan party and anti-CCP slogans (including the banned “Liberate Hong Kong” phrase) via social media and street posters.

Independent bookshop Elmbook to close physical store after Hong Kong Book Fair ban: Independent bookshop Elmbook, open since 1997, announced it will close its physical Mong Kok store after being abruptly barred from this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

China signals ‘new normal’ with coast guard patrols off eastern Taiwan: China signaled it will maintain a new, sustained coast guard presence east of Taiwan, which analysts say rehearses procedures for a future blockade.

Hong Kong churches urged to implement anti-sexual harassment policies after study finds complaints mishandled: A Hong Kong Christian Council study found fewer than half of surveyed churches have anti-sexual harassment policies and identified at least 69 victims, prompting calls for mandatory safeguards.

Hong Kong to hold ‘patriots only’ polls in November for powerful election body choosing city’s top leader: Hong Kong will hold so-called “patriots only” elections on November 22, 2026, for 982 seats on the 1,500-member Election Committee that selects the city’s chief executive.

International Responses 国际反应

Demand the release of Tibetan religious leader Choktrul Dorje Ten Rinpoche: Amnesty International is urging supporters to press Chinese authorities to disclose the whereabouts of and release Tibetan Buddhist leader Choktrul Dorje Ten Rinpoche, who has been missing since his December 2025 detention.

The United States reiterated its support for Tibetan rights and cultural heritage, and urged China to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama: The US State Department reaffirmed support for Tibetans’ cultural and religious rights and urged China to resume unconditional dialogue with the Dalai Lama, prompting Beijing to accuse Washington of interference.

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We extend our heartfelt congratulations to them.

After passing the National Judicial Examination in 2003, Lawyer Zhang Kai initially practiced corporate law. In 2006, he began working on public interest litigation and human rights cases, becoming one of the earliest rights-defense lawyers. He once remarked, “Ninety percent of the cases I handle are cases of injustice,” a statement that simply yet precisely encapsulates the values ​​and life choices of a Chinese lawyer.

Following the 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal, Lawyer Zhang Kai served on a legal aid team, representing victims in a class-action civil lawsuit. He has also provided anti-discrimination legal support to people living with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B, and has represented farmers in cases concerning land rights. A family planning case he handled in 2012 drew widespread international attention to the brutal realities of China’s compulsory family planning policies.

In 2010, during the high-profile “My Father is Li Gang” hit-and-run case, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice pressured the law firm where Zhang Kai worked, forcing the termination of his representation in the case. Shortly thereafter, he was surrounded and beaten by unidentified individuals on the streets of Beijing.

As both a lawyer and a member of a Chinese house church, Zhang Kai has emerged over the past decade as a key leader in legal cases involving Christian communities. He has represented many of these cases across multiple provinces and has led rights-defense efforts to safeguard religious freedom. In 2014, when the Zhejiang provincial government launched a massive campaign of forced church cross demolitions, Zhang Kai spent nearly a year in Wenzhou living and working alongside local churches. He organized a “legal team to defend the crosses” and compiled a practical legal handbook to help churches utilize administrative law to safeguard their legitimate rights and property.

As a result of these efforts, Zhang Kai was detained by the authorities on August 25, 2015. During the ensuing seven months of imprisonment, he was subjected to mental and physical torture and forced to give a public “confession” on television.

In August 2016, while released on bail pending trial, Zhang Kai was compelled to publicly express support for the authorities’ prosecution of the “709 Crackdown” lawyers. However, a few days later, he issued a formal statement on Weibo retracting his remarks, explaining that they had been “forced statements made against his conscience” under duress, and asked for forgiveness from his colleagues and the public.

After authorities subsequently blocked the annual renewal of his practicing license, Zhang Kai devoted more energy to public writing. In July 2018, following China’s tainted vaccine scandal, he published an article titled “We Are All in the Same Boat,” which garnered tens of millions of views. He then used a million yuan in reader donations to establish the “Responsibility and Rule of Law Fund,” providing legal aid to ordinary citizens unable to afford legal counsel.

A few years later, after resuming his legal practice, Zhang Kai continued to represent clients in numerous cases involving political prisoners, religious freedom issues, and wrongful convictions.

In October 2025, Chinese authorities arrested 18 pastoral staff members from Beijing Zion Church. Zhang Kai served as defense counsel for Senior Pastor Jin Mingri and faced various forms of pressure and harassment as a result.

In January 2026, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice permanently revoked Zhang Kai’s license to practice law, citing “disruption of courtroom order” in an unrelated case. Simultaneously, the authorities suspended the licenses of several other lawyers on the Zion Church defense team for six months and forcibly shut down the Beijing Kaimen Law Firm, where Zhang Kai served as director.

In the span of just over twenty years since the emergence of the human rights lawyer community in China, authorities have cancelled or revoked the licenses of more than 70 such lawyers—a staggering figure—with Zhang Kai being the latest example. This once again demonstrates that the authoritarian system in China does not tolerate lawyers fighting for judicial justice, while also reflecting the extraordinary courage and contributions of China’s human rights lawyers. They have been, and continue to be, authors of a significant chapter in history.

Today, with profound respect, we present the 2026 China Human Rights Lawyer Award to Attorney Zhang Kai.

Congratulations!

The other recipient of the 2026 China Human Rights Lawyer Award is Attorney Yu Kai.

Attorney Yu Kai is the Director of the Xiaolin Law Firm in Qingdao, Shandong Province. For over two decades, he has steadfastly utilized legal avenues—including litigation, administrative reconsideration, administrative appeals, and legislative proposals—to oversee government compliance with the law and to defend the fundamental rights of citizens. As a practicing lawyer, Yu Kai employs legal statutes and procedural rules to vigorously advocate for clients facing the overreach of administrative and judicial power, upholding the dignity of the law with professionalism.

In 2020, upon discovering in a court judgment that the then-president of the Qingdao Lawyers Association was implicated in bribery yet had never been held accountable, he chose to publicly report the matter. He stated, “With seven thousand lawyers in Qingdao, it is a disgrace to have someone with a record of bribery serving as president.” Three years later, the president was finally forced to resign.

In June 2023, while representing human rights defender Li Qiaochu, Yu Kai withdrew from the courtroom in protest against severe procedural violations; specifically, the court’s unlawful refusal to allow co-counsel to appear and its dismissal of all procedural motions. He refused to participate in an unjust trial, declaring, “We will leave our ‘evidence for the record’—not of the courtroom, but of history.” This statement stands as a testament to the commitment of Chinese rights-defense lawyers to procedural justice.

Attorney Yu Kai does not merely handle individual cases; he actively advocates for systemic reform. For a long time, the “crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble”—a “catch-all” offense frequently subject to abuse—has served as a key legal tool for suppressing dissidents, rights-defending citizens, independent journalists, whistleblowers, and ordinary petitioners. In 2023 and 2025, Yu Kai and his colleagues from the Xiaolin Law Firm submitted legislative proposals to the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, calling for the abolition of this specific criminal charge. Citing the principle of “no crime without law” (nullum crimen sine lege), they systematically argued that the charge was vaguely defined and overly broad in application, thereby infringing upon citizens’ freedom of speech and undermining the credibility of China’s criminal law system.

In January 2024, when young trainee lawyer Zhang Wenpeng faced prolonged delays in his application to practice law after publicly criticizing the state-run lawyers’ association, Yu Kai publicly voiced his support. He wrote to the Shandong Provincial Department of Justice, urging them to safeguard lawyers’ rights to practice in accordance with the law. In February 2026, when Zhang Wenpeng, who had been arrested on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” stood trial, Yu Kai traveled to Sanya, Hainan, to show his support. When the court barred observers from the courtroom in an attempt to conduct a secret trial, Yu Kai expressed his indignation and protest by slamming his lawyer’s license card onto the ground and stomping on it forcefully.

His steadfast adherence to principle invited retaliation from the authorities.

In July 2024, due to his proposal to abolish the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Justice imposed an administrative penalty on Yu Kai, suspending his license to practice for one year on the grounds of “improperly sensationalizing cases.” It also ordered the Xiaolin Law Firm to suspend operations for six months for “rectification.”

After the suspension period ended, Yu Kai did not choose silence. In addition to once again proposing to the National People’s Congress that the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” be abolished, he traveled to Beijing on March 26, 2026. Outside the Ministry of Justice building, he publicly submitted a formal petition calling for the abolition of the “control and monitoring of key lawyers” system, which targets rights-defending lawyers; the removal of administrative restrictions such as the annual inspection of legal practice licenses; and the promotion of genuine industry self-governance for lawyers’ associations.

He was taken into custody by the police that same day, and on the following day, March 27, he was placed under criminal detention. Although he was released after one month of confinement, he did not regain his freedom; the threat of criminal prosecution remained, and his personal liberty continues to be strictly restricted to this day.

The sustained suppression Yu Kai has faced underscores the significant impact of his commitment to the rule of law. The fact that a lawyer is penalized simply for insisting on practicing in accordance with the law, upholding constitutional principles, and challenging unlawful administrative actions serves as a profound reflection of the current state of the rule of law in China.

We commend Lawyer Yu Kai for his courage, professionalism, and unwavering belief in the rule of law. He reminds us that a true lawyer does not merely uphold the law in the courtroom but steadfastly defends the law itself when it is being trampled upon.

In recognition of his long-standing contributions to professional ethics and institutional reform within the legal profession, it is with deep respect that we present the 2026 “Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Award” to Lawyer Yu Kai.

Thank you all.

【张凯、于凯获2026年中国人权律师奖颁奖辞】

今天，在我们共同纪念"709大抓捕"十一周年之际，我代表七个主办机构颁发中国人权律师奖。像往年一样，我们在中国人权律师群体中征求提名，今年有多达45位中国律师参与提名，被提名的律师有十多位之多。主办方在统计提名票数后，遴选出今年的两位获奖者。

他们是：张凯律师和于凯律师。

祝贺他们！

张凯律师2003年通过国家司法考试后，最初从事公司法业务。2006年，他开始从事公益诉讼和人权案件，成为最早的维权律师之一。他曾经说，"我做的案件90%都是冤案"，这句话简单而精确地表达了一个中国律师的价值取向和人生选择。

2008年爆发三聚氰胺毒奶粉事件后，张凯律师是法律援助团成员之一，代理受害人提起集体民事诉讼。他曾为艾滋病人、乙肝感染者提供反歧视法律支持；也曾代理农民，在土地权益案件中为他们提供辩护。2012年他代理的一起计划生育案，使中国强制计划生育政策的残酷现实受到国际社会广泛关注。

2010年，在备受关注的公共事件"我爸是李刚"交通肇事案中，北京市司法局向张凯所在的律师事务所施压，导致其代理资格被迫终止。不久后，他在北京街头遭身份不明者围堵和殴打。

作为一名律师，同时作为中国家庭教会的一员，张凯过去十多年成为基督教教案中的重要引领者，在多省多地代理众多教案，并带领教会维权，捍卫宗教自由。2014年，浙江省政府发起大规模强拆教堂十字架运动，张凯在温州居留近一年，与当地教会共同生活、共同工作，组织"护十字律师团"，并编写实用法律手册，帮助教会运用行政法维护合法权益和教会财产。

因为这些努力，2015年8月25日张凯遭到当局拘押。在随后长达七个月的监禁期间，他遭受了精神和身体上的酷刑，并被迫在电视上公开"认罪"。

2016年8月，在取保候审期间，张凯被迫公开发表支持当局审判709律师的言论。但是几天后，他在微博发表正式声明，撤回自己的言论，表示他的言论是在恐惧之下被迫作出的"违心表达"，并请求同仁和社会的原谅。

由于当局随后阻止其完成律师执业年检，张凯将更多精力投入公共写作。2018年7月，中国发生毒疫苗事件后，他发表《我们都在同一条船上》一文，引发数千万次阅读。他随后用读者打赏的一百万元人民币成立"责任法治建设基金"，资助无力聘请律师的普通民众获得法律援助。

几年前，张凯恢复执业后，继续代理多起政治犯案件、教案、和冤假错案。

2025年10月，中国当局抓捕了北京锡安教会18名教牧人员，张凯担任主任牧师金明日的辩护律师，遭到各种施压和骚扰。

2026年1月，北京市司法局以他在另一案件中"扰乱法庭秩序"为由，永久吊销了他的律师执业证，同时暂停锡安律师团队多名代理律师执业六个月，并强制关闭张凯担任主任的北京凯门律师事务所。

在维权律师这个群体出现的短短二十余年里，中国当局已经注销和吊销了多达70多名维权律师的执业证，令人触目惊心，张凯律师是最新的一例。这再次证明专制制度下的中国不容忍律师为司法正义而抗争，也反映出中国人权律师这个群体非凡的勇气和贡献。他们一直在、仍然在谱写历史中重要的一章。

我们今天怀着崇高的敬意，将2026年度中国人权律师奖授予张凯律师。

祝贺！

***

2026年度"中国人权律师奖"另一位获奖者是于凯律师。

祝贺！

于凯律师是山东青岛晓临律师事务所主任。二十多年来，他坚持运用法律手段，通过诉讼、行政复议、行政申诉以及立法建议等方式，监督政府依法行政，捍卫公民依法享有的基本权利。作为执业律师，于凯运用法律条文和程序规则，为身处行政权力和司法越权之下的当事人据理力争，以专业精神捍卫法律尊严。

2020年，他从一份法院判决中发现，时任青岛律协会长涉嫌行贿却从未被追究，他选择公开举报。他说："青岛有七千名律师，由一个有行贿污点的人担任会长，是很丢脸的事情。" 三年后，该会长终于被迫辞职。

2023年6月，在人权捍卫者李翘楚案中，面对法院违法拒绝共同辩护律师出庭，并驳回所有程序性申请，于凯退出法庭，以抗议严重的程序违法行为，拒绝配合一场不公正的审判。他说："我们将留下'呈堂供证'，不是在法庭上，而是在历史上。" 这句话成为中国维权律师坚持程序正义的见证之一。

于凯律师不仅代理个案，更积极推动制度改革。长期以来，"寻衅滋事罪"这一长期被广泛滥用的"口袋罪"，成为打压异议人士、维权公民、独立记者、吹哨人和普通上访者的重要法律工具。2023年以及2025年，于凯与晓临律师事务所同事先后向全国人大常委会法制工委提交立法建议，呼吁废除这一罪名。他们依据罪刑法定原则，系统论证这一罪名定义模糊、适用宽泛，侵蚀公民言论自由，损害中国刑法本身的公信力。

2024年1月，当年轻的实习律师张文鹏因公开批评官办律师协会而长期无法完成执业申请时，于凯公开给予支持，并致信山东省司法厅，呼吁依法保障律师依法执业的权利。2026年2月，涉嫌"寻衅滋事"而被捕的张文鹏开庭，于凯前往海南三亚声援。法庭禁止旁听者进入法庭，试图进行秘密审判，于凯愤怒地将律师证狠狠摔在地上，又狠狠地跺了两脚，表达不满和抗议。

对原则的坚持，导致他招致当局的报复。

2024年7月，因为建议废除"寻衅滋事"罪，青岛市司法局以所谓"违规炒作案件"为由，对于凯作出停止执业一年的行政处罚，并责令晓临律师事务所停业整顿六个月。

停业期满后，于凯没有选择沉默，除了再次向人大建议废除"寻衅滋事罪"外，2026年3月26日，他前往北京，在司法部大楼前公开递交《情况反映书》，要求废除针对维权律师的"重点管控律师"制度，取消律师执业年检等行政限制，并推动律师协会真正实现行业自治。

当天，他被警察带走关押，第二天，即3月27日，他被刑事拘留。他在被关押一个月后获得释放，但他并没有获得自由，刑事追诉的威胁依然存在，他的人身自由至今仍受到严格限制。

对于凯的持续打压，说明了他坚持法治原则所具有的影响力。当一位律师仅仅因为坚持依法执业、维护宪法原则、挑战违法行政而遭到惩罚，这本身就是中国法治现状最深刻的写照。

我们褒奖于凯律师的勇气、专业精神和对法治的坚定信念。他提醒我们，真正的律师，不仅是在法庭上维护法律，更是在法律遭到践踏的时候，坚持捍卫法律本身。

鉴于于凯律师长期以来对律师职业操守、制度改革所作出的贡献，我们怀着崇高的敬意，将2026年度"中国人权律师奖"授予于凯律师。

谢谢大家。

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July 8, 2026 — The non-profit organization “Asian Lawyers Network (ALN)” today releases the Report on the Rights and Conditions of Civil and Commercial Lawyers in China. The timing, on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of the “709” mass arrests, is deeply significant. On July 9, 2015, Chinese authorities launched a large-scale crackdown on human rights lawyers and criminal defense lawyers. Eleven years on, this report finds that the effects of suppression have progressively extended to a much broader population: hundreds of thousands of lawyers who have long practiced civil and commercial law—handling contracts, real estate, corporate matters, and debt disputes—now face not only rising criminal risks in their professional work but also the twin pressures of a depressed market and crushing tax burdens. The sense of professional safety that once seemed to characterize civil and commercial practice has been rapidly disappearing.

