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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Click here for the original Chinese text / 中文版

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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Read the Chinese version below / 后附中文版。

NEW YORK, June 15, 2026 — Human Rights in China (HRIC) is deeply concerned about the ongoing disappearance of internet censorship researcher Yiyan Wang (also known as Gaukas Wang) and calls on the Chinese government to immediately disclose his whereabouts and current status, and to ensure his personal safety and fundamental rights.

According to publicly available information, Yiyan Wang is a cybersecurity researcher and open-source contributor who has long focused on internet censorship, firewall technologies, and censorship circumvention tools. He moved to the United States in 2018 to study at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2021, graduating summa cum laude. He subsequently continued his graduate studies at the university under the supervision of renowned internet censorship researcher Eric Wustrow.

Wang was an active member of the international open-source community. He has stated that since 2017, he has worked to develop technologies designed to help users circumvent internet censorship. On the homepage of his personal website, he prominently displays a well-known phrase from the early history of the Chinese internet:

“Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the world.” (跨越长城，走向世界)

The phrase originated from China’s first international email connection in 1987 and symbolizes the ideals of an open internet, free communication, and global connectivity. It also reflects Wang’s long-standing commitment to information freedom and an open internet.

Wang’s research focused on the Great Firewall of China, internet censorship measurement, censorship circumvention technologies, and the analysis of censorship and blocking mechanisms. Through academic collaborations and open-source projects, he has contributed to a broader understanding of how internet censorship operates and affects access to information.

According to friends and colleagues, Wang returned to China in the summer of 2024. Shortly thereafter, contact with him ceased. Since July 2024, his whereabouts have been unknown, and he has not been reachable through his usual public channels. His current situation remains unclear.

HRIC is unable to independently verify the reasons for Wang’s disappearance. However, given the Chinese government’s long record of targeting human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, scholars, and individuals working on politically sensitive issues, we are deeply concerned for his safety and well-being.

HRIC calls on:

• The Chinese government to immediately disclose Yiyan Wang’s whereabouts and legal status;

• The Chinese government or relevant authorities to permit contact with his family and legal counsel if he is being deprived of his liberty;

• The Chinese government to respect his rights to personal liberty, academic freedom, and freedom of expression;

• The international academic community, cybersecurity researchers, open-source developers, and human rights organizations to closely monitor his case;

• Anyone with information regarding Yiyan Wang’s situation or whereabouts to contact Human Rights in China so that his case can be further documented and effective international support efforts can be pursued.

Internet freedom and academic research should never be grounds for punishment. We urge the Chinese government to ensure Yiyan Wang’s safety and to provide information about his condition and whereabouts without delay.

HRIC also welcomes any information concerning Yiyan Wang, including details about his current situation, legal status, or other verifiable leads. Any such information may help clarify his circumstances and support international efforts to advocate on his behalf.

Signed,

Human Rights in China (HRIC)

June 2026

中国人权呼吁关注失联网络审查研究者王一言（Gaukas Wang）

纽约，2026年6月 — 中国人权（Human Rights in China, HRIC）对网络审查研究者王一言（Yiyan Wang，又名 Gaukas Wang）持续失联深表关切，并呼吁中国政府立即说明其下落和现状，保障其人身安全和基本权利。

根据公开资料，王一言是一位网络安全研究者和开源社区贡献者，长期从事中国互联网审查、防火墙技术以及反审查工具的研究。他于2018年前往美国，就读于科罗拉多大学博尔德分校（University of Colorado Boulder），并于2021年以最高荣誉（summa cum laude）获得电子与计算机工程学士学位。此后，他继续在该校攻读硕士和博士学位，师从网络审查研究专家 Eric Wustrow。

王一言长期活跃于国际开源社区。他曾表示，自2017年以来一直致力于开发帮助用户突破互联网审查的技术工具。在其个人主页首页，他引用了一句中国互联网发展史上的著名话语：

“Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the world.”（跨越长城，走向世界。）

这句话诞生于1987年中国与国际互联网建立首次电子邮件连接的历史时刻，象征着开放互联网、自由交流与连接世界的理想，也体现了他长期关注信息自由与开放网络的理念。

王一言的研究重点包括中国防火墙（Great Firewall）、网络审查测量、翻墙协议分析以及审查规避技术。他参与国际学术合作和开源项目，为理解互联网审查机制及其影响作出了重要贡献。

据朋友和同行反映，王一言于2024年夏季返回中国。此后不久，他与外界失去联系。自2024年7月以来，外界无法确认其行踪，也无法通过其惯常渠道与其取得联系。迄今其具体处境仍然不明。

中国人权目前无法独立核实王一言失联的原因。然而，鉴于中国政府长期以来对人权捍卫者、记者、律师、学者以及从事敏感议题研究人员的打压记录，我们对其安全状况深感担忧。

中国人权呼吁：

• 中国政府立即说明王一言的下落和法律状态；

• 如其被限制人身自由，应允许其与家属和律师联系；

• 保障其人身自由、学术研究自由和表达自由；

• 国际学术界、网络安全研究界、开源社区和人权组织持续关注王一言案件；

• 欢迎任何了解王一言近况或掌握相关信息的人士与中国人权联系，以便核实情况、推动国际社会关注并开展有效声援。

互联网自由和学术研究不应成为被惩罚的理由。我们呼吁中国政府保障王一言的人身安全，并尽快让外界获知其真实情况。

中国人权同时欢迎任何知情人士提供与王一言有关的信息，包括其近况、法律状态或其他可核实线索。任何信息都可能有助于外界了解其处境，并推动国际社会采取行动予以关注和声援。

Human Rights in China（中国人权）

2026年6月

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Last week, the 37^th anniversary of the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre was met by commemoration activities, statements, and continued repression and censorship from the CCP authorities. HRIC condemns all repression of Tiananmen commemoration activities, particularly the restrictions placed on the Tiananmen Mothers, who were prevented from mourning together at Wan’an Cemetery for the first time since 2009.

In Chongqing, this week, public anger over a case of severe animal cruelty has escalated into public gatherings and protests, with residents even calling for the enactment of a law for the protection of animals. These events have been heavily censored by the authorities.

This week’s issue includes a special section on June Fourth.

June Fourth 37th Anniversary 六四37周年

HRIC Executive Director Fengsuo Zhou Delivers Keynote at National Endowment for Democracy Commemoration of 37th Anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre: “​The struggle of 1989 has never ended. It continues to inspire generations of human rights defenders: lawyers, pastors, labor activists, journalists, democracy advocates, and the young people of the White Paper generation. Today, in dozens of cities around the world, people continue to gather for vigils and rallies.”

37th Anniversary of June 4th | Tiananmen Mother Zhang Xianling: Thank you for not forgetting to condemn the June 4th crackdown for 37 years and urging the Chinese government to face up to the historical truth: Zhang Xianling, one of the last surviving founders of the Tiananmen Mothers issued a message of gratitude to all who have continued to condemn the massacre for 37 years, renewing the group’s three core demands to the Chinese government: truth, accountability, and compensation for victims’ families.

HRIC on Twitter/X: A Chinese college student allowed HRIC to share their anonymous statement in commemoration of the 37^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. They wrote: “Remember the spirit of June Fourth; preserve the spark from our predecessors. One day, we will be able to exert our own great and small strengths to awaken this land from its long nightmare.”

HRIC on Twitter/X: Over 2000 people gathered outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in heavy rain for the annual vigil themed “Memory Beyond Borders, Resistance Without Boundaries,” observing 64 seconds of silence to mark the 37th anniversary of the crackdown. Taiwan is now widely regarded as the only place in the Chinese-speaking world where large-scale public Tiananmen commemorations can still be held.

HRIC on Twitter/X: HRIC co-hosted an event in New York to commemorate June Fourth and celebrate the book release of “NAFUS and the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement” by Wang Xing. This book’s contribution lies in its break from historical narratives focused solely on individual figures or major events. By systematically tracing the movement’s development from the perspectives of organizational building and collective action, it provides precious firsthand materials for understanding the internal logic of China’s democracy movement.

In Pictures: Foreign missions in Hong Kong mark Tiananmen crackdown with candles, social media tributes: With Hong Kong’s public commemorations banned, the US, UK, EU, Canadian, and other Western consulates lit candles on their premises and posted tribute messages on social media to mark the 37th anniversary—a quiet but visible act of defiance against the city’s political climate that drew no official response from the Hong Kong government.

No vigils: Hong Kong’s Victoria Park silent on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary: For the fourth consecutive year, a pro-China patriotic food carnival was held in Victoria Park on June 4, the same site where hundreds of thousands once gathered annually for candlelight vigils. Local media made no mention of the anniversary, with one veteran press freedom monitor noting that Hong Kong journalists “simply do not dare to touch the subject anymore.”

Tiananmen dissident lambasts China on massacre anniversary: Student protest leader Wu’er Kaixi, speaking in Tokyo on the 37th anniversary, declared that China’s democracy movement “is still there” and is sustained by hope, the same force that drove a generation to Tiananmen Square in 1989, and called on the international community to resist pressure from Beijing to forget what happened.

Hong Kong artist who tried to mark Tiananmen massacre intercepted by police: Performance artist Sanmu Chen was stopped and searched by plainclothes police within minutes of displaying a red thread 6.4 meters long — a symbolic reference to the June 4 crackdown date — near Causeway Bay, where Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigil was once held, marking the third consecutive year he has been detained during the anniversary period.

Related: Hong Kong police stop another performance artist on eve of Tiananmen crackdown anniversary. Hours after stopping Sanmu Chan with his 6.4-metre red string, Hong Kong police also stopped and searched a second performance artist, Chan Mei-tung, who had appeared in Causeway Bay holding a question mark-shaped balloon, escorting her to the nearby MTR station and instructing her to destroy it — as part of a heavy plainclothes police deployment across the anniversary’s traditional commemoration zone.

7 taken away by Hong Kong police on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary: Seven people, including former League of Social Democrats chairperson Chan Po-ying, who appeared with a yellow paper flower, were taken away by police in Causeway Bay on the anniversary, while activists who bowed in prayer, held candles, or simply sat cross-legged near the Sogo department store outside the former vigil site were also removed from the area.

Trial of Hong Kong Tiananmen activists looms over crackdown anniversary: The 37th anniversary was shadowed by the ongoing national security trial of Hong Kong Alliance leaders Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung — charged with inciting subversion for organizing Tiananmen vigils — with residents marking the day through subtle personal acts as the former Victoria Park vigil site hosted a pro-Beijing food carnival for the fourth consecutive year.

Related: Ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary, Protest Held to Call for Release of Hong Kong Activists. Hong Kong diaspora and democracy supporters held a demonstration ahead of the anniversary calling for the release of jailed Tiananmen vigil organizers Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, whose NSL trial is framed by activists as a direct effort by Beijing to permanently criminalize the memory of June 4 in Hong Kong.

HRIC on Twitter/X: On X, a Japanese used created an image using Japanese railway station names whose initial characters spelled out “June Fourth Beijing Tiananmen.” The post was later reportedly suspended after being mass reported.

Related: Sensitive Words: Search Censorship, Tiananmen, “8 Squared,” and “64 + Division”. Ahead of the 37th anniversary of the June Fourth crackdown, CDT documented an expanding list of Citizen Lab-tracked search terms censored across Chinese platforms—including oblique numerical codes like “8 squared,” “535 + 64,” and “64 + division”—with editors noting that the phrase “64 + division” in particular reflects authorities’ heightened alertness toward any content that might trigger societal polarization around the June 4 anniversary.

‘Every year I get new pictures’: the fight to preserve the memory of Tiananmen: Amid intensifying erasure efforts by Beijing, a network of diaspora archivists and international institutions is preserving a growing body of photographs, diaries, and eyewitness accounts of the massacre — including the legally contested diaries of senior CCP official Li Rui, who witnessed the crackdown from a balcony overlooking Tiananmen Square and described it as a “black weekend” of soldiers “firing randomly,” now housed at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

HRIC on Twitter/X: In an interview with RFI, young activist Jiang Bu offered a key observation: the “June Fourth” crackdown did not end in 1989, but exists as an everyday presence. From the “routine construction” on Tiananmen Square during specific periods, to live-stream sellers inadvertently triggering censorship taboos with a “tank cake,” the fear embedded in the stability-maintenance system allows this history to permeate the air like an invisible gas.

President Lai urges China to confront Tiananmen Square legacy, grant civil rights: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te issued a statement on the 37th anniversary calling on Beijing to confront the historical truth of the Tiananmen crackdown and restore the civil rights and political freedoms denied to the Chinese people, framing democratic Taiwan as a model for how Chinese society could one day reckon with its past.

US top diplomat’s Tiananmen comments ‘smear’ China, Beijing says: Beijing’s foreign ministry accused Secretary of State Rubio of “smearing” China after he issued a statement marking the 37th anniversary and condemning the crackdown, with a ministry spokesperson repeating the standard line that the Party had long ago made “a clear conclusion” on the 1989 “political incident” and that the US had no right to “point fingers.”