The report runs to approximately 26,000 Chinese characters. It draws on documentary research, analysis of publicly available cases, in-depth interviews with lawyers, and questionnaire surveys; it includes seven representative cases with complete judicial records; and it cites publicly available data from the Ministry of Justice and local bar associations. It is the first systematic research report to focus specifically on the professional rights and conditions of civil and commercial lawyers in mainland China. Given the administrative regulatory pressures facing the legal profession, this survey does not rely primarily on large-scale surveys conducted under respondents’ real names; instead, it employs targeted sampling, semi-structured interviews, and qualitative analysis methods, with a focus on illuminating the institutional environment and its trends.

Core Finding: Commercial Lawyers Are No Longer Safe

For a long time, a pervasive view within the legal profession held that civil and commercial lawyers occupied a “relatively safe zone” compared with rights defense lawyers and criminal defense lawyers—their work was essentially in the sphere of private autonomy, and did not directly engage national security or ideological red lines. This report finds that this traditional perception is rapidly collapsing.

Ms. Lu Miaoqing, a public interest lawyer from Guangdong, said: “For a long time there was a common understanding in the legal profession: criminal defense and rights cases carried the highest risk, but so long as you focused on civil and commercial work—contracts, corporate matters, real estate—you were relatively safe. Today, that professional consensus has been shattered. Whether a case carries risk no longer depends only on the type of case; it also depends on the case background, the parties’ identities, and the policy environment. What begins as an ordinary commercial dispute can end with the lawyer facing criminal prosecution—or even imprisonment. This high degree of uncertainty is forcing more and more civil and commercial lawyers to recalibrate their professional judgment.”

The report reveals that this spreading risk stems from three overlapping structural shifts. First, the boundaries of political risk continue to expand: cases involving private enterprises, internet platforms, financial disputes, and mass debt are increasingly being invested with political sensitivity, forcing lawyers to conduct preemptive self-censorship before accepting cases. Second, enforcement patterns such as “ the weaponization of criminal law in civil disputes” and “ utilizing criminal prosecution for debt recovery” have proliferated: lawyers’ representational conduct, legal opinions, and even fee arrangements may be retroactively characterized as criminal assistance. Third, the rate at which court judgments are published online plunged to a historic low of 12.5% in 2023, and the combination of judicial opacity and unpredictability has significantly increased the professional risks lawyers bear. These three shifts, acting together, have transformed the professional risk facing civil and commercial lawyers from one driven primarily by market competition to a structural risk shaped simultaneously by political, judicial, and market forces.

The report concludes that when ordinary commercial lawyers face increasing uncertainty even in the course of normal practice, the impact extends beyond the legal profession itself, affecting enterprises’ access to legal services, the security of commercial transactions, and the rule-of-law business environment.

Cases Reconstructed: Normal Practice Becomes Criminal Prosecution

The report’s appendix includes seven representative cases with complete judicial records, each reconstructing the path from normal professional practice to criminal prosecution, providing compelling empirical evidence.

The Feng Bo case is particularly instructive. Feng Bo had served as lawful legal counsel to the head of a chamber of commerce in Guangxi. When the chamber head was subsequently identified as the leader of an organized crime group, Feng Bo was immediately prosecuted for “participation in an organization of the nature of a criminal underworld” and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment at first instance. The second-instance court found insufficient evidence and overturned the organized crime conviction, but still sentenced him to five years for fraud and assisting in the fabrication of evidence. The core lesson of this case: a lawyer’s normal conduct as legal counsel can be retroactively brought within a criminal evaluation framework, and the uncertainty of professional boundaries has reached an extreme degree.

The Lü Xiansen case illustrates a different dimension of risk. This Anhui lawyer represented clients in multiple ordinary private lending disputes; after the clients were subsequently identified as a “predatory lending” criminal organization, he was charged as a co-conspirator in fraud and sentenced to twelve years at first instance. The second-instance court reduced the sentence to three years, but during the investigation there had been coerced confession under torture, and the relevant video was immediately removed after being made public.

The report concludes that these cases are not isolated incidents but are representative examples of the spreading professional risk facing civil and commercial lawyers in recent years. Though the types of cases differ, all reflect the growing ease with which lawyers’ normal professional conduct can be re-evaluated within a criminal framework.

Dual Squeeze of Market and Institutional Pressures: A Severe Tax Dilemma

The report reveals that, beyond rising political risk, changes in the market environment have further exacerbated the survival pressures facing civil and commercial lawyers. By 2025, the number of practicing lawyers nationwide had reached 830,000, a nearly 1.8-fold increase over ten years, yet the pace of growth in demand for legal services has fallen far short of supply. Average per-lawyer revenue among Beijing lawyers fell from RMB 843,300 in 2019 to RMB 687,200 in 2023. Based on surveys from bar associations across China, 2023 saw the first-ever net outflow of young lawyers from the profession. At the same time, even as income declines, the tax and fee system has not been correspondingly adjusted, leaving many lawyers under the dual pressure of shrinking revenue and a relatively heavier tax burden.

On the tax and fee front, the report reveals a structural dilemma: if lawyers strictly comply with tax requirements, their combined tax burden can reach 40%–50% of income; if they adopt the tax arrangements common in the industry, they may at any moment face joint action by tax and public security authorities. The report characterizes this situation as “universal criminalization”—full compliance means operating at a loss, while tax avoidance means breaking the law. Whether a lawyer opts for strict compliance or the tax arrangements that are prevalent throughout the industry, they may be exposed to significant operational or legal risk.

Li Fangping, a prominent rights lawyer in Beijing, noted: “What civil and commercial lawyers in China face today is not a single problem but a convergence of multiple pressures: political risk, judicial uncertainty, market competition, and a tax and fee system that bears down on them from all sides. A depressed market has continuously eroded lawyers’ incomes, while tax and compliance costs have not decreased in step—many lawyers are already in a situation that is difficult to sustain over the long term. If this trend continues, the impact will extend beyond the legal profession itself and will undermine the capacity of market players to obtain legal services in accordance with the law.”

Recommendations: Reform Bar Associations and Reduce Tax Burdens

The report puts forward three core recommendations:

First, promote the return of bar associations to genuine professional autonomy. Under the current system, bar associations are effectively controlled by judicial and administrative authorities, with the position of the Chinese Communist Party branch secretary concurrently held by a government official, leaving them unable to represent lawyers’ interests. The report recommends that, measured against the UN’s 1990 Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, bar associations be transformed from “stability-maintenance tools” into genuine representative institutions for lawyers’ rights. These recommendations also accord with the requirements of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and other international standards regarding independent practice and professional self-governance.

Second, reform a tax and fee system that is deeply unfair to lawyers. The report recommends expanding the range of costs deductible before tax, allowing cross-year income smoothing mechanisms, and recognizing in tax law the quasi-legal-person status of law firms in order to release the vitality of the profession and reduce the institutional incentives that force lawyers to walk the line of compliance.

Third, establish a clear professional withdrawal mechanism. When a lawyer discovers during representation that a client has engaged in illegal conduct, the current system provides neither a protected withdrawal path nor a clear exemption from the obligation to report illegal conduct. Drawing on the experience of mature jurisdictions such as the Law Society of Ontario in Canada, the report recommends establishing a clear and workable mandatory withdrawal procedure to provide lawyers with institutional protection.

The report concludes that the problems facing civil and commercial lawyers in mainland China are not merely a professional crisis within the legal community. When ordinary commercial lawyers must continuously weigh criminal risk, market pressure, and tax burdens even in the course of normal practice, the effects will spill over into business operations, commercial transactions, and the public’s ability to obtain legal services in accordance with the law. The decline in lawyers’ sense of professional safety will ultimately affect the overall rule-of-law environment and market confidence.

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2026年7月8日 — 公益机构”亚洲律师网络（ALN）”今日发布《中国民商事律师权益状况报告》。选择在”709”大抓捕十一周年前夕发布本报告，意义深远。2015年7月9日，中国当局开始大规模拘押人权律师和刑事辩护律师。十一年后，本报告发现，压制的影响已逐步扩展至更广泛的律师群体——数以十万计长期从事合同、房产、公司、债权债务等民商事业务的律师，不仅面临不断上升的刑事执业风险，也承受着市场低迷和沉重税费负担带来的双重压力。过去被普遍认为”相对安全”的民商事律师，其职业安全感正在迅速消失。

报告全文约两万六千字，综合运用文献检索、公开案例分析、律师深度访谈及问卷调查等研究方法，收录七起具有完整司法记录的典型案例，并援引司法部、各地律师协会等公开数据，是目前首份专门关注中国大陆民商事律师执业权益状况的系统性研究报告。由于律师群体面临行政管制压力，本次调研不以大样本实名调查为主，而是采用方便式抽样调查、半结构式访谈法、以及定性分析方法，重点揭示制度环境及其变化趋势。

核心发现：商业律师也不再安全

长期以来，律师行业内部普遍认为，民商事律师相较于维权律师和刑事辩护律师处于”相对安全地带”——他们的工作本质上属于私法自治领域，一般不直接触碰国家安全或意识形态红线。本报告指出，这一传统认知正在迅速瓦解。

来自广东的公益律师陆妙卿女士表示：”过去，律师行业一直有一种普遍认识：刑事辩护和维权案件风险最高，只要专注合同、公司、房地产等民商事业务，就相对安全。然而今天，这种职业共识已经被打破。案件是否存在风险，不仅仅取决于案件类型，还取决于案件背景、当事人身份及政策环境。一个原本普通的商业纠纷，也可能导致律师被刑事追责、甚至牢狱之灾。这种高度不确定性，正在迫使越来越多民商事律师重新调整自己的执业判断。”

报告揭示，这种风险扩散源于三个相互叠加的结构性变化：其一，政治风险边界持续扩张——涉及民营企业、互联网平台、金融纠纷乃至群体性债务的案件，越来越多地被赋予政治敏感属性，律师被迫在接案前进行政治风险的自我审查；其二，”以刑代民”、”以刑化债”等执法模式扩散，律师的代理行为、法律意见乃至收费行为，均可能被事后回溯认定为犯罪帮助行为；其三，裁判文书公开率在2023年跌至12.5%的历史新低，司法不透明与不可预测性双重叠加，使律师承受的执业风险大幅上升。这三项变化相互叠加，使民商事律师的职业风险从过去主要来自市场竞争，逐渐演变为政治、司法和市场共同作用的结构性风险。

报告认为，当普通商业律师因正常执业也面临越来越高的不确定性时，其影响已经超越律师群体本身，将进一步影响企业依法获得法律服务、商业交易安全以及法治营商环境。

还原案例：正常执业变成刑事追诉

报告附录收录七起具有完整司法记录的典型案例，逐一还原民商事律师从正常执业到被刑事追诉的过程，具有极强的实证价值。

其中冯波案尤为具有警示意义。冯波曾担任广西某商会会长的合法法律顾问，当该商会会长事后被认定为涉黑组织首要分子，冯波随即以”参加黑社会性质组织罪”被追诉，一审判处十年有期徒刑。二审法院认定证据不足，撤销了涉黑罪名，但仍以诈骗罪和帮助伪造证据罪判处五年。本案的核心问题在于：律师正常担任法律顾问的行为，可被回溯性地纳入刑事评价体系，执业边界的不确定性已达到极端程度。

吕先三案则展示了另一维度的风险。这位安徽律师代理多起普通民间借贷纠纷，在委托人事后被认定为”套路贷”犯罪组织后，以诈骗罪共犯被起诉，一审判处十二年。二审改判三年，但其间侦查阶段存在刑讯逼供，相关视频被公开后旋即遭到删除。

报告认为，这些案例并非彼此孤立，而是近年来民商事律师执业风险不断扩散的典型体现。不同案件类型虽然各异，但均反映出律师正常执业行为越来越容易被重新纳入刑事评价体系。

市场与制度双重挤压：税费困境严峻

报告揭示，在政治风险上升之外，市场环境变化进一步加剧了民商事律师的生存压力。截至2025年，全国执业律师已达83万人，十年间增长近1.8倍；但法律服务市场需求增速远落后于供给，北京律师人均创收从2019年的84万元降至2023年的68万元。综合各地律协调研数据， 2023年青年律师净流出现象首次出现。收入下降的同时，律师税费制度却未作相应调整，使不少律师陷入收入减少、税费负担相对加重的双重压力。

在税费层面，报告揭示一个结构性困境：律师若严格合规缴税，综合税负可高达收入的40%至50%；若采用常见的避税手段，则随时可能面临税务、公安的联合追责。报告将这一处境概括为”泛罪化”——合规即亏损，避税即违法，律师无论选择严格合规还是采用行业内普遍存在的税务安排，都可能承担较高的经营或法律风险。

北京知名维权律师李方平指出：”今天中国民商事律师面对的，已经不是单一问题，而是政治风险、司法不确定性、市场竞争和税费制度相互叠加形成的多重压力。市场低迷使律师收入持续下降，而税费和合规成本却没有同步降低，许多律师已经处于难以长期承受的状态。如果这种趋势持续下去，受影响的不只是律师群体本身，更将削弱市场主体依法获得法律服务的能力。”

建议：改革律师协会、减轻税费负担

报告提出三项核心建议：

一、推动律师协会回归行业自治。现行律师协会由司法行政部门实际掌控，党组书记由政府官员兼任，无力代表律师权益。报告建议对照联合国1990年《关于律师作用的基本原则》，推动律师协会从”维稳工具”转变为律师权益的真实代表机构。上述建议亦符合《联合国关于律师作用的基本原则》等国际标准对于律师独立执业和行业自治的要求。

二、改革对律师极不公平的税费制度。报告建议扩大税前扣除项目范围、允许跨年度收入平滑机制、在税法上承认律师事务所的准法人地位，以释放行业活力，减少律师被迫游走于合规边缘的制度性诱因。

三、建立明确的职业退出机制。当律师在代理过程中发现委托人存在违法行为，现行制度既无受保护的退出路径，也无举报义务的明确豁免。报告借鉴加拿大安大略省等成熟法域的经验，建议建立清晰可操作的强制退出程序，为律师提供制度性保护。

报告认为，中国大陆民商事律师所面临的问题，并不仅仅是律师群体的职业困境。当普通商业律师因正常执业也需要持续考虑刑事风险、市场压力和税费负担时，其影响将进一步波及企业经营、商业交易和社会公众依法获得法律服务的能力。律师职业安全感的下降，最终将影响整个法治环境与市场信心。

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On July 2, Tibetan activist Lobsang Palden, known as Lobga Rangzen, lit himself on fire in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York, after posting a video calling for Tibetan freedom and independence. He tragically succumbed to his wounds not long after. Lobga Rangzen was a respected member of the Tibetan refugee community in New York and the President of Tibetan National Congress’s New York/New Jersey chapter. His death came only one day after the implementation of China’s Ethnic Unity Law, which imposes measures to force Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other groups to erase their cultural heritage and comply with CCP cultural and political mandates. In his final message, Lobga Rangzen clearly explained his act as a political message and encouraged others to “continue the struggle for Tibetan independence.” Around the world, Tibetans and allies held vigils and rallies in commemoration, including in Dharamshala and in front of the United Nations. Chinese artist Badiucao published a portrait in his honor. HRIC mourns the passing of Lobga Rangzen and extends our respect and condolences to the Tibetan community. We also urge the international community to confront the profound suffering of the Tibetan people and substantively address their legitimate demands for freedom and dignity.

HRIC is also concerned to learn of a violent incident involving peaceful demonstrators which took place on the evening of July 1 outside the Consulate General of China in New York during a peaceful projection action held in response to the Ethnic Unity Law. According to the event organizer, China Action, and participants present at the scene, a security officer from Epic Security repeatedly shoved participants, threw punches striking several people, and seized projection equipment.

Last Friday, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri was released and arrived in the United States to rejoin his family. As the leader of one of China’s largest underground “house churches,” Zion Church, Jin was detained last October as part of a crackdown on non-officially sanctioned churches. While Pastor Jin’s release is welcome news, HRIC continues to call for the release of all other detained church members, and all others wrongfully imprisoned for practicing according to their religious beliefs.

More responses to the Ethnic Unity Law:

• China: New ‘ethnic unity’ law set to entrench assimilation of minority groups;

• China’s new ethnic unity law extends its legal reach overseas;

• Will the Ethnic Unity Law Be Used to Target Taiwan?;

• China’s new ethnic unity law legalising cultural ‘erasure,’ Tibetan and Uyghur minorities warn at UN;

• The CCP’s “Law on Promoting National Unity and Progress” takes effect today; exiled Tibetans launch large-scale protests;

• German, UK lawmakers condemn China’s ‘Ethnic Unity’ law, warn of assimilation and transnational repression;

• U.S. Senate introduces bipartisan resolution on the China’s “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law”;

• Czech, Swiss Tibet support lawmakers condemn ethnic assimilation law Beijing defends as modernization drive.

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Law & Policy 法律与政策

‘I have successfully defended my personal dignity’: woman wins rare MeToo court victory in China: A former intern and employee at Beijing Grassland Alliance was awarded 5,000 yuan in emotional damages in an unusual successful example of litigation over workplace sexual harassment. “A 2018 study found only 34 judicial decisions from 2010 to 2017 where workplace sexual harassment was the primary issue. The majority of those cases were brought by employees who had been fired after being accused of sexual harassment.” Although China’s “MeToo” movement encouraged more victims to come forward, the state censorship of MeToo and high-profile retaliation against accusers has also contributed to silencing victims.

NPC Calendar: July 2026: The National People’s Congress Standing Committee is seeking public comment on eight bills through July 25, including the Lawyers Law and the Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law.

China Strengthens Trademark Enforcement: What the 2026 Amendment Means for Businesses: A small but interesting provision of the recent amendment to China’s trademark law introduced “prohibitions on marks and elements related to the state’s political and historical events and achievements,” which will require businesses to impart “political, cultural, and historical knowledge and sensitivity … during trademark research and selection.”

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

Censorship, Secrecy, and Speculation Continue After Pilot in Beijing CITIC Tower Collision Identified: After a light aircraft crashed into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper, all mention of the incident—from videos and photos to keywords in online posts—were wiped from popular social media apps in China. Many questions also remain as to the future of aviation regulations following this massive security breach.

Related: After Impact.

Related: HRIC on Twitter/X.

Navigating Risks From Chinese Apps: A new report details the risk of using Chinese-developed applications, specifically due to their ability to collect and store sensitive personal data which must be turned over to the Chinese authorities on request.

The Party at 105: Adept at Struggle, Even Better at Censorship: The day after Xi Jinping spoke at a ceremony for the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CCP “a video from the Communist Youth League Central Committee, ‘100 Heartwarming Seconds from the Ceremony Celebrating the 105th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China,’ was apparently blocked on Tencent’s QQ Space platform for ‘suspected violation of national policies and regulations.’” Commenters reacted sarcastically, pointing to the state’s censorship of its own propaganda videos.

China has AI ‘cyber nuclear weapon’: Chinese company Zhipu AI (Z.ai) released a statement claiming that its AI model is equal to Anthropic’s Mythos model when it comes to finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Turtles for the Traitors: Based on three years of analysis of WeChat posts from China’s Ministry of State Security, China Digital Times found that the MSS’s definition of intelligence gathering from “external hostile forces” has slowly expanded to cover most areas of everyday life, from dating apps to sea turtles.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

MAC suggests China may be involved in attack on Japanese commentator: Akio Yaita, the Taiwan-based CEO of the Indo-Pacific Strategic Think Tank, was punched in the face in the lobby of his hotel in Taichung by a black-clad man who was identified as a Hong Kong citizen and arrested at the airport shortly thereafter. The attack is believed to be a case of transnational repression.

Hong Kong activist Jimmy Sham questioned for over 20 hours at Japan airport due to nat. sec conviction: Described as a “second punishment,” the activist was held based on having served a prison sentence of over a year. This is despite the political, rather than violent, nature of his charges. Sham was eventually released and allowed to enter Japan.

Canada’s Foreign Influence Registry expected to take effect in August: Canada is set to implement its Foreign Influence Transparency Registry, which will require any individual or organization acting on behalf of outside states to formally document their activities. The hope is that this registry will increase transparency and deter foreign interference, ultimately countering ongoing transnational repression against Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora in the country.

A Chinese dissident recounts his perilous dinghy escape to South Korea and how he got to Canada: Dong Guangping, who reached Canada after fleeing China to South Korea by boat, described his ordeal to AP News. He said, “Living conditions back in the country are so terrible that being alive is little different than being dead. So there is no point fearing death.”

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

HRIC on Twitter/X: Lam Wing-kee, manager of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books who reopened the store in Taipei after fleeing Hong Kong, has passed away at 70 years old. Lam’s bookstore Causeway Bay Books served as a vital window for readers to understand the inside stories of Chinese politics and access banned publications. HRIC mourns the passing of Mr. Lam Wing-kee and extends our condolences to his family and friends.

HRIC on Twitter/X: After a Xi’an Saige International Shopping Center merchant fell to his death, public questions have been met with censorship–online posts deleted and in-person protests reportedly ended with individuals being taken away.

HRIC on Twitter/X: On June Fourth, in Shaoyang, Hunan, Sun Jiping lit lanterns shaped like lotus flowers along the banks of the Zi River, arranging them to form the characters “64” in remembrance of the Tiananmen Massacre. For this act of commemoration, Sun was detained for twelve days, and his wife was reprimanded by her workplace.

I learned the feeling of statelessness in my Uyghur homeland: As part of Global Voices’ July 2026 Spotlight series, “Statelessness,” one individual tells their tale of the ostracization she felt growing up as a Uyghur in China, stating “I learned the feeling of statelessness long before I crossed any border.”

University of Hong Kong student publication Undergrad shuts down after 74 years: The Hong Kong University Students’ Union (HKUSU)’s publication has officially ceased operations due to a lack of editorial board members. This follows years of controversy and pressure in an increasingly unfriendly environment towards student speech. A former chief executive asserted that it had “misstated some facts” in 2015, and its university revoked recognition in 2021.

Hong Kong 47: Former Democratic Party chair released from prison after serving time over landmark nat. sec case: Wu Chi-wai pleaded guilty to “conspiring to commit subversion” as part of the “Hong Kong 47” case. He has been released after almost four and a half years.

2 autistic men plead guilty to secession over joining Hong Kong pro-independence group: Chan Tai-sum, 27, and Ng Chi-tung, 25, pleaded guilty to joining the Taiwan-based Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union, citing reasons of obtaining “political asylum in Canada,” and mere “curiosity.” The defense team of the two Hong Kong men has sought to mitigate charges by presenting evidence of autism diagnoses.

2019 protester was ‘some distance’ from clashes, magistrate says: Despite standing far from the protests, Ami Chan has been charged with “possessing an offensive weapon in a public place and possessing anything with intent to destroy or damage property” for allegedly carrying two laser pointers and two cans of spray paint in 2019.

Rights watchdog warns Hong Kong governance restructure tightens social control: A Human Rights Watch report slams Hong Kong’s national security regime as “draconian” and controlled by the CCP. This influence seeps into Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and police, which are largely made up of Chinese agents, and results in increased censorship and overall suppression of dissent.

Related: Hong Kong: Beijing Tightens Social Control.

China and Hong Kong’s Human Rights Performance are Among the Worst in East Asia, Drop in Major Democracies are Alarming: Key issues of concern include Hong Kong’s National Security Law, China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, the exportation of China’s authoritarian model, and transnational repression.

Related: PRESS RELEASE: New data show worrying trends in the protection of China’s human rights.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

Hong Kong police search 15 people on Handover anniversary, citing national security and public order: July 1’s Handover anniversary once invited large-scale pro-democracy protests. However, after a traditional march was banned in 2020 and 2021, space for protest has all but disappeared. This year, Hong Kong officials followed, searched, and detained individuals on the grounds of “national security, public safety, and public order.”

A Corruption Story Goes Silent: A top Chinese news outlet published a story questioning the true cause-of-death behind a suspicious drowning, providing evidence of local corruption. However, the article was quickly deleted, becoming instead an example of the harsh reality of journalism in China.

Chinese authorities ban the posthumous works of the late Tibetan writer Tsering; friends summoned for investigation: Tsering’s writings exhibited a passion for Tibetan language and culture. After his death, two of his friends discovered, compiled, and distributed unfinished works, which have now been banned based on “suspicion of constituting a crime” and the friends were also summoned for questioning.

International Responses 国际反应

Germany summons Chinese envoy over reported training of Russian troops: In May, allegations arose that the Chinese army had secretly hosted and trained Russian soldiers, including those who were subsequently deployed to Ukraine. The German foreign ministry recently summoned the Chinese ambassador for an urgent meeting on this matter.

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Chinese dissident Dong Guangping has reached Canada after an eleven-year saga of failed escapes and forced returns to China. A Tiananmen memory activist, he was imprisoned repeatedly in China, deported back from both Thailand and Vietnam after seeking asylum, and failed to swim to Taiwan’s Kinmen islands. His final escape involved a roughly 40-hour, 190-mile sea crossing in a small dinghy before he was rescued by a fishing boat and detained by South Korea’s coast guard. Following international advocacy around his case, Dong landed in Toronto on June 26, greeted by activist friend Sheng Xue, and will reunite with his wife and daughter who are already resettled in Canada.

In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 23 to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing Cisco Systems of helping China persecute Falun Gong practitioners, sharply limiting corporate liability under the centuries-old Alien Tort Statute. The plaintiffs alleged Cisco knowingly helped Chinese authorities build the “Golden Shield” surveillance system used to identify, monitor, detain, and torture members of the spiritual movement, a case originally filed in 2011 and revived by the Ninth Circuit in 2023. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett held that federal courts cannot create new rights of action for aiding-and-abetting violations of international law, meaning “there is necessarily no liability” for such claims under the statute. The Court separately issued an 8-1 ruling rejecting a related claim against two Cisco executives under the Torture Victim Protection Act, while the plaintiffs’ attorney called for Congress to create a new legal pathway for victims of corporate-enabled human rights abuses.

Editor’s note: Our domain has changed—hrichina.substack.com is now news.hrichina.org! Thank you for your patience while we clean up any broken links.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Documenting Chinese Lawyers’ Rights and Interests: January-April 2026: A new report published by HRIC documents widespread suppression of Chinese lawyers’ practice rights, including defense lawyers in the Zion Church case having their licenses revoked and practices suspended, courts unlawfully restricting public attendance at politically sensitive trials, and a bar association presidency allegedly sold for 600,000 yuan in a bribery scandal.

Chinese Legislature Seeks Public Comment on 8 Bills: Financial Regulation, Procuratorate-Initiated Public Interest Litigation, Procurement Reform & More: The NPCSC opened public comment through July 25 on eight bills including the draft Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law, the Government Procurement Law revision, and the Bid Invitation and Bidding Law revision, while separately passing the revised Trademarks Law and amended Certified Public Accountants Law, and approving a decision extending Hong Kong’s jurisdiction over its side of the Huanggang Port.

China says it has ‘legitimate’ right to apply new ethnic unity law against people beyond its own borders: Vice Justice Minister Hu Weilie defended the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law’s extraterritorial clause—which holds overseas individuals and organizations liable for violating the law—as a measure that “aligns with legal principles,” after rights advocates warned it could be used to further marginalize Uyghur, Tibetan, and other minority diaspora groups ahead of the law’s July 1 effective date.

Related: China: New “Ethnic Unity” Law Legalizes Discrimination, Repression. CHRD condemned the new law’s Article 63 as codifying transnational repression by holding overseas individuals and groups liable for “undermining ethnic unity and progress or creating ethnic division,” warning that the legislation criminalizes core aspects of minority identity while China remains over three years delinquent in its CERD reporting obligations.

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

HRIC on Twitter/X: On June 26, a small aircraft crashed into Beijing’s tallest building. CNN journalists discovered that searching “Beijing plane crash” on Weibo yielded no related results, and the Associated Press and Financial Times reported that on-site footage was swiftly scrubbed from the entire internet, police on the scene ordered people taking photos to delete them, and Chinese state media made no mention whatsoever of the building strike that evening.

Translation: “The School Where I Work Requires Us to Report Our Social Media Accounts. Should I Keep Publishing on My WeChat Public Account?”: A Chinese teacher’s essay describes being required to carry out informal “troll army” duties requiring them to share and promote pro-government content online, illustrating how schools deputize already-overworked staff as unpaid propaganda labor while also surveilling their personal social media activity.

Translation: Religion and Red Lines in Chinese Online Literature: The piece examines how Chinese online novelists writing in genres like xianxia (immortal fantasy) and wuxia must carefully navigate state censorship of religious content, including restrictions on depicting Buddhist and Taoist themes in ways deemed superstitious or politically sensitive, illustrating how China’s red lines on religion now extend deep into popular web fiction.

Anthropic says Alibaba illicitly extracted Claude AI model capabilities: Anthropic accused Alibaba and its Qwen AI lab of running the largest known “distillation” attack against Claude to date, generating over 28.8 million exchanges through nearly 25,000 fraudulent accounts between April 22 and June 5, 2026, in an effort Anthropic said was designed to accelerate China’s progress toward its own most advanced AI capabilities.

Translation: How Tolerant is China’s Internet?: Responding to former Global Times editor Hu Xijin’s claim that Chinese society has grown “less tolerant,” blogger Wang Wusi sarcastically argued the opposite, citing Xiaomi’s fatal electric car fires and mass recalls as evidence that Chinese society in fact displays world-leading “tolerance” for corporate negligence and public safety hazards that would provoke outrage elsewhere.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

New San Francisco museum explores Chinese LGBTQ+ art and history: America’s oldest Chinatown is now home to a first-of-its-kind museum focused on LGBTQ+ people of Chinese descent. The OUT Museum in San Francisco aspires to be a haven for artists born in China, where the LGBTQ+ community has fewer protections.

Thirty-Seven Years On, a Wound That Never Closed: Exiled Chinese journalist Chai Jing released a YouTube interview with Taiwanese journalist Hsu Tsung-mao, who was wounded near Tiananmen Square during the 1989 crackdown, offering a rare in-depth eyewitness account of June 4th outside China’s censorship reach.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

HRIC on Twitter/X: June 27 marked the 24^th anniversary of the abduction and detention of Wang Bingzhang, leader of the overseas Chinese democracy movement since the 1980s, who was kidnapped back to China from Vietnam in 2002 and now serves a life sentence in prison on political charges.

HRIC on Twitter/X: You Weijie, spokesperson for the Tiananmen Mothers, stated that the authorities warned the victims’ families that no memorial activities would be allowed at Wanan Cemetery on June Fourth. On June 1, she was forced to leave Beijing and only returned on June 5. Other victims’ families in Beijing have been placed under surveillance, and if they wish to visit the cemetery to mourn their loved ones, they must submit an application for approval and go as a family unit. You Weijie submitted an application in order to visit the cemetery and make a payment, but she was only permitted to go on June 8. The families of other June Fourth victims buried at Wanan Cemetery rejected the government’s unreasonable demands and refused to go.

A Corruption Story Goes Silent: A lengthy exposé on the corruption behind a young Hunan township official’s drowning, drawing on family interviews and his phone records to reveal illegal banqueting, gambling, and pressure to falsify expenses among local officials, was deleted within hours of publication, underscoring how tightly accountability journalism is constrained under Xi Jinping despite his anti-corruption campaign.

China’s Vanishing Space for Rainbow Journalism: Marking 15 years of China’s longest-running LGBT+ media monitoring report, the piece traces how the China Rainbow Media Awards once built bridges between journalists and queer communities through training workshops and advocacy. Original queer-related reporting has collapsed from 762 pieces in 2018 to just 163 in 2025, as activism bans, social media shifts, and tightening censorship squeeze the space for coverage.