[Feng Xigan’s Thirteen Dimensions] Opening “Witnesses of June Fourth”: Hong Kong media commentator Feng Xigan reviewed “Witnesses of June Fourth,” a newly published collection of firsthand testimonies from survivors, journalists, and bystanders of the 1989 crackdown, describing it as an essential act of memory preservation at a moment when direct accounts are increasingly difficult to access and the living witnesses are aging.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Security law update to formalise power of Hong Kong leader to certify any criminal act as a national security case: The Hong Kong government has proposed subsidiary legislation under Article 23 granting the chief executive binding power to certify any criminal act as a national security offense—meaning that if an alternative charge exists for the same act, it too would automatically be treated as a national security offense—with the law designed to pass via negative vetting before full LegCo scrutiny.

China integrating lawfare into broader Taiwan strategy: U.S. report: A CECC report on the CCP’s transnational repression and malign influence in 2025 found that China has escalated from administrative sanctions to criminal prosecutions against Taiwan-linked figures, citing Beijing’s criminal investigation of DPP legislator Puma Shen as a prime example, as lawfare becomes a central instrument of Beijing’s cross-strait pressure campaign rather than a peripheral one.

Hong Kong competition body mulls criminalising bid-rigging after deadly Tai Po blaze: Following reports that bid-rigging syndicates corrupted the renovation project at Wang Fuk Court, where a 2025 fire killed 168 people, the Competition Commission announced plans to amend the Competition Ordinance to make bid-rigging a criminal offense carrying up to seven years’ imprisonment, replacing the current civil penalty regime.

China’s New Infant Food Safety Campaign Signals a Shift Toward Continuous Compliance: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation launched a nationwide “Growth Protection” campaign on May 29 introducing continuous, data-driven oversight of infant food manufacturers, brand owners, and distributors, shifting regulatory expectations from one-time product approvals to ongoing compliance and traceability.

China’s ODI Rules Just Changed—Here’s What It Means for Cross-Border Tech Transactions: China’s new Outbound Investment Regulations, effective July 1, 2026, integrate technology export licensing, export controls, and data transfer compliance into a single ODI review framework.

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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

HRIC on Twitter/X: On the 37th anniversary of June Fourth, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing on Capitol Hill to examine the issue of China’s transnational repression. Liu Jun, father of U.S. figure skating star Alyssa Liu, testified. At the end of 2021, he received a call from someone claiming to be an official from the U.S. Olympic Committee, demanding passport information for both father and daughter. A Chinese agent in the Bay Area had tracked his movements, installed a GPS on his car, and attempted to obtain the passports and Social Security numbers of his entire family.

Author of Home Office report on China reveals attempts to compromise him: Dr. David Wilson, author of a now-declassified Home Office-sponsored report on the Chinese state and organized crime in the UK, revealed that he was the target of multiple failed honey traps and a suspected compromise attempt by a naturalized British citizen who had been a Chinese national, interference he said began as soon as he started interviewing officials from 14 UK law enforcement agencies about CCP-linked policing challenges.

American journalist pleads guilty to acting as unregistered agent for China: Thomas Pauken II, 50, who had lived in China since 2010 and worked for Chinese state media outlets, pleaded guilty in federal court to acting as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security from 2019 to 2026, including receiving $100,000 for intelligence reports and traveling to Washington in an FBI-monitored sting operation to recruit a Trump administration-linked official.

Uyghur Advocates Highlight Transnational Repression at Oslo Freedom Forum 2026: At the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum, Rushan Abbas warned that Beijing’s repression of Uyghurs is intensifying under the new Ethnic Unity Law, highlighting the continued imprisonment of her own sister, Gulshan Abbas, as an example of China’s use of family detention as coercion.

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

Tibetan monk Jamyang Tashi of Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery detained again, fate unknown: Jamyang Tashi was detained for a second time by Sangchu County police in early February, just two months after being released from a previous six-month arbitrary detention, on suspicion of maintaining contact with Tibetans in exile. The authorities disclosed no charges and warned his family against making inquiries about his whereabouts.

US law society’s Hong Kong conference plan meets scholar resistance: The US-based Law and Society Association’s decision to hold its next annual meeting in Hong Kong has drawn significant pushback from scholars who argue that holding an academic conference on law and society in a city whose legal system now operates under national security restrictions sends the wrong signal and may compromise the safety and academic freedom of participants.

China wants to suppress independent cinema. But young film-makers are undaunted by red lines: While seasoned Chinese directors describe a suffocating censorship regime that has crushed the country’s once-lively independent film festival scene and requires a government “dragon seal” even to submit films abroad, a new generation of young filmmakers attending underground workshops remains undaunted, even though their mentors warn that the moment they attempt a feature film, censorship will become their nightmare.

Hong Kong’s LGBTQ community ponders future of Pride events after Pink Dot’s second cancellation: After Pink Dot was canceled for the second consecutive year when its venue backed out citing unexplained “licensing issues,” Hong Kong’s LGBTQ community is confronting a broader question about whether large-scale outdoor Pride events have any viable future in the city, given that a gay-themed play, an outdoor Pride committee event, and multiple venue applications have also been blocked or denied in the past year.

The daughters who were raised to be everything under China’s one-child policy: The essay blends personal reflection with peer testimonies to explore the distinctive psychology of only daughters raised under China’s One-Child Policy. This generation received levels of parental investment once reserved for sons, yet also inherited the weight of being the sole object of family attention, expectation, and control, creating a tension between emotional abundance and emotional scarcity that now defines their adult relationships.

A brief history of anonymously scattered leaflets: HKFP columnist Tim Hamlett uses the prosecution of a 55-year-old public housing resident charged with throwing homemade political leaflets from his 12th-floor flat to draw a pointed parallel with Cold War-era anti-communist pamphlet-scattering cases, reflecting on how the act of anonymous dissent, once treated as a sign of democratic vitality, has now been recriminalized in Hong Kong.

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

Human rights and religious freedom in Tibet worsening: TCHRD 2025 annual report: The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy launched its 2025 Annual Report alongside a 13-year Religious Freedom Report at a press conference in Dharamshala, describing 2025 as a year of intensified political and ideological control over Tibet. The report documents the mass arrests of Tibetans opposing mining and infrastructure projects, the extrajudicial killing of Tibetan religious leader Tulku Hungkar Dorje in Vietnam during a joint Chinese-Vietnamese operation, and an expanding campaign of transnational repression targeting Tibetan activists and religious figures abroad.

Related: 2025 Annual Report on the Human Rights Situation in Tibet. Tibet received a Global Freedom Score of zero out of 100 for the third consecutive year from Freedom House. Notably, new monastery regulations enforced from January 2025 require religious institutions to formally support CCP leadership as a condition of operation.

China exporting its surveillance state to others to help entrench their power: China has held nearly 900 police-training sessions for at least 138 countries since 2000, embedded officers in police forces in Africa and the Pacific, and supplied surveillance infrastructure across Southeast Asia and Latin America. The Chinese surveillance model appeals to authoritarian and weak democratic governments seeking to entrench their hold on power while suppressing dissent.

China bans New Zealand lawmakers over Taiwan trip: In China’s first-ever travel ban imposed on New Zealand parliamentarians, Beijing barred four cross-party MPs who had met Taiwan’s Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim in May from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau for one year, and demanded they apologize, a demand all four publicly refused.

New Research Warns Chinese Trade Network Could Undermine Uyghur Forced Labor Law: A Jamestown Foundation study warns that an expanding network of Chinese-controlled digital trade platforms and logistics systems is restricting US authorities and investigators from accessing the supply chain data needed to enforce the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, creating a growing documentation gap that allows goods linked to forced labor to enter the US market while Beijing’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law provides a potential legal mechanism to block information from reaching Customs and Border Protection.

The head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee demanded that Tibetan studies serve political goals and emphasized enhancing the CPC’s international discourse power on Tibet: United Front Work Department head Li Ganjie visited China’s largest Tibetan studies institution and directed Tibetologists to “strengthen theoretical guidance” and treat their scholarship as an instrument for “enhancing China’s international discourse power on Tibet-related matters.”

International Responses 国际反应

Lawmakers pass resolution condemning China’s obstruction of Lai Eswatini trip: Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan unanimously passed a resolution condemning Beijing’s alleged coercion of Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar into revoking overflight permits for President Lai’s April state visit to Eswatini, a trip Lai ultimately completed by secretly boarding King Mswati III’s personal aircraft.

New prime minister says Solomon Islands will review its secretive security treaty with China: Solomon Islands’ new Prime Minister Matthew Wale announced during his first overseas trip to Canberra that his government would review the 2022 security treaty with Beijing, while simultaneously agreeing to pursue an upgraded comprehensive strategic treaty with Australia.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Florida U.S. Senator Rick Scott and Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles have jointly introduced the “Tiananmen Square Memorial Act of 2026,” which proposes officially renaming a segment of the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. to “Tiananmen Square Memorial Boulevard.”

Parliamentarians from the three Baltic states issued a joint statement condemning the Chinese Communist Party on the Tibet issue: Parliamentarians from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania issued a joint statement condemning China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and its broader repression in Tibet, calling on Beijing to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s envoys, release all Tibetan political prisoners, and allow independent international observers access to the region.

French lawmakers called on Macron to express concern about the Chinese Communist Party’s use of the “Law on the Promotion of National Unity and Progress” to suppress Tibetans: A cross-party group of French National Assembly members called on President Macron to formally raise the CCP’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law with Beijing, warning that the legislation represents a significant escalation in China’s legal campaign to erase Tibetan identity, and calling on France to press for EU sanctions against officials responsible for its drafting and implementation.

Companion House Bill asks US to investigate China’s crime-against-humanity atrocities in Tibet: Bipartisan House sponsors Chris Smith and Tom Suozzi introduced a companion to the Senate’s Tibet Atrocities Determination Act, requiring the Secretary of State to submit a formal report to Congress within one year assessing whether China’s actions in Tibet constitute genocide or crimes against humanity, including documentation of atrocities, analysis of Sinicization policies, and specific recommendations for sanctions, visa restrictions, and diplomatic responses.

Republicans probe China’s influence in data center opposition: Three House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel and Trump’s science advisors citing “strong evidence” that China-linked entities are conducting coordinated influence campaigns to fuel grassroots American opposition to AI data center construction, requesting a briefing by June 18 as state-level moratoriums and community protests threaten to slow US AI infrastructure development.

Trump keeps the door open to a call with Taiwan’s president even though China has warned against it: Trump told reporters that he would “always talk” to Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te despite Beijing publicly urging him not to engage directly with Taipei’s leader. Analysts suggest the ambiguity may give Trump room to announce a $14 billion arms sale while managing Beijing blowback.

Taiwan coast guard says deploys vessels in response to China operation: Taiwan’s coast guard deployed vessels to “respond appropriately” to a Chinese law enforcement operation in waters east of the island, which Taipei declared a violation of international law.

ASEAN’s U.S.-China Balancing Act Is Getting Much Harder: ASEAN economies face a worsening squeeze between two opposing forces: the Trump administration’s tariff and economic security agenda, which has targeted Southeast Asian nations for allegedly serving as China export proxies, and a surge of Chinese industrial overcapacity whose exports to ASEAN rose 19 percent in early 2026.

France hits Shein with 22 million euros in new fines over consumer violations: France’s consumer protection watchdog DGCCRF imposed two fines totaling over €22 million on Shein for failures in product traceability, environmental labeling, microplastics disclosure, and consumer return rights, bringing total penalties levied by French authorities against the fast-fashion platform to over €210 million within roughly a year.

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I. Hong Kong and Mainland China: Commemorative Space Continues to Shrink

Hong Kong: Even Symbolic Objects Become “Risks”

On June 4, Hong Kong police deployed heavily around Causeway Bay. Police later stated that seven individuals—five men and two women between the ages of 17 and 79—were taken away for investigation on suspicion of engaging in conduct that could disrupt public order. They were later released.

Those taken away were involved in different forms of symbolic expression. Former League of Social Democrats chairperson Chan Po-ying appeared outside Victoria Park holding a yellow paper flower. Police ordered her to put away the flower before escorting her into a police vehicle. A young man dressed in black stood outside the Sogo department store wearing an eye patch and writing on his arm with a red marker; he was also taken away. Another individual holding a candle while sitting outside Sogo was similarly stopped and searched.

On the eve of June 4, performance artist Sam Muk carried a 6.4-meter-long red rope in Causeway Bay and attempted to tie it to a street sign pole before being stopped and searched by plainclothes officers. Artist Chan Mei-tung appeared carrying a question-mark-shaped balloon and was also stopped, searched, and required to show identification.

Question marks, red ropes, yellow flowers, and candles—ordinary symbolic objects—became subjects of police intervention on Hong Kong streets.

A larger shadow continues to come from the courts. Former Hong Kong Alliance vice-chair Chow Hang-tung and former chair Lee Cheuk-yan remain on trial in the national security case involving alleged incitement to subvert state power. Former chair Albert Ho previously pleaded guilty.

For decades, the Hong Kong Alliance organized the annual Victoria Park June Fourth candlelight vigil. Today, the organization has been dissolved, its museum closed, and many of its leading members face prosecution or imprisonment. From prison, Chow Hang-tung continues to speak publicly. Before this year’s anniversary, she announced a 37-hour hunger strike to commemorate the 37th anniversary of June Fourth.