一个比监狱还黑暗的地方：龚圣亮牧师刑满仍遭看管的情况通报 [A place darker than prison: A report on Pastor Gong Shenliang’s continued surveillance after serving his sentence]: Pastor Gong Shengliang reportedly remains under intensive surveillance and restriction even after fully serving his prison sentence.

遭抓捕的北京媒体人、自由作家、独立纪录片制作人杜斌案于6月24日在北京顺义区法院开庭 [The trial of Du Bin, a Beijing media professional, freelance writer, and independent documentary filmmaker who was arrested, opened on June 24 at the Shunyi District Court in Beijing]: The trial of Du Bin, a Beijing-based media professional, freelance writer, and independent documentary filmmaker, began on June 24. This case adds to a string of prosecutions targeting independent Chinese journalists and documentarians.

Hong Kong police arrest booksellers on suspicion of selling seditious publications: Hong Kong police arrested several booksellers on suspicion of selling publications considered seditious under the city’s national security laws. The arrests reflect the expanding scope of security enforcement into the book-publishing and retail sector.

Former press union chief Ronson Chan takes appeal over conviction for obstructing police to top court: Ronson Chan, former chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, is seeking leave to bring his obstruction-of-police conviction before the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong’s highest court. Chan already lost his earlier appeal and began to serve his five-day jail sentence.

University of Hong Kong student publication Undergrad shuts down after 74 years: The University of Hong Kong’s student publication Undergrad has ceased operations after 74 years of continuous publication. Its closure adds to a broader pattern of student and independent media shutting down amid Hong Kong’s tightening political climate.

Jimmy Lai’s daughter: ‘All my father did was journalism’: In a video interview, Jimmy Lai’s daughter defends her jailed father, arguing that journalism was the entirety of his alleged offense. Her remarks come as Lai serves a lengthy sentence following his conviction under Hong Kong’s national security law.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

Taiwan dispatch: Ministry condemns China after Kenya blocks delegates from Ocean Conference: Taiwan withdrew from the 2026 Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa after two Taiwanese delegates were denied entry and then detained for over 20 hours, prompting Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry to condemn Kenya for bowing to Beijing’s pressure. The incident has been framed as part of a broader pattern of China leveraging African partnerships to squeeze Taiwan’s international space, alongside earlier overflight-permit disruptions to President Lai’s Eswatini trip.

China issues warning after Australia, Vanuatu sign deal barring foreign military base on Pacific island: Australia and Vanuatu signed the “Nakamal Agreement,” a sweeping economic and security pact barring any foreign military base on Vanuatu and naming Australia as Vanuatu’s primary policing partner. Beijing warned Australia against playing “geopolitical games,” in a region where China has cultivated infrastructure and policing ties with Vanuatu since 2023.

International Responses 国际反应

UK, Germany and France express concern over Chinese actions east of Taiwan: Britain, France, and Germany issued a rare joint statement warning that “novel” Chinese coast guard activity east of Taiwan threatens regional stability and freedom of navigation. The statement came as China sailed its newest aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait just as Taiwan launched a five-day military exercise simulating a response to potential Chinese attack.

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In 2011, several Falun Gong practitioners filed a class action lawsuit against Cisco Systems, alleging that the company, through its headquarters in San Jose, California, designed, developed, and helped maintain certain components of China’s “Golden Shield,” a nationwide surveillance and domestic security system in China that significantly enhanced the Chinese government’s ability to identify, locate, arrest, and interrogate Falun Gong practitioners.

According to the complaint, the Golden Shield was intended to establish a nationwide internet surveillance network capable of collecting and analyzing information about Falun Gong practitioners, including their residential addresses, employment records, financial information, IP addresses, and connections with other practitioners. The plaintiffs alleged that, in order to secure contracts with the Chinese government, Cisco’s headquarters directed an extensive marketing campaign targeting Chinese authorities. The plaintiffs alleged that beginning in 1998, Cisco’s then-Chief Executive Officer, John Chambers, reportedly met on multiple occasions with Jiang Zemin, then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China. They also alleged that Chambers discussed the objectives of the Golden Shield with Chinese officials. According to the complaint, Cisco ultimately obtained multiple government contracts and allegedly developed customized technological features specifically designed to assist Chinese public security authorities in identifying, apprehending, and interrogating Falun Gong practitioners. The plaintiffs contended that Cisco knowingly designed, developed, and maintained the system despite its awareness that the Chinese government would use it to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, thereby providing substantial assistance to the alleged human rights violations.

The action was filed in 2011 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In 2014, the district court dismissed the complaint, concluding that the plaintiffs had failed to sufficiently allege that their claims sufficiently touched and concerned the United States to satisfy the requirements of the ATS. The court also held that the complaint failed to adequately plead aiding-and-abetting liability under international law.

The plaintiffs appealed. In 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit partially reversed the district court’s decision and remanded the case for further proceedings. The Ninth Circuit held that the ATS permits federal courts to recognize claims based on aiding-and-abetting liability, and that the plaintiffs had adequately alleged that Cisco knowingly provided substantial assistance to the Chinese government’s violations of international law. The court further concluded that the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) permits claims against individual defendants for aiding and abetting torture.

On June 23, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I, reversing the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and remanding the case for further proceedings.

The Supreme Court held that federal courts lack authority to create new causes of action under the ATS. The Court explained that the ATS is primarily a jurisdictional statute and does not itself create substantive rights or causes of action. Although the Court’s 2004 decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain left limited room for federal courts to recognize a narrow class of well-defined, universally accepted, and judicially manageable causes of action under customary international law, the majority reversed course and eliminated this discretion left by Sosa. The Court emphasized that cases arising under the ATS often implicate sensitive issues of foreign affairs and international relations, making it difficult for courts to assess whether recognizing new causes of action would adversely affect the foreign policy interests of the United States. The Constitution assigns Congress—not the judiciary—the authority to define and punish offenses against the law of nations. Accordingly, the Court argued whether to establish additional causes of action is a legislative question reserved for Congress.

The Supreme Court further held that, although the TVPA authorizes victims of torture or extrajudicial killing to seek civil remedies against those directly responsible, the statute does not expressly provide for aiding-and-abetting liability. According to the Court, Congress’s silence on this issue indicates that it did not intend to create such a basis for liability. Consequently, the plaintiffs could not pursue aiding-and-abetting claims against Cisco or the individual defendants under either the ATS or the TVPA.

The Cisco litigation can be regarded as one of the most significant corporate accountability cases in the field of international human rights law. It was also the first case in which a major American technology company appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States for allegedly assisting the Chinese government in its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

The decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for international human rights litigation in the United States. By holding that federal courts lack authority to create new causes of action under the ATS through federal common law, the Supreme Court effectively closed the limited judicial pathway left open by Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain. The Court’s conclusion that the TVPA does not authorize aiding-and-abetting liability further restricts efforts to hold corporate actors accountable for assisting foreign governments in committing torture, enforced disappearances, and other grave human rights abuses.

From the perspective of international human rights protection, the ruling substantially narrows the scope of which victims of serious human rights abuses may seek relief in U.S. courts. The ATS had long served as one of the principal legal mechanisms for pursuing civil claims against corporations alleged to have participated in serious human rights violations committed abroad. For victims of torture, arbitrary detention, and religious persecution, U.S. courts have historically represented one of the few available forums in which meaningful judicial remedies could be sought. By significantly increasing the barriers to holding multinational corporations accountable through U.S. litigation, the decision has been viewed by many human rights advocates as a major setback for international human rights enforcement.

Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I has largely foreclosed the use of the ATS and the TVPA to pursue corporate liability for aiding and abetting serious human rights abuses committed abroad. However, it has not eliminated all means for international human rights litigation in the United States. The ruling limits only the judicial interpretation of the ATS and the TVPA; it does not preclude claims brought under other federal or state laws that provide independent causes of action and jurisdictional bases. So long as plaintiffs can assert an independent cause of action under U.S. law and satisfy the applicable requirements for personal jurisdiction, subject-matter jurisdiction, and other jurisdictional prerequisites—for example, where the relevant wrongful conduct, resulting injury, or other material facts occurred within the United States—they may still pursue civil remedies in U.S. courts. Therefore, whether similar cases can proceed in the future will increasingly depend on the existence of independent federal or state law causes of action, the strength of the case’s connection to the United States, and whether Congress chooses to enact legislation expressly authorizing such actions.

美国最高法院Cisco案判决：国际人权诉讼的重要转折

2026年6月23日，美国最高法院在 Cisco Systems, Inc. 诉 Doe 案中作出裁决。该案涉及美国企业是否因协助中国政府监控和迫害宗教团体成员而应承担的法律责任问题。最高法院裁定，联邦法院不得依据《外国人侵权法》（Alien Tort Statute，ATS）审理人权诉讼；并且另行裁定，依据《酷刑受害者保护法》（Torture Victim Protection Act，TVPA）提起的“协助和教唆“（aiding-and-abetting）类诉讼同样不具有可诉性。这标志着美国人权诉讼领域的一次重大转变：2000年，“中国人权“（Human Rights in China，HRIC）曾协助周锋锁（现任该组织执行主任）依据上述法律，在纽约就李鹏在天安门事件大屠杀中所扮演的角色对其提起诉讼。上周的这一裁决，将大幅限制受害者在美国法院追究那些协助外国政府实施严重侵犯人权行为者民事责任的能力。

2011年，多名法轮功学员对思科系统公司（Cisco Systems）提起集体诉讼，指控该公司通过其位于加利福尼亚州圣何塞的总部，设计、开发并协助维护中国“金盾工程“的某些组成部分。“金盾工程“是中国一套覆盖全国的监控与国内安全系统，它大幅增强了中国政府识别、定位、逮捕和审讯法轮功学员的能力。

根据起诉书，“金盾工程“旨在建立一个覆盖全国的互联网监控网络，能够收集和分析有关法轮功学员的信息，包括他们的住址、就业记录、财务信息、IP地址，以及与其他学员之间的联系。原告指称，为了取得与中国政府的合同，思科总部指挥了一场针对中国当局的大规模营销活动。原告指称，自1998年起，思科时任首席执行官约翰·钱伯斯（John Chambers）据称曾多次与时任中共中央总书记、中国国家主席江泽民会面。原告还指称，钱伯斯曾与中国官员讨论“金盾工程“的目标。根据起诉书，思科最终获得了多项政府合同，并据称开发了定制化的技术功能，专门用于协助中国公安机关识别、抓捕和审讯法轮功学员。原告主张，思科明知中国政府会利用该系统迫害法轮功学员，却仍然有意地设计、开发并维护该系统，从而为上述被指控的侵犯人权行为提供了实质性协助。

该案件于2011年在美国加利福尼亚州北区联邦地区法院提起诉讼。2014年，地区法院驳回了起诉，认定原告未能充分证明其诉讼请求与美国之间存在足够的“接触与关联“（touch and concern），以满足《外国人侵权法》（ATS）的要求。法院还认定，该起诉书未能充分陈述国际法下“协助和教唆“（aiding-and-abetting）的责任要件。

随后原告提起上诉。2023年，美国第九巡回上诉法院部分推翻了地区法院的判决，并将案件发回重审。第九巡回法院认定，《外国人侵权法》（ATS）允许联邦法院受理基于“协助和教唆“（aiding-and-abetting）责任的诉讼请求，并认定原告已充分指称思科明知故犯地为中国政府违反国际法的行为提供了实质性协助。该法院进一步认定，《酷刑受害者保护法》（TVPA）允许针对个人被告就协助和教唆酷刑行为提起诉讼。

2026年6月23日，美国最高法院在 Cisco Systems, Inc. 诉 Doe I 案中作出判决，推翻了第九巡回法院的判决，并将案件发回重审。

最高法院认定，联邦法院无权依据《外国人侵权法》（ATS）创设新的诉因（cause of action）。最高法院阐释道，ATS 主要是一部关于管辖权的法律，其本身并不创设实体权利或诉因。尽管最高法院在2004年 Sosa vs. Alvarez-Machain 案中曾留有余地，允许联邦法院依据习惯国际法承认一类范围狭窄、定义明确、获得普遍接受且适于司法处理的诉因，但多数意见此次推翻了先例，取消了 Sosa 案所留下的这一裁量空间。最高法院强调，依据 ATS 提起的案件往往牵涉外交事务和国际关系方面的敏感问题，法院难以评估承认新的诉因是否会对美国的外交政策利益，从而产生不利影响。宪法将“界定并惩处违反国际法之罪行“的权力赋予了国会，而非司法机关。因此，最高法院主张，是否设立额外的诉因属于立法问题，应留待国会决定。

最高法院进一步认定，尽管《酷刑受害者保护法》（TVPA）授权酷刑或法外处决的受害者可以向直接责任人寻求民事判决，但该法律并未明文规定“协助和教唆“（aiding-and-abetting）责任。最高法院认为，国会在这一问题上的沉默，表明其无意创设此种责任依据。因此，原告无论是依据《外国人侵权法》（ATS）还是《酷刑受害者保护法》（TVPA），都无法就协助和教唆行为对思科或各名个人被告提起诉讼。

思科案可被视为国际人权法领域最重要的企业问责案件之一。它也是首例美国大型科技公司因被指控协助中国政府迫害法轮功学员而出现在美国最高法院面前的案件。

这一判决预计将对美国法院下的国际人权诉讼产生深远影响。最高法院认定联邦法院无权通过联邦普通法依据《外国人侵权法》（ATS）创设新的诉因，从而实际上关闭了 Sosa 诉 Alvarez-Machain 案所留下的那条有限的司法起诉途径。最高法院关于《酷刑受害者保护法》（TVPA）不允许“协助和教唆“（aiding-and-abetting）责任的结论，则进一步限制了人们追究企业行为主体责任的努力——即追究那些协助外国政府实施酷刑、强迫失踪及其他严重侵犯人权行为的企业的责任。

从国际人权保护的角度来看，这一判决大幅缩小了人权的严重受害者可在美国法院寻求诉讼的范围。长期以来，《外国人侵权法》（ATS）一直是针对被指控参与在境外实施严重侵犯人权行为的企业提起民事诉讼的主要法律机制之一。对于酷刑、任意拘押和宗教迫害的受害者而言，美国法院历来是少数几个能够寻求实质性司法判决的机构之一。由于这一判决大幅提高了通过美国诉讼追究跨国公司责任的门槛，许多人权倡导者将其视为国际人权执法的一次重大倒退。

Cisco Systems, Inc. vs.Doe I 案在很大程度上排除了利用《外国人侵权法》（ATS）和《酷刑受害者保护法》（TVPA）就企业协助和教唆境外严重侵犯人权行为追究其责任的可能性。然而，这并未完全消除在美国进行国际人权诉讼的所有途径。该判决所限制的仅是对 ATS 和 TVPA 的司法解释，并不排除人权受害者依据其他提供独立诉因和管辖权依据的联邦或州法律提起诉讼。只要原告能够依据美国法律主张一项独立的诉因起诉，并满足关于属人管辖权、事项管辖权及其他管辖权前提的相关要求——例如，相关的不法行为、由此造成的损害或其他重大事实发生在美国境内——他们仍然可以在美国法院寻求民事救济。因此，今后类似案件能否继续推进，将越来越取决于是否存在独立的联邦或州法律诉因、案件与美国之间联系的紧密程度，以及国会是否选择制定明文授权此类诉讼的立法。

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1. January: Zion Church Case. Multiple defense lawyers faced suppression by judicial administrative authorities. Lawyer Zhang Kai had his license revoked, while other lawyers including Yang Yaohua, Li Chunfu, Ge Xianyang, Liu Anqiang, Tang Xianlong, and Zhao Qingshan had their practices suspended or faced harassing questioning. The authorities attempted to suppress the influence of this independent church by depriving it of its right to a defense.

https://www.chinaaid.net/2026/03/blog-post_26.html?m=1

2. January 5: Lawyer Liu Zhiqiang submitted comments on the “Norms for Lawyers Handling Criminal Cases,” pointing out nearly a hundred flaws across 261 articles.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/elsCZnp4MuCGSTqEMmEFjg

3. January 6: Lawyer Li Aijun published an article titled “Lawyers Enjoy Testimonial Immunity and Have the Right to Refuse to Give Statements to Public Security Agencies.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/936FQDxYOpEKOZl-6UWZEQ

4. January 9: In 2023, lawyer Gao Hongliang filed a complaint regarding the Zunyi City Honghuagang District Public Security Bureau restricting lawyer-client meetings and correspondence. The next year, on March 4, 2024, an individual surnamed Huang was placed under “retention in custody” (liuzhi) by the Supervisory Commission. On March 5, the Honghuagang District Procuratorate issued a notice requiring the correction of the violations.

5. January 13: A deputy director of the Justice Bureau was sentenced for accepting bribes totaling 8.44 million yuan. A lawyer had paid a 600,000-yuan bribe to secure the position of president of the lawyers’ association. The lawyers’ association involved urgently voted to remove them from the presidency.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4wK0dvz6sbWStl2Xs6OJYA

Is the presidency of the Jining Lawyers’ Association worth 600,000 yuan? The judgment regarding Guo Qingqi, Deputy Director of the Jining Justice Bureau, reveals that the position of Jining Bar Association President could be bought for 600,000 yuan; crucially, the lawyer in question spent the 600,000 yuan but failed to secure the presidency.

https://weibo.com/1773958670/5254191132180481

January 15: The Door to the Presidency Opened by Money—and a Discussion on How Bar Association Autonomy Can Break Free from the Shackles of Excessive Administrative Interference

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/onljqTf_lyXurronICb8JQ

6. The “Picking Quarrels and Provoking Trouble” Case of Zhang Wenpeng and Xu Zongping

Pre-trial conference held on January 12–13. Trial held from February 9 to 14. The court unlawfully restricted public attendance; while it arranged for on-site observation with simultaneous audio recording, it refused entry to observers even though there were empty seats in the courtroom. Lawyer Yu Kai angrily threw down his lawyer’s ID card in protest. On the morning of the first day, the court recessed three times; Zhang Wenpeng caused a scene, spending two-thirds of the time spitting profanities and criticizing the court for its unlawful restrictions on public attendance. On the final day (the 14th), Zhang Wenpeng ended his concluding statement with the famous lines: “Since ancient times, no one has escaped death; let a loyal heart shine in the annals of history!” The entire courtroom was moved, and lawyer Lan Qingzhou shed tears.

[Translator’s Note: The above quotation is the final line of Wen Tianxiang’s poem “Passing Through the Lonely Ocean,” composed in 1279 after his capture following a military defeat.]

Verdict announced on March 16: Zhang Wenpeng sentenced to four years and six months; Xu Zongping sentenced to two years.

April 20: Lawyer Fan Chen submitted representation documents for the appeal.

7. Lawyer Zhou Xiaoyun on the January 10 China Construction Bank (CCB) Incident: A Call to Immediately Abolish the Unreasonable Penalty System for Tellers

Following the Central Bank’s new regulation (abolishing the requirement to declare the purpose of cash withdrawals exceeding 50,000 yuan), the most critical step is to abolish the unreasonable penalty system imposed on bank tellers. Frontline bank employees should no longer be made to take the blame for the reckless actions of management!

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/P83YWRu63miEsMu5leE4AA

8. January 21: Lawyer Zhou Lixin criticized Judges Dai Zhengrong and Gao Jinsheng of the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court for issuing a ruling that lacked legal reasoning. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cBJr8OfdeWyae-EgItK9bA

9. January 21: Lawyer Li Guisheng published a post: The judge stated that case files could only be reviewed and cross-examined in the courtroom! (I)

Judge Tang Feiya of the Baiyun District Court in Guiyang City—you have violated the law!

https://m.weibo.cn/status/5257554478243968?wm=3333_2001&from=10FC693010&sourcetype=weixin&s_trans=R9w9myPiLFOeC4TcD%2BMD5Q%3D%3D_5257554478243968_s&s_channel=4&jumpfrom=weibocom

10. Lawyer Hou Jiayin provided pro bono legal assistance to defend Lawyer Jiang’s rights.

Jiayin traveled a thousand miles to fulfill a single promise made before a banquet on January 22.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fj_Hm0Wi-JYQ8w2UffozMQ

11. January 26: Xinzhou Court prohibits bringing laptops to the pre-trial conference. Lawyer Li Renhuo released a video demanding that the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court rectify the situation.

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/ASmCT3LcWg

12. January 27: Rights defense success! After years of back-and-forth, the Shenzhen Lawyers Association finally “admitted error” against a Shenzhen lawyer: it has revoked the finding that attorney Zhang Maorong committed a violation.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/h3eiJnsD4o10oiL3vZSOcg

13. January 28: Lawyer Zhou Lixin issued an open letter to the deputies and committee members attending the Guizhou Provincial “Two Sessions,” calling for oversight regarding the “organized crime” case involving Huang Bin in Zunyi.

14. January 31: Release of the latest national court hearing schedule.

Published by Hunan’s Wang Shihan, who collects and publicly shares hearing information from various locations.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JEKoyOWVW9ikpQjoSJ1u1Q

15. Lawyer Yu Kai demands the Nanshan Court open a case regarding Tencent’s deletion of posts and suspension of accounts.

On February 2, lawyers Yu Kai, Wen Donghai, Yang Hui, and Lin Qilei went to the Shenzhen Nanshan Court to demand the filing of a case against Tencent for deleting posts and suspending accounts; the court refused to process the request. Lawyer Yu Kai staged a protest outside the courtroom.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0iyDoJ18hrvorVa-3lHJfg

16. Former prominent investigative journalists Liu Hu and Wu Yingjiao went dark and were subsequently detained. Lawyers and legal professionals across the country reacted strongly and actively voiced their support. Professor Lao Dongyan remarked: “Reporting [misconduct] is useless; publishing articles is against the law.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AV2zUZ32uc3ysqTu1RFydA

17. February 2: A “fraud” court tries a “fraud” case—an account of the farcical hearing at the Liaoyuan Intermediate People’s Court regarding the “Wishing Candle” case.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bGPySgQzC5ivojWXQUkueQ

Day one of the Liaoyuan “Wishing Candle” case: A struggle to secure the right to observe the trial. Only two immediate family members per defendant were allowed to attend; the courtroom, which originally had two rows of seats, had half of them removed. Lawyers Li Aijun and Liu Lu lodged complaints with the People’s Congress regarding the restrictions on attendance. Protest took place both inside and outside the courtroom.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gE7MYm68u68cKRmEMx8LeQ

March 13: A group of judges occupied the public gallery seats to block others from attending. Lawyer Hou Zhiyuan.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2dLK_b-wI0p4Q9szKeO4xQ

18. February 5: Zhou Lixin publishes an article: How should one face judicial prosecution that is patently unjust? We must not allow unscrupulous judicial personnel to extract even a single grain of sand from conscientious witnesses.

19. On February 12, Lawyer Yu Kai protested at the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Public Security Department, and so on, regarding the case of Zhang Wenpeng.

20. February 25: Lawyer Zhou Lixin, “Speaking Out, Not Just for Liu Jie”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cBTPUNQvVnR9Y9TfwAXejw

21. March 1: Wang Xing: A detailed look at “self-empowerment” in the interpretation of the Criminal Procedure Law.

Jimen Decision-Making Forum: Issues and Countermeasures in the Implementation of the Criminal Procedure Law. Lawyer Wang Xing delivered remarks:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3f7XbpB16vQBrTQ7JJ6lmA

22. The phenomenon of “performative” and “internet-famous” lawyers.

March 2: “Selling Crutches” in the legal profession (a reference to a famous skit about a con artist selling useless goods).

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3NAHncmmQkq_6DvAt5Xztw

March 9: Liu Xiaoyuan—Lawyer Zheng Aili’s “resistance”: Lawyers who truly resist often hold no titles. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gcv3dLw9e4s4C3k8GU7FUw

March 15: Breaking News! A Beijing “law firm director” who claimed to have “helped overturn over 3,000 cases” was exposed as a fraud by Wang Hai. Genuine lawyers face immense difficulties, while fake ones and scammers run rampant.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/z9T0AS_n9nWM8fwfunzXiQ

23. March 2: Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan published an article titled “How Can Lawyers Remain Silent?” addressing the issue of lawyers’ freedom of speech.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oQImMmjTTnXvrqLUTtFjaw

24. March 3: On the day of the Lantern Festival, Lawyer Yu Kai held a placard to show support for Lawyer Xie Yang.

25. The Case of Duan Hua of Guilin

March 5: The family invited lawyers from across the country to attend the hearing as observers.

March 18: The formal trial began; a demand was raised to resolve the issue of public attendance (allowing lawyers to observe). The court adjourned twice to address this matter.

Retrial of the Duan Hua case in Guangxi: The victim must appear in court, how can procedural justice be “visible to the naked eye?”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3n_nSL0ZkdTTwDMaccmW7g

To Nie Huayu: As the trial begins tomorrow, I hope only for a real court of law.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2V39cEM4XaEaw8r5qnR7Og

26. March 12: Lawyer Xu Xin on the five systems within the Criminal Procedure Law most in need of amendment.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/j3w6IcP7Im-2WL4NSCT8cg

27. March 11: Lawyer Liu Zhiqiang submits a “Lawyer’s Opinion” to the Shiyan Detention Center. Behind a mesh screen, power is stripped away under the guise of legitimacy.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KDG-ltExF_A9qznUtfxwFQ

28. March 11: Jiao Nanfan—A functional analysis of rights and a study on the right to legal defense.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3NAHncmmQkq_6DvAt5Xztw

29. March 20: Lawyer Zhou Lixin—”Judicial Fairness Calls for Establishing a System for Jurisdictional Objections.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/M_9NZXWI9l0-a1p9qfCVlA

30. March 20: Lawyer Xu Xin files a real-name report against a Chief Procurator.

31. March 21: The scandal involving Mei Xiangrong, head of the world’s largest law firm. “Did Mei Xiangrong transfer 3.87 billion yuan? Exclusive Police Response”

“Investigations by public security authorities have confirmed that between 2021 and 2025, Mei Xiangrong, through means such as forging agreements and fabricating service projects, diverted 3.87 billion yuan of the law firm’s professional income (including legal service fees and client deposits) to affiliated enterprises under his control. This action simultaneously resulted in the inability to repay 1.24 billion yuan in principal to investors.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kZYQrLezzlJgUm_UNNJFGw

March 19: “What Liability Should the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice Bear in the Yingke Illegal Fundraising Case?”

How did Mei Xiangrong transform Yingke from a “colossal global law firm” into a “black hole for capital”?

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4-8SGQityzQHj9y78zXLEw

The head of the “colossal global law firm that would never collapse” has turned himself in. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/p9WBvrd8WZQW24ZDp2yyQg

32. March 24: Public interest litigation by a lawyer. Attorney Zhu Zhi sues Southwest Airlines for forcibly charging “oversized baggage fees” during boarding.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HitkTKQd650MYZq2cdKGsw

33. March 26: Do records of petitioning have a greater impact than records of legal violations?

Lawyer Li Binke published a post noting that a formal complaint he filed for a case was classified as a “petition record,” and thus triggered an alert that he was traveling to the capital.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LvXy-I4tluvOyqYiE1F0qg

34. March 26: The Huang Taikun Case

Lawyers challenged the illegal installation of signal jammers and demanded their deactivation. The court required that the account of the proceedings be written without drawing biased conclusions.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eTgDpGu0rmKJwwRN2D4x_A

35. Attorney Zhou Xiaoyun: A security guard at the Nanchang Intermediate People’s Court declared, “No photos allowed! This involves the leadership’s right to their own image!”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Jlw0TCOPTZ86F9ewFMe-aw

36. Lawyer Yu Kai staged a protest holding a placard and was released on bail pending trial after 30 days of detention.

On March 26, Lawyer Yu Kai went to the Ministry of Justice to stage a protest holding a placard, calling for the autonomy of lawyers’ associations, the abolition of the annual lawyer inspection system, freedom of association, and the scrapping of “blacklists.” On the 27th, he was taken to a case-handling center, and a case was opened against him for the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Lawyers Bao Longjun and Wang Yu were also taken in. The national legal community and legal professionals paid close attention to the matter and voiced their support for Lawyer Yu Kai. He was subsequently transferred to Qingdao. On April 26, he was released on bail pending trial. Lawyers Li Guobei and Lan Qingzhou actively represented him and met with him. Li Qingliang issued a resounding challenge: if one believes Yu Kai is innocent, one should not stop at mere written arguments but should hold up a placard in support of him, everyone should join in holding placards. Zhou Shifeng lodged a protest with the Director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. On April 8, Wen Donghai received a call regarding an investigation into his accompanying Yu Kai to Changsha to hold a placard in support of Xie Yang; he sternly refused to cooperate.

https://www.zhihu.com/pin/2026762369817145755?native=1&scene=share&share_code=1pqbkadHA4Me3&utm_psn=2026762680539586803

37. March 27: Zhou Lixin published an article titled “Must the Supervisory Commission Comply with the Law on Deputies?”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/45BAZmGDXDN0jWR1LgirPA

38. March 30: Li Ruyu released a video asking, “Who Will Protect Lawyers’ Constitutional Rights?”

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AVEWncMaYI

39. March 31: Lawyer Lan Qingzhou filed a real-name report against officials from judicial administrative agencies in Shandong and Qingdao.

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AveNb7lhfB

40. April 2: Lawyer Li Guisheng faced a complaint; the case was dismissed following an investigation by the Guiyang Lawyers Association.

The court recommended disciplinary action, but the Lawyers Association ultimately dropped the case | Li Guisheng: Hoping to give young lawyers a sense of confidence.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DMaYvEO25nItX26Rtbu79w

Pressure from Xixiu District Court to penalize the lawyer was flatly rejected by the Lawyers Association.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hpxxdV6z8uZjvULtAzHwdg

41. April 2: Zhang Yifei – “The Right to Observe a Trial, Castrated: An Account of Observing the Wang Yingchao Organized Crime Case Trial.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/iabMIq32BXen9Ynh_miEUA

42. April 7: Lawyer Wang Zhixiang – “Blocked Outside the Detention Center: A Lawyer’s Journey to Seek a Meeting.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yT3fxNyOMS8NWRBxMYiekQ

43. April 12: Yi Shenghua – “Public Statement Regarding the Refusal to Participate in the Zhumadian Intermediate Court Hearing.”

Reasons: Pre-judgment before trial, grounds for recusal, and inability of relevant personnel to attend the hearing.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/mp/wappoc_appmsgcaptcha?poc_token=HMkY72mjlsOSTygB8odB2i8mqX2cOAmkCEDTZMsI&target_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmp.weixin.qq.com%2Fs%2FOOcw_ASzn14Y_ayeWXDnaw

44. April 13: Lawyer Yu Wensheng was released upon completion of his prison sentence and subsequently began traveling to various locations.

45. April 13: Wang Shihan, “Breaking! First-ever incident in China where a defendant threatened their defense counsel in open court.”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qtLH33m43U8Q-BWyLP30Yw

46. April 14: A call for court police to adopt the proper mindset and change their working style.

Lawyer Lan Qingzhou was ordered by court police to delete photos he had taken; he criticized this demand.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PKOT0rTijnQJ_rcD1LLATQ

47. April 14: Lawyers including Wang Xing were sprayed with pepper spray; an administrative litigation hearing commenced.

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AOTKKv6O8i

48. April 14: Lawyer Li Guobei published a post criticizing the Chaoyang District Justice Bureau for refusing to process the transfer applications of four lawyers.

49. April 16: Zhang Lei met with Xie Yang; Xie decided to waive his right to appeal and expressed gratitude to Yu Kai for holding up a support sign for him.

50. April 16: Lawyer Zhou Lixin criticized the new judicial interpretation regarding bribery. He argued that imposing the same criminal penalties for the same bribery amounts on non-state personnel (e.g., chairpersons of private enterprises) and state functionaries (e.g., mayors) violates the principle that crimes and punishments be strictly defined by law.

51. April 17: A client sent a letter to the law firm regarding a situation where the court was unlawfully pressuring the lawyer to submit written defense arguments without holding a hearing for the second-instance trial. The client’s instructions were: 1. Do not comply with the court’s unlawful demand to submit written defense arguments before a hearing is held or preliminary issues are resolved; such a practice effectively infringes upon the client’s rights rather than safeguarding the right to a defense. 2. Insist that defense arguments be presented during a public court hearing. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ffwyDDPErWeWDLpQfzl68w

52. April 17: Lawyer Zhou Lixin lodged a protest against the violation of the right to meet with the client.

https://m.weibo.cn/status/5288668724202138?sourceType=weixin&from=10G4295060&wm=9006_2001&featurecode=newtitle&s_channel=5&s_trans=65xq5Jh%2Fu6mJIX6qtgLZqw%3D%3D_5288668724202138_s&jumpfrom=weibocom

53. April 17 – Han Xu: The emerging issue of “difficulty in arranging meetings [with clients]” warrants attention.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8gWplTRQWJSndJiwN0UhOg

54. April 20 – Song Changcheng publishes an article regarding his bid for the presidency of the Shenzhen Lawyers Association.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dtF-lPPba1zgNGE6zXHq9Q

55. April 24 – Lawyer Wang Xingqi files a formal complaint in accordance with the law and ultimately secures a meeting [with his client].