Victoria Park itself hosted the “Fourth Hometown Community Carnival” this year. Organized jointly by thirty provincial hometown associations, the event ran for five days beginning on June 3. The site where hundreds of thousands once gathered in candlelight is now occupied by food stalls, commercial activities, and security checkpoints.

Mainland China: Families of Victims Barred from Mourning

Authorities significantly intensified restrictions on victims’ families this year.

Members of the Tiananmen Mothers reported that Beijing police informed them they would not be permitted to visit Wan’an Cemetery on June 4 to mourn relatives killed during the 1989 crackdown. They were also prohibited from holding customary memorial ceremonies, reading commemorative statements, or publishing photographs of memorial activities.

Although the Tiananmen Mothers have long lived under police surveillance, members stated that this was the first time they had been prohibited from visiting the cemetery itself on June 4.

Tiananmen Mothers representative Zhang Xianling reported noticing a visible increase in police presence around her residence beginning in late April. Her movements and contacts with foreign media were restricted. In her statement marking the 37th anniversary, she again thanked all those who have not forgotten and reiterated the group’s long-standing appeal: “Speak the truth, refuse to forget, seek justice, and call upon conscience.”

Earlier this year, authorities also prevented the Tiananmen Mothers from holding their traditional Lunar New Year gathering.

Around the anniversary, dissidents, rights defenders, former China Democracy Party members, and veterans of the 1989 movement across mainland China were subjected to increased surveillance. Reports emerged from Beijing, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guizhou, and other regions of state security personnel conducting home visits, maintaining surveillance, restricting travel, or requiring activists to leave their homes temporarily.

In Zhejiang, former political prisoners Xu Guang, Chen Shuqing, Mao Qingxiang, and Lü Gengsong were reportedly designated as key targets for “stability maintenance.” In Shanghai and Chengdu, some activists were informed that restrictions on their movements would not be lifted until after June 5.

Security around Tiananmen Square was also visibly tightened. Observers reported increased police deployment, the reappearance of security personnel stationed on pedestrian bridges, and additional patrols on Beijing Subway Line 1.

Zhang Chao Detained After Commemorating June Fourth

According to rights groups, Shandong activist Zhang Chao, whose Buddhist name is Shi Daoguo, traveled alone to Tiananmen Square on June 4. Standing outside the barriers surrounding the square, he took photographs and posted a commemorative poem on social media. The post was quickly removed.

In the early hours of June 5, state security officers escorted Zhang from Beijing back to Zaozhuang, Shandong Province. He was subsequently placed under criminal detention and is currently being held at Zaozhuang No. 1 Detention Center.

Born in 1970, Zhang became involved in rights advocacy while working in Beijing. In 2014, he was detained for 37 days after warning fellow activists of police operations. Later, after becoming a Buddhist monk and adopting the name Shi Daoguo, he continued to promote democratic values and assist fellow dissidents. In 2019, he was again criminally detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

Anonymous Graffiti Appears in Multiple Locations

Despite extensive controls, anonymous graffiti commemorating June Fourth appeared in several locations in China.

One image circulated by the online account “Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher” showed the phrase:

“It’s my duty.”

The phrase echoes a BBC interview conducted during the 1989 movement in which a Beijing resident explained why he was heading toward Tiananmen Square despite the risks.

Another image reportedly showed graffiti in a public restroom reading:

“1989.6.4. Never forget June Fourth.

May the truth never be forgotten.
May freedom and conscience continue to burn
in the hearts of all who remember.

May the flower of democracy we long for
bloom across every corner of China in the near future.”

These anonymous acts were small in scale, but they reflected the continued presence of public remembrance under conditions of extensive surveillance.

II. Digital Censorship: The More Absurd the Restrictions, the More Visible the Memory

Around every June 4 anniversary, China’s censorship apparatus enters a heightened state of operation. On the 37th anniversary, controls expanded further, extending beyond references to Tiananmen itself to include ordinary numbers, dates, song titles, promotional slogans, and even virtual candles in online games.

Platform Restrictions

Before June 4, authorities implemented precautionary controls across multiple platforms. Users reported that QQ, WeChat, Pinduoduo, Douyin, and other services temporarily suspended profile-editing functions. Baidu Netdisk reportedly suspended file-sharing functions.

Terms such as “1989,” “June Fourth,” and “Tank Man” continued to be subject to censorship.

Numbers and Dates Become Sensitive

This year, June 4 fell on a Thursday. After internet users began associating KFC’s popular “Crazy Thursday” promotion with June Fourth commemoration, reports circulated that related content was subject to restrictions.

Some users also noted that June 6 became sensitive because several platform functions were scheduled to resume operation on that date.

Online anecdotes circulated describing unusual censorship involving numbers associated with June Fourth. One user claimed that when three people split a restaurant bill of 192 yuan equally, a transfer of 64 yuan through WeChat could not be completed. Another reported that a social media post mentioning a 6.4-kilometer run was deleted or suppressed.

Music, Games, and Cultural Content

Other indirect references also reportedly faced restrictions.

Users reported that Sodagreen’s song This Day was removed or restricted around June 4. On QQ Music, sharing functions for Taylor Swift’s album 1989 reportedly became unavailable because the album title contained a politically sensitive year.

Players of the social game Sky: Children of the Light also reported restrictions affecting some features around the anniversary period. The game’s candle imagery prompted online discussion that “even candles are being censored.”

Foreign Embassy Posts Removed

On June 4, the British Embassy in Beijing posted a sixteen-second commemorative video on Weibo featuring footage of Tank Man accompanied by the melody of The Internationale. The post was quickly removed, and the embassy’s account reportedly faced restrictions.

Commemorative posts by the German and Canadian embassies also reportedly encountered deletion, comment restrictions, or reduced visibility.

The removal of these posts highlighted the extent to which June Fourth remains a politically sensitive subject on Chinese social media platforms.

A title recorded by China Digital Times summarized the situation: even screenshots of censorship notices could become impossible to share. The result is a recurring paradox of June Fourth remembrance online: the more authorities attempt to erase memory, the more visible the mechanisms of censorship become.

III. Global Commemorations: At Least 45 Cities Worldwide

According to available information, commemorative activities marking the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre took place in at least 45 cities worldwide.

Global List of Commemorative Cities

Taiwan: Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung

United States: Washington, D.C.; New York; Boston; Atlanta; San Francisco; Los Angeles

Canada: Toronto; Vancouver; Calgary; Montreal; Halifax

United Kingdom: London; Birmingham; Manchester; Leeds; Sheffield; Nottingham; Newcastle; Reading; Warrington; Sutton; Wokingham; Maidstone; Glasgow; Edinburgh; Cardiff

Australia: Sydney; Melbourne; Brisbane; Perth; Adelaide

Germany: Berlin; Düsseldorf; Frankfurt; Munich; Stuttgart

France: Paris

Netherlands: Amsterdam; The Hague

Belgium: Brussels

Japan: Tokyo

New Zealand: Auckland

Taiwan: One of the Main Public Sites of Commemoration in the Chinese-Speaking World

A large commemorative gathering was held at Liberty Square in Taipei under the theme “Memory Knows No Borders, Resistance Has No Boundaries.”

Despite heavy rain, hundreds attended. Participants held electronic candles and observed sixty-four seconds of silence in memory of those killed in 1989.

The event incorporated elements associated with Hong Kong’s former Victoria Park vigil and included expressions of solidarity with imprisoned Hong Kong activists Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho.

Commemorative activities were also held in Taichung and Kaohsiung.

Taiwan is now widely regarded as one of the few places in the Chinese-speaking world where large-scale public commemoration of June Fourth remains possible.

One participant from Hong Kong, identified by the pseudonym “Flower,” said she valued the opportunity to commemorate June Fourth in Taiwan because such public remembrance was no longer possible in Hong Kong.

North America: Official Statements and Public Vigils

The United States government issued several statements marking the anniversary.

On June 3, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement commemorating the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre and stated that censorship could not erase historical memory. U.S. diplomatic missions in China also shared related messages through social media platforms.

On June 4, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing focused on transnational repression by the Chinese government and responses at the state level.

The same day, CECC Co-Chairs Senator Dan Sullivan and Representative Chris Smith issued a joint statement calling for an end to censorship surrounding June Fourth and for the release of individuals imprisoned for peaceful acts of commemoration.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party also hosted a commemorative event on Capitol Hill attended by Chairman John Moolenaar, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, Representative Jill Tokuda, and others.

On May 31, the June Fourth Museum in Los Angeles was vandalized. Exhibits were damaged with orange-red paint. Police opened an investigation and organizers stated that all planned commemorative activities would proceed as scheduled.

On June 2, Human Rights in China (HRIC) and the NAFUS Alumni Association jointly organized a symposium in New York marking the 37th anniversary of the 1989 Democracy Movement and the publication of a new book titled NAFUS and the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement. The event was supported by New York University’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute. Participants included former student leaders, scholars, and activists. Discussions focused on the organizational history of the student movement, experiences of imprisonment after June Fourth, and the role of civic organizations in future democratic development.

On June 3, the National Endowment for Democracy hosted “Echoes of Tiananmen: Memory, Resistance, and the Fight for Freedom.” Human Rights in China Executive Director and former Tiananmen student leader Fengsuo Zhou delivered a keynote address reflecting on the events of June 1989 and the continuing importance of preserving historical memory despite censorship and repression. Zhou also highlighted the role of political prisoners, independent media, and diaspora communities in preserving the legacy of June Fourth.

On June 4, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation held a candlelight vigil in Washington and presented its 2026 Dissident Human Rights Award to Hong Kong advocate Frances Hui.

Commemorative activities also took place in New York, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Canada

In Canada, Toronto held a June Fourth memorial concert and candlelight vigil at Mel Lastman Square in North York. Organizers reported that more than 400 people attended, with approximately 1,000 participants throughout the evening.

Speakers included Fengsuo Zhou, Cheuk Kwan, and former Senator Consiglio Di Nino. Messages from imprisoned Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung and Tiananmen Mothers representative Zhang Xianling were also presented.

In Vancouver, the Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement organized a series of commemorative activities between May 31 and June 4. A candlelight vigil held at David Lam Park on June 4 attracted an estimated 500 to 700 participants.

Commemorative activities also took place in Calgary, Montreal, and Halifax.

Europe: Overseas Hong Kong Communities Continue the Victoria Park Tradition

The United Kingdom hosted one of the largest numbers of commemorative events this year, with activities taking place in fifteen cities and regions, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Reading, Warrington, Sutton, Wokingham, Maidstone, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

In London, hundreds gathered outside the Chinese Embassy for a candlelight vigil. Participants arranged candles in the shape of “8964,” sang Freedom Flower, and called for the release of political prisoners.

Birmingham’s Chinatown also hosted commemorative activities.

More than 200 people attended a June Fourth vigil in Reading. Fourteen Members of Parliament and local elected officials expressed support through attendance, speeches, or recorded messages.

Approximately 400 people participated in a commemorative gathering in Sutton. Former Hong Kong legislators and local elected officials also attended.

Additional vigils, rallies, and commemorative activities were held in Sheffield, Warrington, Maidstone, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Leeds.

Many of these events were organized by overseas Hong Kong communities. In addition to commemorating those killed in 1989, participants highlighted the imprisonment of Chow Hang-tung and other Hong Kong activists and discussed the closure of public commemorative space in Hong Kong.

Elsewhere in Europe, Brussels served as a venue for an international online commemorative forum. Human rights organizations and labor groups also delivered petitions calling for the release of Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung.

Commemorations were also held in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Paris, Amsterdam, and The Hague.

Australia, Japan, and New Zealand

Commemorative activities were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

According to SBS Chinese, former Chinese state media journalist Cheng Lei participated in commemorative activities in Melbourne. Participants emphasized the importance of preserving memory overseas as public commemoration has become impossible in Hong Kong.

In Tokyo, memorial events, candlelight vigils, and photo exhibitions were held at Waseda Hoshien. Former student leader Wuer Kaixi held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, calling on Japan to serve as a democratic stronghold in Asia and to abandon policies of accommodation toward the Chinese Communist Party.

Auckland also hosted commemorative activities.

IV. Forms of Commemoration: From Candlelight Vigils to Projections, Archives, and Historical Footage

Commemorative activities this year extended beyond traditional candlelight vigils.

“It’s My Duty” Projection Campaigns

Projection campaigns under the slogan “It’s My Duty” took place in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Munich, and Sydney.

Images and messages related to June Fourth were projected onto public buildings and locations near Chinese diplomatic facilities.

The slogan originates from a BBC interview conducted during the 1989 Democracy Movement, in which a Beijing resident explained why he was heading toward Tiananmen Square despite the danger by saying: “It’s my duty.”

Online Historical Exhibitions

Human Rights in China, Humanitarian China, and “Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher” jointly launched the online exhibition series “June Fourth Images You Have Never Seen.”

The exhibition featured historical photographs documenting June Fourth-related events in Hangzhou, overseas student solidarity activities, and other aspects of the 1989 Democracy Movement.

According to organizers, the project consisted of 31 social media posts and generated more than 15 million views.

Newly Released Historical Footage

Britain’s Independent Television News archive released approximately ninety minutes of restored footage secretly filmed in Beijing after the military crackdown in June 1989.

The footage documents conditions in Beijing following the clearing of Tiananmen Square and supplements previously released archival material made public in 2025.

Newly Released Photographic Archives

The Epoch Times published more than 2,000 previously unreleased photographs reportedly taken by an official photographer who witnessed the events of 1989.

The images had remained unpublished for 37 years and provide additional visual documentation of the protests and subsequent crackdown.

Other Commemorative Activities

A Japanese user on X attracted attention by creating an image using Japanese railway station names whose initial characters spelled out “June Fourth Beijing Tiananmen.” The post was later reportedly suspended after being mass reported.

Anonymous commemorative graffiti and messages also appeared in several locations inside China.

Conclusion: Memory Continues

Thirty-seven years after the Tiananmen Massacre, restrictions on public commemoration remain in place in mainland China and Hong Kong.

This year, members of the Tiananmen Mothers were prevented from conducting collective memorial activities at Wan’an Cemetery. In Hong Kong, multiple individuals were stopped, searched, or detained for symbolic acts of remembrance. Across mainland China, dissidents and former political prisoners faced heightened surveillance and movement restrictions. Online censorship extended beyond direct references to June Fourth to encompass a wider range of dates, numbers, symbols, and cultural content.

At the same time, commemorative activities took place in at least 45 cities around the world, including Taipei, London, Berlin, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, and Auckland.

Commemorations took the form of candlelight vigils, public forums, exhibitions, projection campaigns, archival releases, historical footage, and online initiatives. New photographs, video recordings, and historical materials also became publicly available.

The 37th anniversary demonstrated two parallel developments: continued efforts by authorities to suppress public remembrance, and the continued preservation and transmission of memory through international, digital, and community-based forms of commemoration.

Thirty-seven years later, despite increasing censorship, repression, and the shrinking space for public commemoration, the memory of June Fourth continues to endure—carried forward by survivors, families of victims, civil society, and new generations around the world and across cyberspace.

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一、香港与大陆：纪念空间被极限压缩

香港：草木皆兵，象征物也成“风险”

今年六四，香港警方在铜锣湾一带重兵部署。警方其后称，共有七人因涉嫌作出“扰乱秩序行为”被带走调查，包括五男两女，年龄介乎17至79岁，之后获准离开。被带走者的情形各不相同：社民连前主席陈宝莹手持一朵黄色纸花现身维园外，被警方要求收起花朵后带上警车；一名黑衣青年在崇光百货外戴上眼罩、用红笔在手臂上书写，也被警车带走；另有人手持蜡烛、盘腿坐于崇光百货外，同样遭截查。

六四前夕，行为艺术家三木在铜锣湾手持一段6.4米长红绳，试图将红绳系于路牌柱，随即被便衣警员截停搜查。艺术家陈美彤携带问号形状气球现身，也被警员截查、搜袋并检查身份证。问号、红绳、黄花、蜡烛，这些本来极小的象征物，在香港街头都成了需要被处理的对象。

更大的阴影来自法庭。支联会前副主席邹幸彤、前主席李卓人仍在“煽动颠覆国家政权”案中受审；前主席何俊仁早前已承认控罪。支联会曾多年主办维园六四烛光晚会，如今组织解散、纪念馆关闭，主要成员身陷审判。邹幸彤在狱中仍持续发声，今年六四前夕其亦宣布绝食37小时纪念六四37周年。

维多利亚公园今年举办的是“第四届同乡社团家乡市集嘉年华”。活动自6月3日起一连五日举行，由三十个省级同乡社团联合主办。昔日数十万人点亮烛光的场地，如今被美食、市集与安检取代，成为香港公共记忆转向的最鲜明场景。

大陆：禁止难属祭奠，全面监控民运人士

今年当局对六四难属的管控力度显著升级。天安门母亲成员表示，北京公安通知他们不得在6月4日当天前往万安公墓祭奠遇难亲人，也不得举行惯常的悼念仪式、宣读祭文或发布悼念照片。过去三十多年，天安门母亲虽然长期处于警方监控之下，但今年是她们首次在六四当天被禁止前往公墓。

天安门母亲成员张先玲表示，她自4月底起就发现住处周边警力和车辆明显增加，外出和接触外媒均受限制。她在六四37周年讲话中再次感谢所有没有忘记的人，并重申“说出真相、拒绝遗忘、寻求正义、呼唤良知”的诉求。此前，天安门母亲一年一度的新春聚会在2026年首次遭政府阻止。

六四前后，中国大陆多地异议人士、维权人士、前中国民主党成员和民运人士也普遍遭到严密监控。北京、浙江、湖南、贵州等地均传出国保提前上门、站岗、跟随、限制外出或要求“被旅游”的情况。浙江方面，刚出狱的六四学运参与者徐光、去年出狱的陈树庆，以及毛庆祥、吕耿松等人被列为重点维稳对象。上海、成都等地亦有维权人士被告知6月5日后才能恢复正常外出。

在北京，天安门广场及周边区域警力明显加强。媒体观察到部分天桥再现“看桥员”，地铁一号线列车上亦有乘务管理人员机动巡逻。

尽管如此，在严密管控之下，今年大陆仍出现了许多勇敢的纪念痕迹：

孤勇者张超：赴天安门悼念后遭刑拘

据维权网消息，山东枣庄维权人士张超，法名释道果，于6月4日只身前往天安门广场栅栏外围拍照，并附诗悼念发至朋友圈，帖子不久即遭封删。6月5日凌晨，枣庄国保带队将其从北京带离。目前已确认张超被山东枣庄市公安局山亭分局刑事拘留，关押于枣庄市第一看守所。

张超1970年生，早年在北京务工期间走上维权之路，多年从事网络民主理念传播。2014年，他曾因向在京维权人士发送搜捕预警信息被关押37天。此后他剃度出家，法名释道果，云游各地修行研习佛学，却仍坚持网络启蒙与救助落难同道，以致每有落脚寺庙即遭驱逐。2019年7月，他亦曾以“寻衅滋事”为由遭山亭分局刑事拘留。

多地出现纪念六四匿名涂鸦

今年六四前后，中国多地出现纪念八九六四的匿名涂鸦。

“李老师不是你老师”发布的一张北京街头涂鸦图片显示，墙上写着“It’s my duty”。这句话呼应1989年BBC采访中一位北京市民面对危险仍前往天安门广场的回答，也与今年海外“It’s My Duty”投影行动形成遥相呼应。

据“墙国蛙哈哈”发布的推文，今年六四当天，中国某地公共厕所内也出现纪念六四的涂鸦，墙面上写着：

1989.6.4. 毋忘六四

愿真相不被遗忘 愿自由与良知

在每个记得的人心中继续燃烧

愿我们期冀的民主之花，在不久后的将来

开遍华夏的每一个角落

这类匿名书写并不宏大，但却正说明在严密监控之下，仍有民众选择勇敢，选择真实。

二、网络封禁：审查越荒诞，记忆越显眼

每到六四前后，中共审查机器都会进入高度敏感状态。今年37周年，这套系统的运转更加泛化，连普通数字、日期、歌曲名、促销梗和游戏蜡烛都可能被卷入。

六四前，当局抢先对多个平台实施“系统维护”式管控。QQ、微信、拼多多、抖音等平台暂停个人资料修改功能；百度网盘一度暂停资源分享。敏感词清单继续覆盖“1989”“坦克”“六四”等词。今年格外荒诞的是，因六四恰逢星期四，原本只是肯德基促销活动的“疯狂星期四”被网民赋予纪念意味后，也被传遭平台限制。连“6月6日”这样的未来日期，也因平台功能恢复时间而被当局视为敏感表达。

网传案例中，有网友称三人饭局共花192元，AA制每人64元时，微信转账无法完成；也有网友称只是分享“今天跑了6.4公里”便遭删帖或限流。

其他隐晦表达同样遭殃。网友称苏打绿歌曲《这天》在六四当天被批量清除或限制；QQ音乐中泰勒·斯威夫特专辑《1989》无法分享，仅因专辑名包含“敏感年份”。社交游戏《光·遇》因蜡烛意象也被玩家关注，部分功能在敏感日前后暂停，被形容为“连蜡烛都要审查”。

英国驻华大使馆在六四当天于微博发布一段16秒纪念短片，内容包括“坦克人”影像和《国际歌》旋律，帖文很快被删除、帐号功能遭限制。德国、加拿大等国驻华使馆发布的六四纪念内容，也遭遇删帖、禁评或限流。连外交机构都无法在中国社交平台上保留六四记忆，普通网民处境更不言自明。

中国数字时代记录到一篇被删文章的标题，将今年审查荒诞浓缩成一句话：连封禁通知截图都可能发不出去。这正是六四网络纪念的悖论：官方越是试图抹去，网友越能从被抹去的痕迹里看见历史。

三、全球纪念：至少45个城市

今年海外纪念规模达到近年高点，据不完全统计，全球至少有45个城市举办了六四纪念活动：

全球纪念城市列表

| 国家地区 | 城市|

| 台湾 | 台北、台中、高雄 |

| 美国 | 华盛顿特区、纽约、波士顿、亚特兰大、旧金山、洛杉矶 |

| 加拿大 | 多伦多、温哥华、卡尔加里、蒙特利尔、哈利法克斯 |

| 英国 | 伦敦、伯明翰、曼彻斯特、利兹、谢菲尔德、诺丁汉、纽卡斯尔、雷丁、沃灵顿、萨顿、沃金厄姆、肯特郡梅德斯通、格拉斯哥、爱丁堡、卡迪夫 |

| 澳大利亚 | 悉尼、墨尔本、布里斯班、珀斯、阿德莱德 |

| 德国 | 柏林、杜塞尔多夫、法兰克福、慕尼黑、斯图加特 |

| 法国 | 巴黎 |

| 荷兰 | 阿姆斯特丹、海牙 |

| 比利时 | 布鲁塞尔 |

| 日本 | 东京 |

| 新西兰 | 奥克兰 |

台湾：华语世界公开纪念的重要现场

台北自由广场今年举行大型纪念晚会，主题为“记忆无国界，抵抗无边境”。大雨滂沱下，仍有数百人到场，参与者手持电子蜡烛，并以64秒默哀悼念遇难者。活动现场也加入昔日香港维园六四晚会元素，声援李卓人、邹幸彤、何俊仁等因守护六四记忆而遭打压的人。台中、高雄亦列入今年台湾相关纪念节点。

台湾如今被普遍视为华语世界仍能公开举行大规模六四纪念的主要地方。来自香港、化名“Flower”的与会者表示，她珍视能在台湾悼念六四的机会，因为这在她的故乡香港已不再可能。

北美：官方表态与民间烛光并行

美国官方今年表态密集。6月3日，美国国务卿卢比奥以国务院新闻声明形式纪念六四37周年，强调“无论多少审查都无法抹掉过去”。美国驻华使领馆账号也转发相关表述，使这一声明直接进入中国社交平台语境。

国会层面至少有两项重要行动。其一，美国国会及行政当局中国委员会于6月4日举行听证会，主题聚焦中共跨国镇压及美国州级应对。其二，委员会主席参议员Dan Sullivan与共同主席众议员Chris Smith发表联合声明，呼吁结束中共对六四历史的审查与否认，并释放因和平纪念而被囚的香港人士。

美国众议院中国问题特别委员会同日也在国会山举行纪念活动，主席John Moolenaar、民主党议员Raja Krishnamoorthi、Jill Tokuda，以及流亡异议人士Arthur Liu等出席发言。

民间方面，在中共极力跨国镇压下悼念活动不断。5月31日，洛杉矶六四纪念馆遭人闯入破坏，珍贵展品被喷橘红油漆损毁，警方已以仇恨犯罪立案。馆长王丹谴责这是跨国镇压的又一例证，并表示所有纪念活动如期举行：”风雨再大，我们也会挺住！”

6月2日，中国人权（HRIC）与外高联同学研究会（NAFUS）在纽约联合举办八九民运37周年研讨会暨《外高联与八九中国民运》新书发布会，纽约大学美亚法律研究所（USALI）提供支持。中国人权执行主任周锋锁致辞，强调保存历史真相、传承公民精神的意义。新书作者王醒为时任外高联副主席兼秘书长、天安门广场临时指挥部秘书长，哥伦比亚大学黎安友（Andrew J. Nathan）教授作序，王丹发来贺信。该书突破以个体人物或重大事件为中心的传统叙事，从学生自治组织的形成、协作与运作切入，系统重建八九民运的历史脉络。郑旭光、王军涛、胡平、王超华、赵常青、赵昕等亲历者与学者出席研讨，回顾不同学生组织的协同合作及六四后的牢狱与抗争，共同思考：未来的民主转型不仅需要勇敢的个体，更需要成熟而有韧性的公民社会。