56. Wu Fatian transfers to a different law firm.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/QTAxKzSzBHZI3vIABE0dEA

57. April 27 – Lawyer Zhu Lijun files a lawsuit against Tencent for deleting posts; the case is accepted and a hearing is held.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AlVb4k0zCIilJGDPPYQZIg

58. Lu Siwei faces harassment by the authorities.

59. April 28 – Song Changcheng files a report against the Director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice and others.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IlsKTF-zxVogse0ff8bajw

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一、1月 锡安教会案件，多位代理律师遭到司法行政部门打压，张凯律师被吊销执照，另有杨耀华、李春富、葛现洋、刘安强、唐仙龙、赵青山等多名律师被暂停执业或面临约谈骚扰。当局试图通过剥夺辩护权来压制该独立教会的影响。

https://www.chinaaid.net/2026/03/blog-post_26.html?m=1

二、1月5日 刘志强律师就《律师办理刑事案件规范》提出意见。261条规范近百条纰漏。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/elsCZnp4MuCGSTqEMmEFjg

三、1月6日，李爱军律师《律师享有作证豁免权，有权拒绝公安做笔录》

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/936FQDxYOpEKOZl-6UWZEQ

四、1月9日 2023年高宏亮律师投诉遵义市红花岗区公安分局限制律师会见、通信。跨年以后，2024年3月4日黄X被监委留置，3，3月5日红花岗区检察院通知纠正。

五、1月13日 司法局副局长受贿844万获刑，律师被索贿60万当上律协会长；涉事律协：紧急罢免其会长职务

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4wK0dvz6sbWStl2Xs6OJYA

济宁律师协会会长一职值60万？济宁司法局副局长国庆启判决书显示，济宁律协会长一职能卖60万元，关键是这律师花了60万还没有买到会长职务

https://weibo.com/1773958670/5254191132180481

1月15日金钱叩开的会长之门——兼论律师协会自治何以挣脱行政过度干预的枷锁

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/onljqTf_lyXurronICb8JQ

六、张文鹏、许宗平寻衅滋事案件

1月12-13日庭前会议。2月9日至14日，案件开庭。法庭违法限制旁听。只安排同步录音的现场旁听，审判庭现场有空位但不让进。于凯律师怒摔律师证。第一天上午休庭三次，文鹏大闹法庭，2/3的时间口吐三字经，批评法庭违法限制旁听。14日最后一天，张文鹏最后陈词结语，人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青！全场感动，兰庆洲律师泪洒法庭。

3月16日宣判 张文鹏四年六个月，许宗平两年。

4月20日，范辰律师，二审提交委托手续。

七、1.10日建行事件周筱赟律师：呼吁立即废除对柜员的不合理处罚制度

央行新规（取消5万元以上取现需登记用途）出台后，最为重要的，就是废除对银行柜员的不合理处罚制度，不要再让银行基层员工为管理层的乱作为背锅了！

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/P83YWRu63miEsMu5leE4AA

八、1月21日周立新律师批评贵阳中院戴峥嵘、高金生法官，裁定书不说理。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cBJr8OfdeWyae-EgItK9bA

九、1月21日 李贵生律师发文：法官说，案卷材料只能当庭查看当庭质证！（一）
贵阳市白云区法院唐菲娅法官，你违法了！

https://m.weibo.cn/status/5257554478243968?wm=3333_2001&from=10FC693010&sourcetype=weixin&s_trans=R9w9myPiLFOeC4TcD%2BMD5Q%3D%3D_5257554478243968_s&s_channel=4&jumpfrom=weibocom

十、侯佳音律师免费为蒋律师维权。

1月22日宴前只一诺，佳音千里行。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fj_Hm0Wi-JYQ8w2UffozMQ

十一、1月26日新洲法院不让带电脑参加庭前会议。李仁钬律师发视频，要求武汉中院纠正。

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/ASmCT3LcWg

十二、1月27日维权成功！多年拉锯，深圳律协终向深圳律师“认错”：撤销对张茂荣律师的违规认定！

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/h3eiJnsD4o10oiL3vZSOcg

十三、1月28日周立新律师向贵州省两会代表、委员发出公开信。

要求监督遵义黄斌涉黑案件。

十四、1月31日发布全国最新开庭信息公布榜

湖南王石汉 发布，收集各处开庭信息，公开。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JEKoyOWVW9ikpQjoSJ1u1Q

十五、于凯律师要求南山法院就腾讯删帖、封号立案

2月2日，于凯律师、文东海律师、杨晖律师、蔺其磊律师至深圳南山法院，要求法院就腾讯删帖封号立案，其仍然拒绝处理。于凯律师庭外抗议。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0iyDoJ18hrvorVa-3lHJfg

十六、前著名调查记者刘虎、巫英蛟失联后被羁押。全国的律师、法律人对此

反响强烈，积极声援。劳东燕教授“举报没用，发文章犯法”。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AV2zUZ32uc3ysqTu1RFydA

十七、2月2日“骗人”的法院审“骗人”的案件——辽源市中级人民法院审理“许愿蜡烛”开庭闹剧实录

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bGPySgQzC5ivojWXQUkueQ

辽源许愿蜡烛案件第一天：为争取旁听权而斗争。一个被告人两个直系亲属旁听，原本审判庭有两排座位，现在拆了一半。李爱军、刘录律师旁听到人大投诉。法庭内外一起抗争。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gE7MYm68u68cKRmEMx8LeQ

3月13日，法官组团占坑旁听。侯志远律师。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2dLK_b-wI0p4Q9szKeO4xQ

十八、2.5日周立新发文：怎样面对明显不正义的司法追究？

不能让不良司法人员从有良知的证人处得到一粒沙子。

十九、2.12日于凯律师就张文鹏案件至海南省委、省公安厅等处抗议。

二十、2.25周立新律师《发声，不仅为刘杰》

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cBTPUNQvVnR9Y9TfwAXejw

二十一、3.1王兴：细数刑诉法解释中的“自我赋权”

蓟门决策论坛，刑诉法执行中的问题与对策。王兴律师现场发言

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3f7XbpB16vQBrTQ7JJ6lmA

二十二、表演型、网红律师的现象

3.2律师界的卖拐

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3NAHncmmQkq_6DvAt5Xztw

3.9刘晓原：郑爱利律师的“抗争”：真正抗争的律师，往往没有头衔https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gcv3dLw9e4s4C3k8GU7FUw

3.15刚刚！宣称“帮3000多人翻案”的北京“律所主任”被王海打假

真律师举步维艰，假的骗子大行其道

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/z9T0AS_n9nWM8fwfunzXiQ

二十三、3.2刘晓原律师发文，《律师岂能不说话》，涉及律师言论自由。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oQImMmjTTnXvrqLUTtFjaw

二十四、3.3于凯律师元宵节举牌声援谢阳律师。

二十五、桂林段华案件

3.5子女邀请全国律师旁听。

3月18日，正式开庭，提出应解决旁听问题。为此两次休庭。

广西段华案重审：被害人必须出庭，程序正义岂能“肉眼可见”？

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3n_nSL0ZkdTTwDMaccmW7g

致聂华宇：明天开庭，我只希望有一个真正的法庭

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2V39cEM4XaEaw8r5qnR7Og

二十六、3月12日徐昕律师刑诉法最需修改的五项制度https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/j3w6IcP7Im-2WL4NSCT8cg

二十七、3月11日刘志强律师对十堰看守所提交《律师意见书》，纱窗之下，权力被合理化剥夺。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KDG-ltExF_A9qznUtfxwFQ

二十八、3月11日焦南凡 权利的功能分析，对律师辩护权的研究。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3NAHncmmQkq_6DvAt5Xztw

二十九、3月20日周立新律师《司法公正呼唤确立管辖权异议制度》

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/M_9NZXWI9l0-a1p9qfCVlA

三十、3月20日徐昕律师实名举报检察长

三十一、3月21日梅向荣全球最大律所掌门人暴雷事件。《梅向荣转移资金38.7亿？警方独家回应》

“经公安机关查证，2021—2025年间，梅向荣通过伪造协议、虚构服务项目等方式，将律所38.7亿元执业收入（律师服务费、客户保证金等）转移至自己控制的关联企业，同时造成投资人的12.4亿元本金无法兑付。”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kZYQrLezzlJgUm_UNNJFGw

3月19日《北京市司法局在盈科非吸案件中应承担什么责任》

梅向荣如何把盈科从“宇宙大所”变成“吸金黑洞”？

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4-8SGQityzQHj9y78zXLEw

“永不爆雷的宇宙大所”掌门人，自首了https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/p9WBvrd8WZQW24ZDp2yyQg

三十二、3月24日 律师公益诉讼 朱智律师状告西南航空公司登机时强收“超标行李费”

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HitkTKQd650MYZq2cdKGsw

三十三、3月26日信访记录比违法记录影响还大？

李宾客律师发文，因为案件控告。被认定为信访记录。去进京警报响起。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LvXy-I4tluvOyqYiE1F0qg

三十四、3月26日黄太坤案件

律师抗争，违法安装屏蔽器，要求关闭。法院要求写旁听记不能带有倾向性结论。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eTgDpGu0rmKJwwRN2D4x_A

三十五、周筱赟律师 南昌市中院保安说：不许拍照！这是领导肖像权！

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Jlw0TCOPTZ86F9ewFMe-aw

三十六、于凯律师举牌，被羁押30天后取保候审。

3月26日，于凯律师至司法部举牌，抗议。律协自治、要求取消律师年检、入会自由，废止黑名单。27日被带到办案中心。以寻衅滋事罪被立案。包龙军、王宇律师同样被带入。全国律师界以及法律人士对此非常关注，纷纷表态支持于凯律师。后被转移到青岛。4月26日被取保候审。李国蓓、兰庆洲律师积极为其代理，会见。李庆亮，提出一个振聋发聩的挑战：如果认为于凯无罪，不应只是停留在文字论证上，应该举牌支持他，大家一起举牌。周世锋致北京市公安局局长抗议。4月8日文东海接电话，要调查他陪同于凯的长沙举牌支持谢阳，他严辞拒绝。

https://www.zhihu.com/pin/2026762369817145755?native=1&scene=share&share_code=1pqbkadHA4Me3&utm_psn=2026762680539586803

三十七、3.27周立新发文《监察委要不要遵守代表法？》

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/45BAZmGDXDN0jWR1LgirPA

三十八、3.30李如玉视频，谁来保护律师的宪法权利？

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AVEWncMaYI

三十九、3.31兰庆洲律师实名举报山东、青岛司法行政机构官员。

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AveNb7lhfB

四十、4.2李贵生律师被投诉，案件经贵阳律协调查被撤销。

法院建议处分，律协最终撤案｜李贵生：希望能给年轻律师一些底气

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DMaYvEO25nItX26Rtbu79w

西秀区法院施压处理律师被律协断然驳回https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hpxxdV6z8uZjvULtAzHwdg

四十一、4月2日张翼飞：被阉割的旁听权---王颖超等黑社会案旁听记

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/iabMIq32BXen9Ynh_miEUA

四十二、4月7日王志祥律师：我被挡在看守所门外，一个律师的“求见”之路文

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yT3fxNyOMS8NWRBxMYiekQ

四十三、4.12易胜华《关于拒绝参加驻马店中院庭审的公开说明》

理由：未审先判、应予回避、相关人员无法参加庭审。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/mp/wappoc_appmsgcaptcha?poc_token=HMkY72mjlsOSTygB8odB2i8mqX2cOAmkCEDTZMsI&target_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmp.weixin.qq.com%2Fs%2FOOcw_ASzn14Y_ayeWXDnaw

四十四、4.13余文生律师刑满释放，其后开始游历各地。

四十五、4月13日王石汉《突发！国内首例被告人当庭威胁辩护人恶劣事件》

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qtLH33m43U8Q-BWyLP30Yw

四十六、4月14日 希望法警摆正位置，改变工作作风

兰庆洲律师拍照被法警要求删除，兰律师就此提出批评。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PKOT0rTijnQJ_rcD1LLATQ

四十七、4.14日王兴未等律师被喷辣椒水，行政诉讼案开庭。

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AOTKKv6O8i

四十八、4.14日李国蓓律师发文，批评朝阳区司法局四位律师转所不予受理。

四十九、4.16日张磊会见谢阳，其放弃上诉，感念于凯为他举牌。

五十、4月16日周立新律师就新行贿受贿司法解释提出批评。将非国家工作人员（民企董事长）与国家机关工作人员（市长）同等受贿数额进行同等刑事处分，违反罪刑法定原则。

五十一、4月17日在法院违法逼迫律师，二审不开庭，仅仅提交书面辩护词的情况下。当事人致函律所。一、不得应法院的违法要求，在未开庭、未解决前置性事项的情况下提交书面辩护意见，该做法实质上是侵犯当事人的权利而不是保障辩护权；2、要求辩护人的辩护意见在公开的庭审中发表https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ffwyDDPErWeWDLpQfzl68w

五十二、4月17日周立新律师就违反被剥夺会见权提出抗议。https://m.weibo.cn/status/5288668724202138?sourceType=weixin&from=10G4295060&wm=9006_2001&featurecode=newtitle&s_channel=5&s_trans=65xq5Jh%2Fu6mJIX6qtgLZqw%3D%3D_5288668724202138_s&jumpfrom=weibocom

五十三、4月17日韩旭：新的“会见难”问题应引起重视

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8gWplTRQWJSndJiwN0UhOg

五十四、4.20宋长城发文律师竞选深圳律协会长。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dtF-lPPba1zgNGE6zXHq9Q

五十五、4月24日王兴启律师依法投诉，最终得以会见。

五十六、吴法天转所

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/QTAxKzSzBHZI3vIABE0dEA

五十七、4月27日朱李军律师起诉腾讯删帖立案，开庭。

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AlVb4k0zCIilJGDPPYQZIg

五十八、卢思位遭受当局骚扰

五十九、4.28.宋长城举报广东省司法厅厅长等

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IlsKTF-zxVogse0ff8bajw

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Nine members of Beijing’s Zion Church, half of those arrested in a crackdown on October 9, 2025, have been released on bail after the maximum detention period expired. However, the nine remaining in detention, including founding pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, will now reportedly face escalated charges of “illegal business operations” and “fraud.” These charges are a concerning development, the latest in a series of escalations against China’s house churches.

In London, former UK Border Force officer Peter Wai has been sentenced to 10 years and retired Hong Kong policeman Bill Yuen to 8 years for conducting “shadow policing” on British soil, including surveilling pro-democracy activists including Nathan Law, accessing UK immigration databases to track dissidents, and operating in coordination with Hong Kong’s bounty program targeting overseas activists. The sentencing is a welcome surprise for many UK-based dissidents: a Guardian investigation published this week on transnational repression against dissidents in the UK found that interviewees “described sparse, incoherent and inadequate responses from UK authorities, and spoke of the detrimental impact on their health and safety living in the UK.”

Meanwhile, French counterintelligence services dismantled nine clandestine Chinese “police stations” disguised as cultural, community, and business associations, primarily in and around Paris, following a year-long investigation triggered by a 2024 attempt by Chinese intelligence operatives to forcibly return dissident Ling Huazhan to China. Two of the three suspected coordinators have already been expelled from France and the third is subject to ongoing judicial proceedings.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

NPCSC Session Watch: Finance Law, Central Bank Reform, Procurement & Trademarks: The NPCSC’s 23rd session, scheduled for June 23–26, will consider ten legislative bills, including second reviews of the Trademarks Law, the Certified Public Accountants Law, the Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law, and the Antarctic Activities Law, alongside a first review of the long-awaited Finance Law revision and the Government Procurement Law overhaul.