6月3日，在国家民主基金会（NED）举办的“Echoes of Tiananmen: Memory, Resistance, and the Fight for Freedom”六四37周年纪念会上，八九六四亲历者、中国人权执行主任周锋锁把六四放回一个仍在延续的现实脉络中：中共至今不仅拒绝承认屠杀真相，还在国内外持续压制异见、审查记忆、试图抹去历史；但正因如此，纪念六四本身已经成为抵抗的一部分。他强调，六四不是过去完成时，而是中国人争取自由、民主和尊严的未竟之路；从天安门母亲的坚持、香港人守护维园烛光，到海外华人、藏人、维吾尔人和其他受压迫群体的共同发声，记忆正在跨越地域与世代，转化为继续追求真相、问责与民主中国的行动。

6月4日，共产主义受难者纪念基金会在华盛顿共产主义受难者纪念碑旁举行烛光晚会，并将2026年“异议人士人权奖”颁给香港倡议者许颖婷。她在致辞中将荣誉献给1989年站在天安门广场的人、香港狱中的抗争者，以及所有仍在极权压迫下坚持记忆的人。

美国其他城市也有纪念行动。华盛顿特区、纽约、波士顿、亚特兰大、旧金山和洛杉矶均列入完整名单。纽约有游行、集会和投影活动；洛杉矶则有六四纪念馆、领馆外集会与投影。

加拿大方面，多伦多在北约克Mel Lastman Square举行六四37周年纪念音乐会与烛光晚会，现场逾400人到场，主办方称流动参与约1000人次。嘉宾包括周锋锁、张超雄、退休参议员Consiglio Di Nino等。活动现场播放邹幸彤狱中讯息，也播放天安门母亲成员张先玲的讲话。温哥华支联会于5月31日至6月4日举办一系列纪念活动，六四当晚在David Lam Park举行烛光晚会，目测有500至700人参加。卡尔加里、蒙特利尔和哈利法克斯也列入加拿大纪念节点。

欧洲：离散港人把维园烛光带到海外

英国是今年海外纪念最密集的国家之一。按完整名单，英国共15个城市或地区节点：伦敦、伯明翰、曼彻斯特、利兹、谢菲尔德、诺丁汉、纽卡斯尔、雷丁、沃灵顿、萨顿、沃金厄姆、肯特郡梅德斯通、格拉斯哥、爱丁堡、卡迪夫。伦敦中国大使馆外有数百人参加烛光集会，现场以蜡烛摆出“8964”，演唱《自由花》，并呼吁释放政治犯。伯明翰唐人街同日举行悼念活动。

雷丁六四晚会有逾200人出席，14位国会议员或地区议员以到场、致辞或录像方式声援港人。萨顿的悼念活动约400人出席，前立法会议员李永达、罗冠聪等人参加，当地国会议员Luke Taylor亦到场。谢菲尔德、沃灵顿、梅德斯通、纽卡斯尔、曼彻斯特、诺丁汉、卡迪夫、爱丁堡、格拉斯哥、利兹等地也有港人或民主团体举行烛光晚会、集会或相关活动。

这些纪念活动不仅悼念1989年的死难者，也承接了香港维园烛光晚会被迫熄灭后的记忆传承。离散港人把《自由花》唱到海外城市，也把邹幸彤的狱中陈词、支联会的历史和香港不能再公开纪念的事实，带到当地公共空间。

欧洲其他地区同样有行动。比利时布鲁塞尔成为全球网络纪念会议的中心会场，并有工会和人权团体到香港驻当地经济贸易办事处递交请愿信，呼吁释放李卓人、邹幸彤。德国的柏林、杜塞尔多夫、法兰克福、慕尼黑、斯图加特等，以及法国巴黎、荷兰阿姆斯特丹与海牙等城市亦有六四悼念集会。

澳洲、日本与新西兰：亚太纪念延续

澳大利亚方面，悉尼、墨尔本、布里斯班、珀斯、阿德莱德均举行六四烛光晚会或纪念活动。SBS报道，前中国官媒记者成蕾出席墨尔本活动，活动强调香港已无法举行公开悼念，因此海外记忆更显重要。

日本东京早稻田奉仕园举行悼念集会、烛光晚会与图片展。吾尔开希在东京外国记者俱乐部举行记者会，呼吁日本成为亚洲民主堡垒，放弃对中共的绥靖政策。新西兰奥克兰也列入今年纪念节点。

四、纪念形式：从烛光到投影、档案与历史影像

今年的六四纪念形式格外多样，已不只是烛光晚会。纽约、洛杉矶、慕尼黑、悉尼等地出现“It’s My Duty”使领馆投影行动，将六四影像和文字投向中国驻外使领馆外墙，纽约法拉盛也举行“纪念六四37周年暨文化大革命60周年及国际形势研讨会”，周锋锁、吕京花、王军涛、郑旭光等六四亲历者与民运人士回顾1989以来的民主运动经验。

线上方面，“李老师不是你老师”与中国人权、人道中国共同推出“#你没看过的六四”系列历史图片展，内容包括六四在杭州、全球留学生声援等珍贵历史照片。据统计，该系列共31条推文，合计流量超1500万。

今年还出现新的历史影像公开。英国独立电视新闻旗下影音资料库通过数字修复计划，于5月底释出天安门事件后在北京秘密拍摄的历史影像，约90分钟，记录清场后北京街头的戒备状况。2025年该机构曾公开约两小时的清场相关画面，2026年的新片段则补足镇压之后的城市现场。

此外，大纪元也曝光一批封存37年的六四档案照片，数量超过2000张，由当年亲历现场的一名官方摄影师拍摄，并在生命最后阶段托付公开。日本X网友 @JapanBanZaiLove 用日本车票地名开头首字拼成“六四北京天安门”的行为艺术图片，也在社交平台广泛传播，但随后该推文疑遭大规模举报并被错误封禁。

结语：记忆仍在流动

37年过去，镇压的铁幕仍在，记忆的力量也仍在。香港的七人被带走，天安门母亲无法集体祭奠，山东维权人士张超因赴天安门悼念遭刑拘，中国网络的每一个“64”都可能触发警报。但与此同时，台北、台中、高雄、伦敦、伯明翰、曼彻斯特、柏林、法兰克福、多伦多、温哥华、哈利法克斯、波士顿、旧金山、洛杉矶、悉尼、墨尔本、布里斯班、珀斯、巴黎、阿姆斯特丹、布鲁塞尔、东京、奥克兰……全球各地的烛光仍然亮起。

六四纪念已经不再只属于一个广场、一个城市、一个组织。它散落在墙上的“It’s my duty”，散落在公共厕所的匿名字迹，散落在使领馆外墙的投影，散落在海外港人唱出的《自由花》，也散落在被修复的历史影像、未曾公开的照片、被删又被保存的文章里。官方可以封禁日期、数字、蜡烛和歌曲，却无法封禁人们把记忆一代一代带走、带远、再带回公共空间的能力。

毋忘六四。真相终会大白，沉冤终待昭雪。

主要来源

1. 香港七人被带走、陈宝莹黄花：[独立媒体](https://www.inmediahk.net/node/%E6%94%BF%E7%B6%93/%E3%80%90%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B37%E3%80%91%E8%AD%A6%E6%96%B9%EF%BC%9A%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E6%B6%89%E4%BD%9C%E5%87%BA%E6%93%BE%E4%BA%82%E7%A7%A9%E5%BA%8F%E8%A1%8C%E7%82%BA%E8%A2%AB%E5%B8%B6%E8%B5%B0)、[独立媒体陈宝莹报道](https://www.inmediahk.net/node/%E6%94%BF%E7%B6%93/%E3%80%90%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B37%E3%80%91%E9%99%B3%E5%AF%B6%E7%91%A9%E6%8C%81%E8%8A%B1%E7%8F%BE%E8%BA%AB%E7%B6%AD%E5%9C%92%E5%A4%96%E3%80%8C%E6%88%91%E5%94%94%E7%9B%B8%E4%BF%A1%E4%B8%80%E6%9C%B5%E8%8A%B1%E6%90%9E%E5%88%B0%E4%BA%8B%E3%80%8D-%E8%A2%AB%E6%8C%87%E5%BC%95%E5%85%AC%E7%9C%BE%E6%B7%B7%E4%BA%82%E5%B8%B6%E4%B8%8A%E8%AD%A6%E8%BB%8A)、[RFI转述](https://agora0.github.io/news/rfi/2026/06/05/RFI-%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA%E5%8F%97%E5%8E%8B%E4%B8%8B%E4%BB%8D%E4%B8%8D%E5%BF%98%E6%82%BC%E5%BF%B5%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B-%E6%83%9F%E4%BA%BA%E6%95%B0%E8%BF%9B%E4%B8%80%E6%AD%A5%E5%87%8F%E5%B0%91-%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E8%A2%AB%E8%AD%A6%E6%96%B9%E5%B8%A6%E8%B5%B0.html)

2. 三木红绳、陈美彤问号气球：[棱角媒体](https://points-media.com/%E6%9C%80%E6%96%B0/%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B37%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4%E8%A1%8C%E7%82%BA%E8%97%9D%E8%A1%93%E5%AE%B6%E6%8C%816%E9%BB%9E4%E7%B1%B3%E7%B4%85%E7%B7%9A%E6%8A%B5%E9%8A%85%E9%91%BC%E7%81%A3-%E8%A2%AB%E8%AD%A6%E6%88%AA/)、[The Guardian/AP](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/04/hong-kong-artist-tiananmen-square-massacre-tribute-intercepted-by-police)

3. 天安门母亲、张先玲、祭奠禁令：[RFA](https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2026/06/02/china-tiananmen-mothers-cemetery-ban-beijing/)、[德国之声](https://amp.dw.com/zh/%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B37%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4%E5%89%8D%E5%A4%95-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E5%8A%A0%E5%BC%BA%E7%9B%91%E6%8E%A7%E5%A4%A9%E5%AE%89%E9%97%A8%E6%AF%8D%E4%BA%B2/a-77376065)、[国际特赦组织](https://www.amnesty.org/zh-hans/latest/news/2026/06/china-heartless-ban-on-tiananmen-mothers-visiting-cemetery-signals-escalating-repression/)、[AP](https://apnews.com/article/china-tiananmen-anniversary-june-4-crackdown-169cc977ecd28916ee7fb06d7489f86b)

4. 张超刑拘：[权利运动](https://www.chinahrc.org/content/42554/)

5. 维园第四届家乡市集：[人民网](https://hm.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0528/c42272-40729310.html)、[香港01](https://global.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E4%BC%9A%E6%96%B0%E9%97%BB/60356561/%E7%BB%B4%E5%9B%AD%E5%AE%B6%E4%B9%A1%E5%B8%82%E9%9B%86%E5%98%89%E5%B9%B4%E5%8D%8E%E5%BC%80%E5%B9%95-%E5%85%A5%E5%9C%BA%E9%A1%BB%E5%AE%89%E6%A3%80-%E6%91%8A%E6%A1%A3%E6%8C%87%E9%A6%96%E6%97%A5%E5%A4%A9%E7%83%AD%E4%BA%BA%E6%B5%81%E5%B0%913%E6%88%90)

6. 美国国务卿、国务院声明：[VOA中文](https://www.voachinese.com/a/rubio-statement-on-the-37th-anniversary-of-the-tiananmen-square-massacre-20260603/8157028.html)、[Reuters转引](https://www.investing.com/news/world-news/rubio-says-china-cannot-censor-memory-of-tiananmen-square-crackdown-4725356)

7. CECC声明与听证：[CECC声明](https://www.cecc.gov/media-center/press-releases/chairs-statement-37th-anniversary-tiananmen-massacre)、[CECC听证](https://www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/prcs-threats-americans-transnational-repression-state-level-responses)

8. 美国国会活动与VOC华盛顿烛光：[AP图片说明](https://www.ksat.com/gallery/news/2026/06/04/police-warn-families-of-tiananmen-crackdown-dead-not-to-visit-graves-on-37th-anniversary/)、[NTD](https://www.ntd.com/washington-vigil-honors-tiananmen-victims-resists-beijings-tyranny_1150705.html)、[CFHK Foundation](https://thecfhk.org/cfhk-foundation-remembers-tiananmen-square-massacre-at-vigils-in-washington-and-london/)

9. 全球活动与离散港人城市统计：[法广转博谈网](https://botanwang.com/articles/202606/%E7%A6%BB%E6%95%A3%E6%B8%AF%E4%BA%BA%E6%8E%A5%E5%8A%9B%E6%82%BC%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B%E3%80%80%E3%80%8A%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E8%8A%B1%E3%80%8B%E6%B5%B7%E5%A4%96%E5%86%8D%E5%93%8D%E8%B5%B7.html)、[大纪元香港全球一览](https://hk.epochtimes.com/news/2026-06-04/32624587)、[追光者全球活动预告](https://pulsehknews.com/20260526june4th/)

10. 英国、雷丁、伦敦、伯明翰活动：[追光者雷丁报道](https://pulsehknews.com/20260601june4reading/)、[大纪元英国报道](https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/26/6/6/n14783281.htm)

11. 台湾台北活动：[Focus Taiwan/CNA](https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202606040025)、[追光者台湾报道](https://pulsehknews.com/junefourthpress/)

12. 加拿大多伦多与温哥华：[TADC活动页](https://www.tadc.ca/37th-june4/)、[星岛加拿大](https://www.singtao.ca/7520541/2026-05-31/news-%E5%85%AD%E5%9B%9B37%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4%EF%BD%9C%E6%B5%B7%E5%A4%96%E8%8F%AF%E4%BA%BA%E5%A4%9A%E5%80%AB%E5%A4%9A%E7%87%AD%E5%85%89%E9%9B%86%E6%9C%83/)、[Vision Times多伦多](https://www.visiontimes.com/2026/06/02/thousands-gather-in-toronto-to-mark-37th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-massacre.html)

13. 澳洲五城：[SBS中文](https://www.sbs.com.au/language/chinese/zh-hant/podcast-episode/australian-and-global-37-anniversary-vigils-for-june-4th/oeng1sgu1)

14. 德国斯图加特：[欧洲之声](https://sinoeurovoices.com/news/27768)

15. 日本东京、吾尔开希：[中央社东京报道](https://news.cts.com.tw/cna/international/202606/202606033039580.html)

16. 李老师“#你没看过的六四”与北京涂鸦：[李老师Telegram系列](https://t.me/s/lilaoshibushinilaoshi?before=37950)、[北京“It’s my duty”涂鸦](https://t.me/lilaoshibushinilaoshi/42001)

17. ITN新影像：[中央社](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202606045002.aspx)、[Vision Times](https://www.visiontimes.com/2026/06/05/hidden-for-decades-restored-tiananmen-footage-offers-unfiltered-view-of-june-4.html)

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​谢谢各位的光临。

​三十七年前的此时此刻，我正站在天安门广场的中心，就在人民英雄纪念碑旁。我听到枪声从北京的四面八方传来。昔日和平的北京，那座令数百万市民深爱的城市，正遭到无数军队的围攻。我看到坦克冲了进来。我是最后一批离开天安门广场的人之一。

​随后，我在复兴医院的内上下看到了几十具尸体。复兴医院位于木樨地旁的长安街上，当时那里已经完全被死伤者淹没了。由于医院内部空间彻底爆满，许多遇难者不得不被停放在室外的自行车棚里。

​对拉说，那只是一个开始——一个我永生难忘的时刻。对于那些逝去的人，对于天安门母亲们，我欠下了一份终身的责任。

​我们今天聚集在这里，是因为那些献出生命的人至今仍未获得正义。我们聚集在这里，是因为无论是在中国国内还是在世界各地，人们依然在坚守。今天，我收到了许多来自中国国内民众的信息，分享他们此时此刻是如何进行纪念的。就在刚才，比如肯德基的“疯狂星期四”在中国社交媒体上遭到了审查，因为年轻人正利用这个机会来纪念六四。

​我们铭记像尹旭安这样的政治犯，他仅仅因为纪念天安门大屠杀就被判处四年监禁。他在狱中饱受酷刑，出狱时已身患绝症。然而，由于他拒绝保持沉默，他再次被强制失踪，从此我们再也没有他的消息。

​我们铭记来自杭州的徐光。他是1989年的学生抗议者，同样被判处四年监禁。当他最近被释放时，由于遭受了极其残酷的酷刑，他虚弱到甚至无法独自站立。但我们依然听到了他发出的抗争宣言：“为了民主与自由，我们这一代人必须战斗下去，绝不后悔。”

​徐光说出了纪念六四的意义，尤其作为八九民运的参与者，我们永远的使命就是中国民主化。

我们铭记董广平，他曾是一名警察，来自中国体制内干部的家庭。然而，在面对正义与邪恶的抉择时，他选择了正义。他一次又一次地为1989年逝去的人们发声，为六四屠杀的真相发声。为此，他曾先后四次被捕入狱。但他拒绝屈服，并最终前往海外寻找自由。就在最近，他自己造了一艘船，在公海上漂流了30个小时，最终成功抵达韩国。我们希望国际社会能够伸出援手，帮助他与在加拿大的家人团聚。他真正体现了天安门一代的精神。

​我们之所以纪念，是因为中共想要我们忘记。他们动用了一切可以利用的工具来控制人民、散布谎言、掩埋真相。然而，尽管他们做出了种种努力，每年依然有新的证据涌现。年复一年，我都能收到新的照片、新的文件，并结识新的目击证人。

​去年，最重要的一项新证据是关于徐勤先将军的。他因拒绝执行邓小平的戒严令而闻名。当时，他是解放军最精锐的部队——第三十八军的军长。当被命令带坦克和全副武装的军队进入北京中心时，他拒绝了，并说：“我不想成为历史的罪人。”

​今天，独裁统治下的中国对世界构成了直接威胁，最关键的是对台湾的威胁。我们呼吁现役的解放军官兵像徐勤先将军一样，向自己的良知负责，拒绝执行专制政权的命令。

​在纪念天安门的时候，我们向香港人民致以最崇高的敬意。几十年来，主要正是因为他们在维多利亚公园举行的年度烛光晚会，天安门的记忆才得以长存。

​我们尤其感谢邹幸彤。1989年时她还只是个孩子，但今天，她是天安门精神最好的典范。无论付出什么代价，她都坚持发声。即使面临可能被判处终身监禁的绝境，她依然在为天安门母亲们呼吁。她实际上将香港的法庭变成了新的维多利亚公园。我们这群天安门一代，向邹幸彤致敬。她是我们的英雄。

​1989年的抗争从未结束。它持续激励着一代又一代的人权捍卫者：律师、牧师、劳工活动人士、记者、民主倡导者，以及白纸运动中的年轻一代。今天，在全世界上百个城市里，人们继续通过烛光晚会和集会聚集在一起。仅今年一年，全球就有大约40场不同的实体纪念活动。网络上的纪念也异常活跃，尤其是通过像“李老师”这样的网络富有影响力的人，他已经成为白纸运动的重要发声者。

​在1989年，当数以百万计的人走上街头表达对自由和民主的诉求时，我们所有人都深受鼓舞。他们向世界展示了极其深刻的一幕：即使在独裁统治下，人们依然信仰民主，并能找到为之奋斗和牺牲的勇气。坦克人和民主女神像的经典画面已成为自由的普世象征。它们激励了推倒柏林墙的人们；激励了在1999年举行抗议的伊朗学生；并继续激励着全球各地反抗专制的人们。

​在1989年，我是第一批到达天安门广场悼念胡耀邦的人之一。我当时绝无法想象，后来会有数百万民众加入进来。我在广场上的第一次演讲，灵感正是来自于美国的《独立宣言》。今年，随着美国即将迎来建国250周年，看到这个国家有如此多的人在怀疑民主的价值，令人感到痛心。

​然而，1989年天安门抗议的教训依然清晰无比。中国的学生和市民冒着失去一切的风险，不是为了威权主义，也不是为了政治强人，而是为了民主、自由和人类尊严。他们理解一个在今天依然至关重要的根本真理：民主值得被捍卫。民主不仅是一种政治体制，更是一种对人类尊严、真相、问责制的坚定信仰，是每个人免于对政府恐惧而自由生活的权利。

​天安门精神绝不仅属于过去。它属于每一个政治犯，每一个记者，每一个拒绝被噤声、选择讲真话的公民，属于每一个继续相信自由与民主的人。

​总有一天，中国会获得自由。总有一天，中国会实现民主。而一个自由、民主的中国，不仅将是中国人民的福帜，也将是全人类的福帜。

​谢谢大家。

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​Watch here or read the full speech below.

Thank you all for coming.

​Thirty-seven years ago, at this very moment, I was at the center of Tiananmen Square, by the Monument to the People’s Heroes. I heard gunshots coming from all directions of Beijing. A peaceful Beijing, which was so dear to millions of its citizens, was under siege by countless troops. I saw tanks rushing in. I was among the last to leave Tiananmen Square.

​Afterward, I saw dozens of bodies inside and outside of Fuxing Hospital. Located on Chang’an Boulevard next to Muxidi, the hospital was completely overwhelmed by the dead and the injured. Because there was no more room inside, many of the victims had to be laid outside in a bicycle shed.

​For me, this was just the beginning—a moment I will never forget. To those who died, and to the Tiananmen Mothers, I owe a lifelong duty.

​We gather today because those who sacrificed their lives are still denied justice. We gather because people continue to hold firm, both in China and around the world. Today, I am receiving many messages from people inside China, sharing how they are commemorating this moment. Just now, for example, KFC’s “Crazy Thursday” became censored on Chinese social media because young people are using the occasion to commemorate Tiananmen.

​We remember individuals like Yin XuAn, a political prisoner who was sentenced to four years in prison simply for commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. He was tortured in prison, and by the time he was released, he was terminally ill. Yet, because he refused to be silenced, he was forcibly disappeared again, and we have not seen him since.

​We remember Xu Guang from Hangzhou. He was a student protester in 1989 and was also sentenced to four years in prison. When he was recently released, he had been tortured so severely that he was too weak to stand on his own. Yet, we still heard his defiant message: “For democracy and freedom, our generation must fight on. There are no regrets.”

​This is what commemorating June Fourth means. For those of us who lived through those events, our mission remains unchanged: the democratization of China.

We remember Dong Guangping, a former policeman from a well-connected family in China. When faced with the choice between justice and evil, he chose justice. Again and again, he spoke out for those who died in 1989 and for the truth of the June 4th Massacre. For this, he was imprisoned four separate times. Yet, he refused to surrender and eventually sought freedom abroad. Just recently, he built a boat himself and spent 30 hours on the open ocean before finally reaching South Korea. We hope the international community will help him reunite with his family in Canada. He truly embodies the spirit of the Tiananmen generation.

​We commemorate because the CCP wants us to forget. They use every tool at their disposal to control people, spread lies, and bury the truth. Yet, despite all their efforts, new evidence emerges every year. I receive new photos, new documents, and meet new witnesses year after year.

​Last year, the most significant piece of new evidence concerned General Xu Qinxian. He is widely known for refusing to carry out Deng Xiaoping’s martial law order. At the time, he was the commander of the 38th Army, the most elite troop of the PLA. When ordered to bring tanks and fully armed troops into the center of Beijing, he refused, stating, “I do not want to be found guilty in the court of history.”

​Today, China’s dictatorship poses a direct threat to the world, and most critically, a threat to Taiwan. We call on current PLA personnel to act according to their conscience, just like General Xu Qinxian, and refuse to carry out the orders of a tyrannical regime.

​In commemorating Tiananmen, we owe our deepest respect to the people of Hong Kong. For decades, it was primarily due to their annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park that the memory of Tiananmen remained alive.

​We are especially grateful to Chow Hang-tung. She was only a child in 1989, yet today, she stands as the finest example of the Tiananmen spirit. She continues to speak out no matter the cost. Even while facing a potential life sentence, she continues to speak up for the Tiananmen Mothers. She has effectively transformed the courtroom of Hong Kong into a new Victoria Park. We, the Tiananmen generation, salute Chow Hang-tung. She is our hero.

​The struggle of 1989 has never ended. It continues to inspire generations of human rights defenders: lawyers, pastors, labor activists, journalists, democracy advocates, and the young people of the White Paper generation. Today, in dozens of cities around the world, people continue to gather for vigils and rallies. There are about 40 different physical commemorations globally this year alone. It is also exceptionally active online, driven particularly by digital influencers like Teacher Li, who has become a prominent voice for the White Paper movement.

​In 1989, we were all deeply inspired when millions of people took to the streets to demand freedom and democracy. They showed the world something profound: that even under a dictatorship, people still believe in democracy and can find the courage to fight and sacrifice for it. The enduring images of Tank Man and the Goddess of Democracy have become universal symbols of liberty. They inspired the people who tore down the Berlin Wall; they inspired the Iranian students who protested in 1999; and they continue to inspire anyone resisting tyranny across the globe.

​In 1989, I was among the first to arrive at Tiananmen Square to mourn Hu Yaobang. I could never have imagined that millions of people would join us later. My very first speech on the Square was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence. This year, as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, it is heartbreaking to see so many citizens within this country doubting the value of democracy itself.

​Yet, the lesson of the 1989 Tiananmen protests remains crystal clear. Chinese students and citizens risked absolutely everything—not for authoritarianism, and not for a political strongman—but for democracy, freedom, and human dignity. They understood a fundamental truth that remains vital today: democracy is worth defending. It is not merely a political framework; it is a profound belief in human dignity, truth, accountability, and the unalienable right of every individual to live free from the fear of their government.

​The Tiananmen spirit does not belong solely to the past. It belongs to every political prisoner, every journalist, and every citizen who refuses to be silenced and chooses to speak the truth. It belongs to everyone who continues to believe in freedom and democracy.

​One day, China will be free. One day, China will be a democracy. And a free, democratic China will be a blessing not only to the Chinese people but to the entire world.

​Thank you.

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Civil society around the world came together this week to commemorate the 37^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, through rallies, art, protest, and more. (Click here for a thread of upcoming events.) HRIC’s Zhou Fengsuo spoke in Toronto to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre: “June Fourth belongs not only to the past, but to today—to every political prisoner, to every journalist who refuses to be silent, to everyone who speaks the truth.”

The Tiananmen Mothers released a statement expressing their longstanding grief and reiterating their three demands: disclose the full truth of the June Fourth Massacre, provide just compensation for the victims and their families, and hold those responsible legally accountable in accordance with the law. Watch the statement as a video here.