冯正虎：法律“鲶鱼”来了： 民间AI审案力量对律师体制的重塑与激荡 [Feng Zhenghu: The Legal “Catfish” Has Arrived: The Reshaping and Impact of Private AI Adjudication on the Legal System]: Veteran legal activist Feng Zhenghu argues that the emergence of AI-powered private case analysis tools, which can now parse court decisions faster and more accurately than most lawyers, is acting as a disruptive “catfish” that forces the legal profession to reckon with its own opacity, high costs, and selective accountability, potentially opening new pathways for ordinary citizens to challenge official misconduct.

This Week in Asian Law: June 14- June 20: The week’s developments include a white paper on Xi Jinping’s vision of global governance around the UN, a South Korean opposition proposal to require online commenters to disclose nationality after 65,000 alleged China-origin posts targeted a political party, and China’s Ministry of State Security warning against foreign entities conducting covert geographic mapping operations.

Top court upholds law criminalising calls to boycott Hong Kong elections: Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal unanimously upheld a law criminalizing public calls to boycott elections or cast blank votes, dismissing a challenge by former CUHK student union president Jacky So, who had reposted a social media message urging blank ballots in 2021. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung ruled the restriction was “modest in scope” and justified to protect the legitimacy of elections from mass-scale incitement.

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

HRIC on Twitter/X: Former CCTV journalist Chai Jing’s June 4th program has drawn nearly 500,000 views in three days and sparked rare discussion among young Chinese. Many viewers say they only now realize that 1989 was not just a student movement, but a nationwide democratic uprising in which citizens, workers, nurses, journalists, soldiers, and students stood together for a freer China. The program has revived memories of a lost sense of Chinese civic community and a shared aspiration for freedom and dignity, which repression and censorship have gradually eroded, fragmenting society and weakening bonds of mutual responsibility.

HRIC Digital Rights Report: May 2026: Last month’s top digital news includes chatbots blocking Tiananmen-related queries, AI-powered harassment of female activists, and a major new investigation revealing Beijing is deploying predictive AI tools to flag potential political dissenters before they take any public action.

HRIC on Twitter/X: A document titled “VPN Cross-Border Identification System Product White Paper” has recently been circulating online, describing a surveillance system designed by Guoji Beisheng (Nanjing) Technology Development Co. and deployed in colleges and universities to identify and monitor teachers’ and students’ “wall-climbing” behaviors in real time, flagging any access to overseas websites.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

Taiwan steps up as Chinese repression rises: A Taiwanese official described China’s cross-strait strategy as a comprehensive, non-military campaign of diplomatic suppression, including blocking Taiwan’s WTO attendance, obstructing President Lai’s Eswatini trip, claiming new maritime jurisdictions off eastern Taiwan, and sending coast guard vessels into Taiwan’s EEZ. In response, Taiwan is building a legal and intelligence cooperation framework with democratic partners and warning that anyone assisting China in cross-border repression will face strict legal consequences.

Teacher Li on X: On the evening of June 20, in front of the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland, New Zealand, more than a dozen activists conducted a projection protest. Chinese consulate staff tried to appeal to police to stop the projection, to no avail.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

中国大陆年龄最小异议人士、河北15岁少年张琪沅发求救视频，自述曾被中共关精神病院 [Zhang Qiyuan, the youngest dissident in mainland China, a 15-year-old boy from Hebei, released a video appealing for help, recounting his experience of being detained in a mental hospital by the Chinese Communist Party]: Zhang Qiyuan, a 15-year-old from Hebei described as mainland China’s youngest known political dissident, released a video stating he had been forcibly committed to a psychiatric facility by the Chinese authorities in retaliation for his online activism, prompting international calls for his protection and immediate release.

They were forced into marriage and abused. Now women facing exploitation in China have a glimmer of hope: Part three of the Guardian’s series on Chinese women documents a grassroots network of underground volunteers—inspired by the 2022 “chained woman” case that went viral despite censorship—who have adopted new strategies to investigate and rescue women with disabilities coerced into rural “marriages,” a phenomenon driven by the gender imbalance created by decades of the one-child policy.

For women in China frustrated by sexism, female comics are offering a release: Part four of the Guardian’s women in China series examines how a new generation of female stand-up comedians is channeling anger about workplace discrimination, forced motherhood, and misogyny into their sets at a time when organized feminist activism has been all but suppressed, though comics must still navigate censors and the threat of industry-wide retaliation for crossing political lines.

Friends With Influence: A China Media Project investigation documents how, since Xi Jinping called for a reinvention of China’s global propaganda efforts, over 200 International Communication Centers have emerged at provincial, municipal, and county levels across the country in a “stacking approach” that aims to flood global information channels with China’s preferred narratives.

Hong Kong’s LGBTQ+ communities struggle to survive amid shrinking civic spaces: LGBT organizers say the authorities prefer the community to “exist but not come out in public,” effectively using administrative licensing barriers rather than outright legal bans to suppress visibility.

Reuters Institute report says Hong Kong media facing intimidation, financial crisis, political pressure and tax audits: The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that Hong Kong journalists face “a widening range of intimidation, including tax investigations,” with the HKJA reporting that at least seven independent outlets and 20 individuals, including journalists’ family members, received tax demands totalling roughly HK$1.7 million. Meanwhile, declining advertising revenue has deepened a financial crisis compounded by self-censorship around vaguely defined legal red lines.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

How China’s ‘red lines’ are quietly shaping global news reporting: University of Alberta political scientist Reza Hasmath argues that Beijing’s access-for-compliance model has hardened over more than a decade into an invisible editorial ratchet where each accommodation, from Bloomberg spiking a wealth investigation in 2013 to the CBC quietly losing its Beijing bureau in 2022, sets a new baseline from which it becomes harder to report accurately on questions like whether Xinjiang facilities are “camps” or whether Hong Kong’s security law is a “crackdown.”

China detains Hong Kong booksellers: Ten years after the release of Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookseller who was detained for selling material critical of China’s leaders, BBC Audio has released an episode on his case. Lam says: “If I didn’t speak out, Hong Kong’s freedoms of speech and press would suffer in silence.”

International Responses 国际反应

Canada eliminates human rights watchdog that oversees companies operating abroad: Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that his government had quietly abolished the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, an independent mechanism for investigating human rights complaints against Canadian mining, garment, and oil and gas companies abroad which had mostly taken cases related to Uyghur forced labor in supply chains. The move left over 20 active cases without a forum and drew condemnation from human rights groups.

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This Month: Digital Surveillance and Transnational Repression

In May, new reporting emerged on tools being developed by Chinese private companies for government surveillance, data collection, and analysis; creating in-depth profiles of individuals; and even predicting future behavior. Reports indicate that the scope of these tools is likely to extend beyond China’s borders, as the state and its agents continue to employ digital methods of transnational repression. In addition to surveillance, AI-powered harassment of human rights defenders and dissidents has seen a noticeable increase in recent months. For example, AI deepfakes have been used extensively to harass human rights defenders and activists, especially women, with inappropriate pictures and videos.

China Introduces a Program to Track Foreigners’ Every Move

A leak last month exposed a surveillance program called the “Dynamic Management Platform for Overseas Personnel,” a remote data collection and analysis tool for mass tracking of foreign nationals which was developed for the Public Security Bureau in Zhangjiakou, not far from Beijing. Although the site appears to be a “demo,” it contains real information of people who have lived, or are currently living, in China. This includes a tab that lists foreign journalists who were in Beijing around 2021, with ID pictures that appear to be from official visa applications. Cybersecurity researcher NetAskari, who uncovered the dashboard, told Deutsche Welle: “When you work as a journalist in China, you basically assume you are always on their radar. But what surprised me was simply how easy it was to access this highly sensitive system.”

The Telegraph’s former China correspondent, Sophia Yan, released a public video about her experience being included in the database. She explained that the platform contains her passport number, mobile phone number, and workplace, and that she was labeled “trackable.” The platform contains meticulous details of her movements within China: the 78 times she was recorded at a certain intersection, records of her entries and exits at supermarkets and subway stations, and even a relationship graph used to identify her associates.

The Dynamic Management Platform also contains a web-based dashboard that may be connected to the government’s Xueliang (雪亮 or Sharp Eyes) project. The Sharp Eyes project integrates surveillance cameras installed in rural areas with cameras from private residences, including televisions and smartphones, to essentially use private citizens as the eyes of the state. In a similar vein, the Dynamic Management Platform includes data not only from official surveillance devices, but also privately owned devices such as ski lift cameras.

While currently focused on rural areas, the end goal of the Sharp Eyes project is to become a nationwide surveillance tool, with elements such as “real time tracking and predictive policing.” But, there is evidence that it could easily expand even further. For instance, Vanderbilt University recently uncovered documents revealing that the Chinese firm, Geedge Networks, which already sells a commercial version of the Great Firewall, is developing AI tools that analyze citizens’ internet activity, location data, and telecommunications records. Doing so generates profiles that estimate a person’s so-called “political risk” even before they have taken any public action.

International Attention on the Threat of China’s Digital Surveillance

Meanwhile, a new report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association on digital tracking and its effect on human rights describes China as an extreme case of surveillance ubiquity. The mobile platforms WeChat and Alipay generate comprehensive digital footprints: one activist stated that “we know that everyone is followed. Everyone, they have data on everyone.” The report characterizes Tibet as “a giant prison” under 24/7 digital monitoring, and documents how simply performing “day-to-day tasks” leaves protesters in Hong Kong vulnerable to police tracking. The report also identifies China as a source of active transnational repression, particularly in relation to Tibetan human rights defenders, who reported state-linked cellular network and SIM-cloning attacks. The UN Report does provide suggestions for responding to these developments in the age of digital surveillance: it encourages human rights law analysis to incorporate compounding harms; it calls for interdisciplinary expertise to be included; it suggests establishing an assessment “focused on evaluating States’ overall surveillance activities”; and it urges a precautionary approach, arguing that even uncertain risks should be taken seriously to prevent them from becoming overwhelming once it’s too late

In another alarming example of digital overreach, a security researcher successfully hijacked every single Yarbo (雅博) robotic mower, which are sold all around the world, from thousands of miles away. He gained access to cameras, sensors, and spinning blades, and he was able to retrieve live camera feeds, exact GPS coordinates of owners’ homes, and even their Wi-Fi passwords. The test served to demonstrate the potential scale of vulnerabilities within the “Internet of Things,” a vast network of “smart” devices with varying levels of data collection, internet, and/or Bluetooth capabilities.

Transnational Harassment

Female activists who challenge the Chinese Communist Party have been systematically targeted by state-linked coordinated campaigns attempting to destroy their reputations and silence them through gendered shame. While gendered violence and digital harassment of female activists is unfortunately nothing new, the latest strategy of using AI-generated deepfake pornographic images is a significant escalation. Now, some activists are pushing back.

After Apple Peiqing Ni, founder of the UK-based China Dissent Network, posted about Tiananmen commemoration activities, she was tagged repeatedly in bot posts on X containing AI-generated deepfake images portraying her as a promiscuous drug addict. Although Ni reported the harassment to the police, she was told the only option was to report it to X’s moderation system. Yet, X’s automated systems ruled that the posts did not violate its rules, despite its policies against harassment. Ni chose to speak up about the issue rather than remain silent, and the account was eventually suspended after the Guardian contacted X for comment.

Safeguard Defenders’ China Program Director Laura Harth publicly addressed the AI-generated pornographic deepfakes targeting her and named the culprit behind them: the Spamouflage foreign influence network linked to China’s public security system. Harth writes: “We have the attributions. We have had them for years. What we need now is concrete action and accountability. None of this requires more evidence. All it requires is political will.”

In Case You Missed It: Other Digital Rights and Cybersecurity News

Great Firewall, Censorship, and Information Control

• China Expands Travel Curbs to Top AI Talent at Private Firms: Chinese AI start-up founders, researchers and executives are now subject to state-imposed travel restrictions, meaning they must seek permission from the authorities in order to travel out of the country. While China frequently constrains the movement of government officials and “sensitive” individuals, the move signals a new level of control over private industry.

• CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for April 2026: April’s most heavily censored topics included backlash against a Ministry of State Security article blaming “foreign organizations” for promoting the “lying flat” lifestyle movement, with online commenters challenging the framing and pointing to domestic economic causes, and many of those responses subsequently deleted, as well as suppression of coverage of an April knife attack in Shenyang that killed multiple people and received no official statement.

• HRIC on Twitter/X: The Associated Press’s Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting this year was awarded to an in-depth investigation into China’s surveillance system. The investigation, which spanned nearly three years, revealed that multiple Silicon Valley tech companies, with the knowledge of the U.S. government, were deeply involved in the design and construction of China’s surveillance infrastructure. This system has been used for large-scale population tracking and is directly linked to well-documented cases of human rights abuses.

• Netizen Voices on MSS Claim That Foreign Forces Are Funding Chinese Slackers: “If Everyone Slacked Off, Who’d Be Left To Exploit?”: China’s Ministry of State Security recently claimed that unnamed foreign organizations have been funding influencers to spread “lying flat” ideology among Chinese youth, framing the slacker trend as ideological warfare. The claim backfired on social media, with netizens responding with sarcasm and pointed to real grievances like youth unemployment and overwork rather than foreign manipulation.

• Translations: On the Coal Mine Explosion in Liushenyu, Shanxi, That Killed 82 Miners and Injured 128: China’s deadliest mining accident in over a decade triggered both public anger and online censorship, with investigations revealing widespread safety violations including fake rectifications, fake shutdowns, falsified blueprints, and the authorities’ suspicious inability to account for 123 of the 247 workers underground at the time.

• Netizen Voices: “Money Can’t Get Out, and Neither Can People”: New regulations punishing cross-border brokerage apps for giving mainland retail investors access to overseas stocks without licenses, combined with a ban on overseas travel for key employees of domestic AI firms, prompted widespread online mockery summarized in the phrase “money can’t get out, and neither can people.”

• Translation: The Decade-long Death of a Campus Media Outlet, Part 2: The Decline of Student Journalism and the Rise of AI: Part two of an essay on the deletion of Beijing Normal University’s student publication Jingshi Xueren describes the emotional aftermath of the erasure, the outlet’s legacy as a formative experience for its contributors, and reflects on the stakes of preserving authentically human perspectives amid the accelerating displacement of student journalism by AI-generated content.

• The Guardian view on the splinternet: where China led, Iran and others are eagerly following: This Guardian editorial argues that China, whose Great Firewall has effectively turned 1.125 billion internet users into the world’s largest intranet, is not an anomaly but a pioneer. Its model of “cyber sovereignty” is now being actively adopted by Iran and other authoritarian states to fragment the global internet into a repressive “splinternet.”

AI Propaganda and Social Media Manipulation

• HRIC on Twitter/X: A team from institutions including New York University, Princeton, and the University of California, San Diego, report that the outputs of global mainstream LLMs are already being influenced by government control over media worldwide, with Chinese users experiencing particularly pronounced effects.

• The CCP is using AI platforms to further digitize and intelligentize its control over Tibet: DeepZang, a Tibetan-language AI platform launched by China this year, provides Tibetan-language services and outputs content that aligns with the official stance on sensitive issues such as Tibet, religion, and governance.

• Silence for Sale: A recent state media report exposed a social media extortion scheme in which operators of an account sent “negative information verification letters” to over 180 companies pre-IPO, threatening damaging coverage unless paid off, the latest iteration of a longstanding Chinese practice known as “news extortion” where Party controls have made the power to publish or suppress information a transactional commodity, with no role for the public interest.

• China-linked disinformation campaign fails to disrupt Tibetan elections: Beijing’s long-running “Spamouflage” influence network deployed 90 Facebook accounts and 13 Instagram profiles to attack re-elected Tibetan leader Penpa Tsering and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2026 exile parliamentary elections, which were held across 27 countries. Despite using AI-generated imagery and coordinated messaging, the campaign drew virtually no organic engagement and failed to meaningfully reach Tibetan diaspora communities.

Cybersecurity & Data Privacy

• Eyes in the sky: Hong Kong police tackle petty crime with drone patrols, but privacy concerns linger: Hong Kong police have rapidly expanded automated drone patrols citywide like tracking visa overstayers, gamblers, and “evasive” individuals, raising unresolved privacy questions, as the force plans to add AI capabilities while declining to specify whether facial recognition will be applied to drone footage.

• Chinese authorities arrest 97 Tibetans in the name of “Cybersecurity Law”: In 2025, Chinese police arrested 97 Tibetans under the Cybersecurity Law for livestreaming and posting videos in Tibetan on platforms such as Douyin, with authorities setting up 27 special task forces conducting cross-regional investigations across more than 40 regions to crack down on Tibetan-language content. The enforcement has had a severe chilling effect, with many Tibetans stopping all online activity out of fear.