In Hong Kong, where memorials of June Fourth have been banned and become a target of the government crackdown, memorial organizer Chow Hang-tung announced a 37-hour hunger strike in commemoration of June Fourth. In a statement, she wrote: “To preserve the memory of June 4th is to safeguard that very same baseline of human decency. When we take that extra step in accordance with our conscience, the reach of authoritarian power shrinks by that very measure.”

However, challenges persist as the CCP continues to repress memories of 1989. Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, the site of the yearly memorial which drew thousands, will host a patriotic carnival instead. And in Los Angeles, California, the June Fourth Tiananmen Museum was attacked by vandals who damaged many of the artifacts with spray paint.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

China Recasts Outbound Investment Governance Under New State Council Regulation: China’s new ODI regulation, taking effect July 1, fundamentally restructures outbound investment governance by integrating national security review, data and technology controls, and full lifecycle supervision into a unified framework. It marks a decisive shift from a capital-flow management model to a national security–driven one, with new powers to compel forced disposal of overseas assets and bar individuals from future outbound investment activity.

NPC Calendar: June 2026: The NPCSC will hold its next regularly scheduled session in late June 2026, with bills under public comment including a Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law revision and a Mine Safety Law revision. The latter is open for comment through June 20, following China’s deadliest mining disaster in a decade.

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

China Aims A.I. at Predicting Who Could Pose a Political Risk: Leaked internal documents reviewed by Vanderbilt University researchers reveal that Chinese firm Geedge Networks, which sells a commercial version of the Great Firewall, is developing AI tools that analyze citizens’ internet activity, location data, and telecommunications records to generate profiles predicting who may pose a political risk even before they have taken any public action.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Female activists who challenge the Chinese Communist Party have been systematically targeted by state-linked coordinated campaigns using AI-generated deepfake pornographic images, attempting to destroy their reputations and silence them through gendered shame. Now, some activists are pushing back by publicly disclosing the images and calling out the strategy.

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.”

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.

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

HRIC on Twitter/X. Dong Guangping, a 68-year-old veteran Chinese human rights activist who has served multiple prison terms in China, made his fourth known escape attempt by crossing to South Korea in a small rubber boat. Dong has now been granted political refugee status by the Canadian government and is expected to soon reunite with his wife and daughter overseas.

HRIC on Twitter/X: A newly launched tracking tool by digital influencer-activist “Teacher Li” compiles verified cases of China’s transnational repression operations, drawing on a Freedom House’s database in which China accounts for 319 documented cases and remains the world’s most prolific perpetrator.

Taiwan accuses China of trying to ‘silence’ its president after New York Times reporter expelled: China expelled NYT Beijing correspondent Vivian Wang in February, reportedly in retaliation for an interview the paper conducted with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, although Chinese officials had complained for months about her coverage of censorship, COVID-19, and state surveillance. The Trump administration revoked the visa of a US-based Chinese state journalist in response.

American journalist charged with serving as unregistered agent for China: Thomas Pauken II, an American journalist who spent over a decade working for Chinese state media outlets including Xinhua, was charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent after FBI court filings alleged he prepared confidential reports for a Chinese Ministry of State Security handler, received $100,000 from the Chinese government, and attempted to recruit a contact seeking a position in the Trump administration.

Chinese dissident says he was berated by ‘pro-regime’ interpreter for UK police: Hong Qi, a Chinese dissident granted asylum in the UK after remotely projecting anti-regime slogans onto a building in Chongqing, says that when he called Devon and Cornwall Police for help after his bank accounts were frozen, the assigned Mandarin interpreter berated him, questioned why he didn’t “love China,” and refused to pass on his message. This case is especially interesting in context of a declassified Home Office report which warned that Chinese intelligence had achieved significant infiltration of the UK’s Mandarin interpreting community.

Pilgrimage hindered: Tibetans need border permits and criminal record checks to circumambulate Mount Kailash: Chinese authorities now require Tibetan pilgrims wishing to circumambulate Mount Kailash, one of the most sacred sites in Tibetan Buddhism, to obtain military border zone permits and submit to criminal record checks, effectively treating religious practice as a security threat and adding bureaucratic barriers designed to deter or prevent participation in a deeply sacred tradition.

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

HRIC on Twitter/X: Chinese contemporary artist and prisoner of conscience Gao Zhen is the recipient of the 2026 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.

Lawfare Daily: Investigating the Investigators: Sophia Yan on Journalism in the PRC: Telegraph senior foreign correspondent Sophia Yan discusses how the Chinese government turned its security services on her during her time reporting in the PRC, in a conversation with a former FBI counterintelligence officer who spent his career combatting Chinese intelligence operations.

No-One Signed Up: Fatigue, Failure, and Fragile Optimism in Chinese Trans Advocacy: This article documents the near-total collapse of organized transgender advocacy in China, driven by state repression of civil society, activist burnout, the closure of the last major LGBT NGOs, and an absence of new volunteers willing to take on the risks, while highlighting the few fragile spaces where cautious optimism and informal peer support persist.

Hong Kong slams wanted activist’s ‘unfounded’ allegations about top gov’t prosecutor: US-based exiled activist Frances Hui publicly accused newly appointed Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Chau, who led the Hong Kong 47 and Jimmy Lai prosecutions, of misusing public funds to pursue a personal relationship with a colleague.

Related: Hong Kong justice chief urges staff to report sources of claims against top prosecutor. Secretary for Justice Paul Lam sent an internal memo demanding staff identify the sources behind Frances Hui’s allegations against Anthony Chau, which Hui then posted publicly. The government warned media against asking questions that might amplify the claims.

Hong Kong court upholds veteran journalist’s conviction for obstructing police: A Hong Kong court upheld the conviction of former HKJA chair Ronson Chan for refusing to promptly show his ID to a plainclothes police officer during a 2022 reporting assignment, with the judge finding he had shown no remorse and ordering him to immediately begin serving a five-day prison sentence.

Related: Former leader of Hong Kong journalist group sent to prison after obstruction conviction. Chan’s imprisonment, the first time a sitting or former head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association has been jailed, has been seen as emblematic of the city’s collapse in press freedom. Hong Kong is now ranked 140th out of 180 countries on the press freedom index compared to 18th in 2002.

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

Red Genes for June Fourth: For Children’s Day, Xi Jinping wrote an editorial urging young people to devote themselves to the party.

On the eve of the EU security conference, Human Rights Watch warned that the expansion of Chinese authoritarianism threatens European security: Ahead of the European Commission’s Security College meeting on China’s influence on EU security on May 29, Human Rights Watch urged commissioners to place Beijing’s human rights abuses at the center of their discussions, arguing that China’s domestic repression—including extraterritorial laws like the Ethnic Unity Law, transnational repression, and surveillance exports—constitutes a direct and growing threat to European security that the EU has been too slow to address.

International Responses 国际反应

US lawmakers introduce a law to recognise Central Tibetan Administration: Bipartisan House lawmakers Jim McGovern and Michael McCaul introduced the “Assuring the Future of Tibet Act of 2026,” directing the US government to formally back the Central Tibetan Administration as the legitimate representative of the Tibetan people and advocate for its UN observer status.

World leaders congratulate CTA President for second term, reaffirm support for Tibetan cause: The US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, and Australia’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet all extended congratulations to Sikyong Penpa Tsering following his inauguration for a second five-year term.

Related: Canadian MP: Supports Tibetan freedom, autonomy, and freedom of religion. Canadian Member of Parliament James Maloney congratulated Sikyong Penpa Tsering on his re-election and affirmed Canada’s support for Tibetan freedom, meaningful autonomy, and religious freedom, adding to a wave of parliamentary expressions of solidarity with the Tibetan government-in-exile ahead of its new term.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth says US seeks ‘stable equilibrium’ with China in Asia: Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Hegseth acknowledged “rightful alarm” over China’s military buildup while framing US goals as achieving a durable balance of power in which no state, including China, can impose regional hegemony.

Germany deepens Taiwan ties amid China tensions: Germany’s new Merz government has made expanding informal ties with Taiwan a stated policy priority, citing shared democratic values and semiconductor interdependence, with bilateral economic and political exchanges accelerating as Berlin navigates its broader effort to reduce strategic dependence on China.

‘Makes no sense’: experts doubt pause in US arms sale to Taiwan is due to Iran war: Security analysts told the Guardian that the Iran war provides no credible justification for pausing a $14 billion arms package to Taiwan, given that the weapons involved are not being used in the Middle East conflict, with experts suggesting the real cause is Trump’s use of the sale as a bargaining chip with Beijing following the Xi summit.

Pakistan Reaffirms Support for China in Joint Statement Amid Ongoing Uyghur Genocide Concerns: A May 26 China-Pakistan joint statement reaffirmed Pakistan’s backing of China’s “just stance” on Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, prompting the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile to condemn Islamabad as “an active accomplice to the gravest colonial occupation and genocide of the modern era” and call out the contradiction of a self-described defender of oppressed Muslims endorsing Beijing’s repression of tens of millions of Muslim Uyghurs.

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On May 30, Zhou Fengsuo, Executive Director of Human Rights in China, spoke at a commemoration event in Toronto marking the 37th anniversary of the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre. HRIC has published his translated statement below, or find the full speech here on YouTube with English subtitles.

Thank you, everyone. Being here in Toronto today, I feel a deep sense of familiarity, of being among friends. At such a painful moment, this is a rare place where one can find comfort and see hope. Because we are gathered here, and there are so many of us together, who stand with Chow Hang-tung in prison, stand with the Tiananmen Mothers, and stand with the many who died that year.

I want to thank the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, and thank the pro-democracy groups here for their unwavering perseverance over so many years. Toronto is one of the most important cities in the world for commemorating June Fourth. So we must remember that anywhere—just as Victoria Park once was—such commemorations command the attention of the whole world.

Thirty-seven years ago, I was in Tiananmen Square. On the night of June 3rd, I heard gunfire from every direction, and I saw the tanks come charging in. In the end, I was among the last group of students driven out by the tanks.

I also saw more than forty bodies in a hospital, including students from Tsinghua University like me. The Fuxing Hospital beside Chang'an Avenue was already overflowing with the dead and wounded, and so they could only lay the fallen—those heroic martyrs—in the bicycle shed by the street.

For me, such moments, such an hour, I will never forget. To all those who died, I owe a duty. That is why, every year, whenever there is a chance to commemorate June Fourth, I am certain to take part.

We commemorate here today because so many of the dead are still denied justice. We commemorate today, too, because so many people are still holding firm—holding firm around the world, holding firm in mainland China, holding firm inside the prisons of Hong Kong.

I must mention Xu Guang today. He was a student in 1989, and he was sentenced to four years simply for commemorating June Fourth. When he came out of prison, he had suffered so much torture that he could no longer stand. Yet even so, the message he sent out was this: "For democracy and freedom, we have no regrets." This is what commemorating June Fourth means. For all of us who lived through those events, our most important mission is the democratization of China.

As we commemorate June Fourth in Toronto today, there is another person I especially need to mention: Dong Guangping. He was originally a police officer within the system, and his family was what the Communist Party calls a cadre family. But between justice and evil, he chose justice. Again and again he spoke out for the dead, spoke out for the truth of June Fourth, and was imprisoned four times. Refusing to submit and seeking freedom, he once fled to Thailand and to Vietnam, only to be arrested and sent back to mainland China. Just days ago, in a raft he built himself, he crossed the sea for more than thirty hours to reach South Korea. We are deeply grateful to Canada for taking in his family, right here in Toronto. We hope that people like Dong Guangping can be reunited with their families soon. I hope that next year he can be here among us, free to commemorate June Fourth, never again to be seized by the Communist Party.

There is another important reason we commemorate June Fourth: because the Communist Party wants us to forget. They use every kind of method to erase people's memory. Yet despite this, every year we still see more of the truth of June Fourth emerge—more witnesses, more photographs, more documents.

Over this past year, the single most important piece of evidence about the truth of June Fourth is the six-hour video of the courtroom trial of the general who defied orders, Xu Qinxian. Anyone who has not seen it must watch it; it is profoundly important.

Today, the CCP’s military is also a threat to world peace, especially to Taiwan. At such a critical moment, we also call on more military personnel of conscience to refuse to be their lackeys, to refuse to carry out such orders.

Of course, in commemorating June Fourth today, we owe our greatest thanks to the people of Hong Kong. Because of Hong Kong’s thirty-plus years of commemorations in Victoria Park, the world today still remembers June Fourth.

We owe our deepest thanks to the heroic leaders of the Alliance, especially Chow Hang-tung. Back then, she was just a little girl, but today, she is the finest embodiment of the spirit of ’89 and June Fourth. We, as those who lived through it, pay tribute to Chow Hang-tung.

Today’s Hong Kong, in the brutality of its rule, has in fact surpassed the mainland itself. Chow Hang-tung, in prison, faces a sentence that may have no end in sight. Yet at every opportunity, she raises her voice. When Victoria Park is dispersed and commemoration becomes impossible, she turns the courtroom into Victoria Park, recounting the truth of history there, speaking out for the Tiananmen Mothers.