• ‘Clearly me’: Chinese AI drama accused of stealing faces: A Chinese model and an influencer discovered their likenesses had been used without consent in an AI-generated microdrama on ByteDance’s Hongguo platform, depicting them in unflattering villain roles. The case highlights legal grey areas around AI-generated content in China, with the platform having already taken down 670 non-compliant AI microdramas, and one victim planning to sue.

• American staffers told to ditch burner phones before leaving Beijing over fears of Chinese ‘spying’: The security measures underscored a stark contradiction at the heart of the summit: publicly cordial engagement with Xi, while privately operating under the assumption that every device and interaction could be compromised.

Digital Transnational Repression

• More private health records of UK Biobank volunteers appear on Chinese website: Health data from all 500,000 UK Biobank volunteers was listed for sale on Alibaba in at least three separate listings, traced to three Chinese research institutions that had downloaded the data under legitimate contracts; the institutions have since had their access revoked.

Civil Society & Resistance Under Pressure

• Chinese court awards compensation to sacked worker replaced by AI: A Hangzhou appeals court ruled that a fintech company acted illegally when it demoted and dismissed a quality-assurance supervisor after his role was taken over by AI, ordering over 260,000 yuan in compensation on the grounds that AI cost-efficiency does not constitute the “objective change in circumstances” required by Chinese labor law to justify termination.

• Netizen Voices: Is Xi Jinping on Top of the World, or a Tortoise on a Utility Pole?: Even as Xi Jinping hosted high-profile summits with Trump and Putin, a viral Douyin meme framed him as a tortoise perched on a utility pole, seemingly elevated but actually precarious, prompting online speculation about elite political tensions, succession, and the fragility of his position.

• Demanding Humanity in Propaganda: When Hunan Economic Television debuted AI-generated news anchors on May 4, public outrage at the prospect of AI-generated content prompted the broadcaster to add a disclaimer clarifying that while the anchors’ images were AI-generated, all reporting and editing remained in human hands, an irony noted widely, given that those human hands remain under strict Party propaganda controls.

• The Political Limits of China’s AI Diffusion Ambitions: China’s ambitions to rapidly diffuse AI through its economy are constrained by concerns over employment stability, with youth unemployment at nearly 17% as of March 2026. Chinese courts have begun ruling that companies cannot fire workers simply to replace them with AI, a development that creates a practical political brake on large-scale automation.

Technological Competition & State Power

• HRIC on Twitter/X: Anthropic recently released a report on AI that reveals the core strategic logic of the current global artificial intelligence competition and totalitarian AI. This is not merely a contest over technology and commerce, but a critical watershed that will determine the future model of global governance and the baseline for basic human rights.

• The Chinese lesson on the human rights approach to AI: A human rights approach to AI must aim at rebalancing power between corporate-state actors, machines, and ordinary people through stronger participatory decision-making frameworks. China’s experience may serve as a cautionary lesson, writes Oiwan Lam.

• The rapid embrace of AI in China, its biggest testing ground, may shape how AI is used globally: More than a year after DeepSeek stunned the world, China has become a mass testing ground for AI tools, with Chinese people and businesses rapidly integrating the technology into nearly every aspect of daily life and work. With over 600 million generative AI users as of late 2025, China’s scale of adoption may set global precedents for how AI is used in consumer and enterprise contexts.

• International Tibet support groups report: The CCP is promoting its “Tibetan stability maintenance model” globally: A new International Campaign for Tibet report documents how China has used Tibet as a “foundational laboratory” for developing a sophisticated system of high-tech repression, including grid-based surveillance, preemptive policing, and mass DNA databases, that it is now packaging and exporting to foreign security forces through training programs linked to Xi’s Global Security Initiative.

• China tech giant Huawei touts new chipmaking technology to sidestep US restrictions: Huawei’s semiconductor chief announced a new chipmaking approach called the “Tau Scaling Law” that optimizes chip communication time rather than transistor density, which the company claims will allow it to produce chips equivalent to next-generation 1.4nm ones by 2031 without requiring the advanced EUV lithography machines it has been denied under US export controls.

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Min Zin, a Myanmar-born UC Berkeley PhD candidate and founder of ISP Myanmar, a research institute that has examined Chinese foreign policy and influence along the China-Myanmar border, was arrested on June 3 at Kunming airport while attending an academic conference on charges of allegedly “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security.” The arrest, which Amnesty International condemned as “extremely concerning,” came just weeks after the Trump-Xi summit and is one of the rare cases of China detaining a US citizen on national security charges, with observers noting that Min Zin’s research on Chinese rare earth trade and support for Myanmar armed factions may have drawn Beijing’s ire.

Relatedly, HRIC raised the alarm this week over the disappearance of Yiyan “Gaukas” Wang, a University of Colorado Boulder PHD student, cybersecurity researcher, and open-source contributor who specialized in internet censorship circumvention tools and was last heard from in June 2024 after traveling to China. Wang’s disappearance and possible detention two years ago may be the first case of escalation in the CCP’s crackdown on overseas Chinese students after the White Paper protests.HRIC calls on the Chinese government to disclose Wang’s whereabouts and, if relevant, ensure access to legal counsel.

In other news, June 12th marked the seventh anniversary of the 2019 protests when Hong Kong police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on peaceful protesters outside the Legislative Council for the first time during the anti-extradition law movement. Between June 2019 and February 2020, police discharged nearly 30,000 projectiles including live rounds, tear gas, and rubber bullets at protesters. To commemorate the anniversary, diaspora groups across the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan organized a global 24-hour umbrella relay, holding umbrellas in public spaces across time zones as a symbol of unity and continued resistance.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Hong Kong seeks input on its first 5-year plan in an echo of mainland China’s playbook: Hong Kong launched a public consultation on its first-ever five-year development plan, intended to run in parallel with mainland China’s 15th Five-Year Plan from 2026 to 2030, in a politically symbolic step that brings the traditionally laissez-faire financial hub significantly closer to Beijing’s centrally planned development model.

Hong Kong officials denounce ‘groundless accusations’ against nat. security subsidiary legislation: Hong Kong officials dismissed international criticism of the new Article 23 subsidiary legislation, which would allow the Chief Executive to certify any criminal offense as a national security matter, as “groundless accusations” and “interference in internal affairs,” insisting the measure merely formalizes existing legal powers and does not expand the scope of the NSL.

Why is China pushing Liang Botai as an avatar of the rule of law?: Professor Donald Clarke notes the irony of China’s Legal System Daily celebrating Liang Botai, the Chinese Soviet Republic’s chief justice and creator of China’s reform-through-labor system, as a rule-of-law role model, given that Liang’s own writings explicitly argued that courts are “a tool of class struggle,” that legal procedure should be discarded whenever it inconveniences the revolution, and that counterrevolutionaries should be shot immediately after public trial.

Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利

Chinese activist in UK told by X that abusive deepfakes do not breach rules: Apple Peiqing Ni, founder of the UK-based China Dissent Network, was inundated with bot posts on X containing AI-generated deepfake images portraying her as a drug addict and a victim of street violence after she posted about Tiananmen commemoration activities. X’s automated systems initially ruled the posts did not violate its rules, and the account was only suspended after the Guardian contacted X for comment.

“What Does ‘It’s My Duty’ Mean?” ByteDance Chatbot: “This Content is in Suspected Violation of Terms of Use.”: CDT highlighted an exchange in which ByteDance’s AI chatbot Doubao refused to explain the English phrase “It’s my duty,” a phrase from a viral BBC clip of a student cycling to Tiananmen Square in 1989, returning a “suspected violation of terms” error, illustrating how annual censorship spikes around the June 4 anniversary have now extended to Chinese AI models.

Chinese-linked hackers targeted U.S., Canadian research facilities for a year, Google says: Google’s Threat Intelligence Group disclosed that a China-linked hacking group it calls UNC6508 covertly stole data from US and Canadian academic, medical, and military research institutions for over two years from September 2023 through November 2025, targeting defense intelligence, Indo-Pacific military strategy, AI, unmanned vehicles, cyber warfare programs, and medical research.

Related: Google sues Chinese cybercrime network that used Gemini to automate scams. Google filed a federal lawsuit in New York against “Outsider Enterprise,” a China-based phishing-as-a-service cybercrime network that used Gemini AI to generate code for over 8,000 fake websites impersonating Google, YouTube, USPS, and financial institutions.

Siri AI’s Future in China Unclear Under “One Apple, Two Systems”: Apple’s AI features remain unavailable in mainland China due to its failure to meet regulatory requirements, including safety checks against 31 risk categories topped by “incitement to subvert state power,” leaving Apple lagging competitors like Baidu and ByteDance’s Doubao, with Doubao’s refusal to explain “It’s my duty” serving as a reminder of the political guardrails any AI must clear to operate in the Chinese market.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Threads experienced a sudden, large-scale account suspension wave in Taiwan this week, claiming the accounts were “under 13 years old.” This storm began brewing late Sunday night (the 14th) and fully escalated the following morning, impacting politicians, multiple mainstream media outlets, and online creators with millions of followers. The suspensions coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s birthday, leading netizens to initially suspect ulterior motives. Meta later stated that this was a technical glitch in its AI age verification system, not targeted at any specific group or individuals.

Censoring the Metaverse: The article analyzes how China’s censorship apparatus is being extended into virtual and immersive digital spaces — including VR environments, gaming metaverses, and AI-generated worlds — where authorities face the challenge of applying one-dimensional content moderation frameworks to spatially and socially complex environments where political expression, assembly, and identity can manifest in radically new forms.

US seizes 13 website domains suspected of Chinese spying: The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of 13 domains belonging to sham consulting firms that Chinese intelligence agents allegedly used to recruit current and former US government and military personnel with security clearances, one week after the Five Eyes alliance issued a similar warning about Chinese LinkedIn recruitment operations.

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for May 2026: May’s most censored topics were dominated by public anger and detailed accountability journalism surrounding the Shanxi coal mine explosion that killed 82—with deletions targeting articles naming officials, documenting falsified safety records, and questioning the State Council investigation—alongside suppression of content about convicted sexual abusers whose sentences were deemed too lenient by the public, and growing censorship of Tiananmen-related content around the June 4 anniversary.

Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压

Xiang Li on Twitter/X: U.S.-based Chinese activist Xiang Li issued a statement condemning the collective punishment of her relatives in China by the authorities. She said: “Due to my expression of opinions overseas and participation in activities protesting the Chinese Communist Party, my relatives within China have been repeatedly harassed and intimidated by Hubei State Security and Beijing State Security. Recently, Hubei State Security even froze their bank accounts, using this as leverage to force them to publicly declare a severance of familial ties with me.”

HRIC on Twitter/X: On June 14, while Kuomintang (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun was delivering a speech on cross-strait relations in Monterey Park, Los Angeles, several U.S.-based Chinese pro-democracy activists who had come to protest peacefully were subjected to violence by people at the venue. According to on-scene video and multiple eyewitnesses, some protesters who had been admitted to the hall were forcibly gagged, kicked in the head, dragged, and pinned to the ground after they rose to question the speaker and voice their dissent.

HRIC on Twitter/X: OpenAI released its latest threat report on June 10, banning two networks of ChatGPT accounts “likely originating from China” and likely from the Party. These networks used AI-generated content to both interfere in U.S. public discussions around AI and tech policy and to harass overseas dissidents such as Teacher Li.

Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会

China detains two leaders of influential underground church: Armed police stormed a Sunday service of Early Rain Covenant Church in Jiangyou, detaining preachers Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing and rounding up more than 30 congregants, including children, for interrogation. This is the latest development in an escalating pattern of raids on the Chengdu-based church whose founding pastor is already serving a nine-year sentence for inciting subversion.

China has long sought to control women’s bodies. Increasingly, they’re making their own choices: The first part of the Guardian’s four-part series on Chinese women traces how state reproductive policy swung from forced sterilizations and abortions under the one-child era to a pro-natalist regime now taxing contraceptives and restricting access to egg-freezing for single women. The article argues that this abrupt swing has produced a generation of women who, having borne the costs of state control over their bodies, are increasingly determined to make their own choices regardless of official pressure.

Related: Being a woman in China is getting harder. But in Chengdu, female-only spaces are flourishing. Part two of The Guardian’s series on Chinese women documents a quiet feminist revival in Chengdu, where women-only gyms, cafes, co-working spaces, and support networks are proliferating as women seek refuge from workplace discrimination, harassment, and the cultural pressure to marry and bear children; small but significant acts of self-determination that the state has so far tolerated while aggressively censoring organized feminist movements online.

A Bus Stop, a Strip Search, and the Story Behind the Official Line: When a woman in China tried to stop a man from smoking at a bus stop, she herself was detained and strip-searched by police. Yet, Xinhua’s official account omitted critical context that independent coverage subsequently revealed, illustrating how Xinhua’s standard reporting templates systematically conceal power dynamics and compound injustices.

Erasure and Resistance in Southern Mongolia: Drawing on a January 2026 PEN America report, this article documents how China’s cultural erasure of Inner Mongolia has moved from classroom Mandarin-only policies into the digital sphere, with nearly 89% of Mongolian-language cultural websites shut down or converted to Mandarin.

The Economic Downturn and China’s Silent Press: As China’s economic conditions worsened in 2025, the Central Propaganda Department and Cyberspace Administration progressively tightened restrictions on how media and social accounts could discuss economic hardship, creating a growing and dangerous disconnect between the lived reality of millions of Chinese citizens and the sanitized picture permitted in public discourse.

Former Hong Kong law student convicted after gov’t appeal against 2019 riot acquittal: A Hong Kong court overturned the acquittal of former law student Alice Tong and convicted her of rioting in connection with the 2019 protests.

Man jailed for 10 months after throwing ‘seditious’ leaflets from public housing flat: A Hong Kong court sentenced 55-year-old Raymond Wong to 10 months in prison for printing and tossing homemade political leaflets from his 12th-floor flat in another illustration of how Hong Kong’s sedition law is being applied to even the most solitary and low-tech acts of political dissent.

China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩

Uyghur human rights activist condemns death sentences in Bangkok bombing: A Bangkok court sentenced two Uyghurs, Adem Karadag and Yusufu Mieraili, to death for the 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing that killed 20 people, a verdict welcomed by Beijing. Rebiya Kadeer of the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation condemned the proceedings as leaving “significant questions unanswered regarding due process,” warning that Thailand’s decisions involving Uyghurs appear influenced by political and economic pressure from Beijing rather than international human rights obligations.

How China is breaking apart a people and its culture: A visual investigation, drawing on research by Adrian Zenz, concludes that China’s repression of Uyghurs has entered a new post-camp phase centered on forced labor transfer programs, mass boarding school separation of children from parents, birth prevention, and pervasive surveillance—a system Zenz describes as having caused a “dramatic tearing apart of Uyghur society” that makes supply chain due diligence increasingly impossible.

We Thought We Were Going to Learn About Journalism: Nigerian media scholar Emeka Umejei, drawing on interviews with journalists across 14 African countries for his new book, argues that China’s most effective media influence in Africa operates through co-production partnerships with local outlets rather than overt propaganda.

China’s universities cut thousands of ‘obsolete’ arts degrees in AI overhaul: Between 2021 and 2025, China’s universities revoked or suspended 12,200 undergraduate degree programs on arts, humanities, foreign languages and management while introducing 10,200 new ones heavily focused on AI, robotics, chip design, and other strategic technologies, with the overhaul affecting more than 30% of the country’s university degree offerings as Beijing races to align higher education with its industrial and military priorities.

International Responses 国际反应

China accused of ‘snubbing’ judicial review over controversial London mega-embassy: Following the UK government’s January approval of China’s plans to build its largest European diplomatic mission at Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London, opponents accused Beijing of refusing to meaningfully engage with a forthcoming judicial review brought by local residents and campaigners and treating the legal process with contempt despite security, surveillance, and community concerns raised throughout years of planning disputes.

US lists China’s BYD, Alibaba, Baidu as ‘Chinese military companies’: The Pentagon added Alibaba, BYD, and Baidu to its list of Chinese military companies, citing their ties to China’s state-owned assets commission and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. House China Committee chair John Moolenaar called for immediate stock exchange delisting and supply chain removal of all listed firms.

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