With people like her, I feel that the ideals pursued by those who perished in ’89 are still alive. With people like her, what reason do we have not to commemorate June Fourth overseas?

So her example tells us: No matter how the CCP’s tyranny imprisons people’s bodies, it cannot imprison their conscience.

June Fourth belongs not only to the past, but to today—to every political prisoner, to every journalist who refuses to be silent, to everyone who speaks the truth. As long as we keep persisting, keep commemorating, the ideal of a free and democratic China will endure.

Our actions will one day advance China’s democratization, and a democratic China will be the greatest gospel for this world. Thank you.

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Wrocław, Poland. Upon first hearing the name, many Chinese people’s first reaction would be “where?” It is an obscure name that most Chinese would not know. Yet, it is in this city where I unexpectedly encountered a piece of memory about the June 4th Tiananmen massacre. It is the physical embodiment of this memory in the form of a memorial, as well as the tribute paid by local residents over the last few decades, which has bound Wrocław tightly to the past and present of the Chinese people. Today, when all traces of that massacre have been suppressed in the Chinese people’s memory, a piece of such memory has somehow been preserved in a city of which few Chinese have ever heard. Behind this encounter, which transcends both temporal and geographical boundaries, is a touching story about solidarity and freedom, which I will share with you in my writing.

When a Polish friend first told me about the presence of a June 4th Tiananmen memorial in Wrocław, I was shocked but also felt a little perplexed. The location seemed rather random compared to, say, Warsaw, the capital, or Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which eventually brought down the Communist regime. So, I decided to personally travel there and find out. Upon arrival, I went to the address provided by my friend, and after some searching, I finally located the memorial in the middle of a small grass field behind a thicket of bushes, next to a pedestrian crossing near the Galeria Dominikańska mall.

The major component of the art piece was a white bicycle. It lay sideways on the cobblestone ground as if deserted. The middle section was bent and pressed into the surface below, as if a heavy force was crushing the bicycle from above. Time has certainly left its mark on this art piece. As rust has taken over the metal of the bicycle’s frame, many parts are barely recognizable. At the lower edge of the memorial, there is a plaque with three lines: “Tiananmen”, “Pekin – Wrocław”, “1989/6/4 – 1999/6/4”. Upon seeing the memorial, I was left with more questions than answers. Why was it built in the first place? What was the symbolism behind its design? What was the significance of the date 1999/6/4? My curiosity was rewarded by a stroke of luck. During my short stay in Wrocław, I was able to meet the artist behind the memorial, Mr. Marek Stanielewicz, and hear the stories leading to its creation.

On a rainy afternoon, my Polish friend and I met Mr. Stanielewicz at his studio. He had a long, thick beard covering the bottom half of his face. Under his wide brow, a pair of deep, dark eyes emitted a strong sense of resolution and wisdom. Wisps of blue smoke occasionally rose from the end of his pipe as we spoke. After some greetings, Mr. Stanielewicz broke the ice and began telling us about the stories behind this commemorative piece. It was as if I were in a time machine; suddenly, my thoughts were pulled back almost forty years to that tumultuous and eventful spring of 1989.

The story of the June 4th Tiananmen memorial in Wrocław is, in some sense, a tale of two versions of June 4th, 1989: one of Poland, and one of China. One may wonder and lament how satirical history can be. For the Poles, that exact date is commemorated as the day of liberation from an autocratic regime, as the country held its first free, democratic election since the end of World War II. Yet, to the Chinese people who yearned for freedom throughout the 1980s, June 4th, 1989, was the day hope finally forsook them as tanks rolled down the streets of the capital. As the Poles were celebrating the landslide victory of Solidarity, Chinese mothers were mourning the deaths of their children, brutally shot down by another autocratic regime that cared more about its own survival than the demands of its people.

As Mr. Stanielewicz recalled, the news of the massacre in Beijing reached Wrocław two days later, and shortly thereafter local activists decided to respond by showing solidarity with the Chinese. Young artists in Wrocław, who did not yet have enough time to rejoice in their nation’s own triumph against totalitarianism, soon devoted themselves to another fight—only this time, it was for someone else’s cause. They erected a memorial honoring those Chinese who fell during the regime’s bloody crackdown. That original memorial had a pair of tractor treads surrounding a fallen bicycle, with the treads representing the tanks crushing the students, who were embodied by the bicycle itself. This memorial was built on the ground where the Galeria Dominikańska mall stands today. Mr. Stanielewicz was very proud to tell me his belief that this original installation was the first memorial in the world ever built to commemorate the Chinese victims of June 4th.

Unfortunately, that piece was short-lived. Despite the fact that the incumbent United Workers’ Party suffered a humiliating defeat, its grasp on power was not yet fully gone in the immediate aftermath of the election. A few days after the first memorial’s completion, the local authority ordered its removal, and in the coming years, the shopping mall was built over the site. Today, the memorial we see is the second iteration, designed by Mr. Stanielewicz and built in 1999 near the location of the original piece to honor its history and symbolize continuity.

At this point, you may rightfully wonder why solidarity mattered so much to the residents of Wrocław. Why would they build a memorial for the Chinese victims not once, but twice? Through my own research and discussions with Marek, I was able to piece together the puzzle. A large part of the answer lies in the fact that the spirit of solidarity and freedom runs deep in the veins of Wrocław’s residents.

Few Chinese might know that Wrocław did not officially become part of modern-day Poland until 1945. Most of its residents were descendants of those who migrated from other places after the city was handed over to Poland by the Allies. From 1945 to 1989, these new residents, with little prior connection to each other or the land, had to endure the suppression of the newly installed totalitarian regime. Scholar Gregor Thum wrote a book about Wrocław’s postwar history titled Uprooted, a word that accurately captures the tension and weight of such a process. For those who arrived in Wrocław, the formation of the city’s new collective identity was intertwined with collective resistance. Solidarity became not only necessary for survival but a crucial spiritual anchor for those seeking a communal bond in their new home.

Over time, solidarity metamorphosed into a proactive fight for freedom. For example, the influential Orange Alternative (Polish: Pomarańczowa Alternatywa) movement started in Wrocław in the 1980s under the initiative of Waldemar Fydrych. Activists employed graffiti and performance art featuring characters of dwarves wearing orange hats in comical ways. They would paint these figures next to regime propaganda posters or dress up as dwarves in public. The young art activists were fully aware of the risks, yet they were not deterred. Orange Alternative soon spread to other parts of Poland, becoming a symbol of the resistance subculture through which people could push the boundaries of free expression.

As Marek proudly declared, across generations in Wrocław, no one believed that one should “only sweep before their own door.” Instead, the locals cared about struggles against autocracy anywhere in the world. I believe it was this cosmopolitan attitude that drove those young activists to build the original memorial in 1989. The history of Wrocław has made its residents aware that the fight for oneself and support for others seeking political liberation are inseparable. This notion was the source of solidarity through the dark times before 1989 and the motivation to react when news of the massacre broke out.

After the dismantlement of the original piece, Marek, an active participant in the local Solidarity movement, devoted himself to its reconstruction. He shared that the first memorial had emerged as a constituting part of the city’s collective memory. To preserve that moment, Marek worked with a fellow activist to convince the local government to build a second memorial. The design retained the iconic bicycle, a form Marek noted has always been associated with Chinese culture in the minds of Poles. He even went to a flea market with his wife to find a bicycle that was actually made in China. At the opening ceremony in 1999, local residents brought candles and flowers. Marek told me the most touching moment was when a stranger left a note that read: “Freedom is never bestowed; it is obtained through incessant fighting.” Marek told me this line was the best representation of his motivation. He intentionally avoided official channels for the 1999 unveiling to ensure the message remained untainted by politics, emphasizing a grassroots spirit.

Mr. Stanielewicz told us with excitement that he believes many have seen the second installation. Every anniversary since 1999, many locals have come to pay tribute with flowers, candles, or notes. Year after year, people in Wrocław gather to commemorate June 4th. Sometimes, when the tributes become overwhelming, Marek visits the site himself to clean and organize the offerings.

I asked him if he knew of any Chinese people who had visited this specific site. Marek recalled hosting an art professor from Hunan years ago. He noted the professor’s reaction was restrained, yet he could discern a flicker of profound emotion in the man’s subtle facial expressions. Marek told me that, having grown up under a totalitarian system himself, he understood this reservation perfectly. Sometimes, the mask of caution gives way to open dialogue; Chinese visitors often find him online and reach out privately. While Marek remains careful when discussing these topics with official visiting delegations at the art school where he teaches, he remains committed to keeping the spark of memory alive. As I listened, I realized that as long as international friends like Marek preserve these “embers” of history, the memory of June 4th can never be fully extinguished. Like Poland in 1989, these sparks may one day ignite a fire strong enough to break the shackles of dictatorship.

Despite the inevitable decay of the second memorial due to its open-air location, Marek shared that a third iteration is already in development. Recently, the head of the Wrocław Depot History Centre reached out to him, emphasizing that a new memorial was essential for the city’s historical record. This moved me deeply; it signifies that the memory of June 4th has been officially etched into Wrocław’s cultural identity. The new design is slated for a corner within Galeria Dominikańska—the exact location where the first memorial stood in 1989. After thirty-seven years, the memory will finally return to its birthplace. Marek also mentioned that he is drawing inspiration from the work of a Chinese visiting scholar. If this collaboration comes to fruition, it will represent a full circle: a Chinese artist contributing to a Polish city’s decades-long effort to guard a piece of Chinese history.

Near the end of the interview, I asked Mr. Stanielewicz if he had any advice for the younger generation of Chinese people fighting for democracy today. He looked at me firmly, pondered for a bit, and told me in a calm voice that when he was young, he never thought the Communist regime would fall in Poland, nor did he dream he would see the end of the Soviet Empire. Then, he said he was once watching television and saw a Belarusian in Minsk talking to a journalist about their dissatisfaction with the regime. That was the moment he knew the days of the oppressive regime were numbered. I understood what he meant: the fight for democracy comes from expression. When the public is no longer afraid, or even if they are scared but find the courage to speak, the regime’s days are numbered. Silence under totalitarianism may be a tactic for self-preservation, but it also serves as a tacit endorsement of the regime’s legitimacy. The people of Wrocław never stopped expressing themselves. Their expressions were often suppressed, but even these “failed” attempts became part of a resistant memory, inspiring the next effort until a critical tipping point was reached.

The afternoon before my departure from Wrocław, I went back to the memorial. A few days prior, I had placed a bouquet of flowers there. Despite a heavy rainstorm, the card I had attached was still there. Someone had carefully placed small cobblestones on top of it so it wouldn’t blow away. Even as I prepared to leave, this city found new ways to move me. Under the sunlight, my card remained visible. Using a translator app, I had written in Polish: “Even after thirty-six years, China has not stopped its pursuit of freedom.” Beneath it, in Chinese, I added: “For a New China of Freedom and Democracy.”

A few days earlier, after I left my flowers, a local man saw what I was doing. He waved his hands, trying to convey something, then realized I did not speak Polish. He pulled out his phone and typed a message that deeply touched me: he said China is an ancient civilization that has brought much wisdom to the world, and he sincerely prays for China’s future. In that moment, my eyes welled with tears. I grasped the hands of this stranger, nodding in a silent, shared understanding of what it means to hope for a better world.

If there is one thing I learned during my stay in Wrocław, it is that the unfiltered recollection of a nation’s past can become powerful fuel on its journey toward liberation. Safeguarding collective memory from being altered or erased is the most effective weapon against dictatorship. At the same time, the pursuit of freedom is never the sole responsibility of an individual or a small group. No one should stand on the sidelines waiting to be liberated. Freedom is never a gift. Only when every person in society unites can we ensure we will not be divided and conquered. The spirit behind that memorial is one of solidarity. Regardless of distance, culture, or ethnicity, as long as someone shares the belief in freedom, they are our comrades. After all, if we do not support each other, who will be there to fight for us when our own freedom is threatened?

波兰的六四记忆

波兰，弗罗茨瓦夫，中国，北京。乍一听这也许是两个毫无关联的城市。弗罗茨瓦夫，这座坐落于波兰西南部奥得河畔的波兰第四大城市，对于很多中国人而言是一个陌生的名字。然而，就是在这里，我与一段和六四相关的记忆不期而遇。正是这段记忆，和波兰人民对这段历史的珍重，紧紧地将这两个远隔千山万水的城市联系在了一起。当所有和六四相关的物理痕迹在中国这片土地上被抹去，关于这段往事的记忆，却在佛罗茨瓦夫这座让很多中国人意想不到的城市中不断获得新生。

从某种意义上而言，弗罗茨瓦夫是波兰这个民族记忆中的孤儿，因此，记忆对这座城市和她的居民而言，才更加弥足珍贵。在这座1945年以后才正式归属波兰的中欧古城里，迁居而来的波兰人曾经对于这片土地缺乏记忆。而从1945年到1989年，所有关于这座城市的记忆，就生活在那里的波兰人而言，往往是生活在集权体制下的恐惧，挣扎和对于强权的反抗。而就是在这种反抗和对反抗的记忆里，弗罗茨瓦夫波兰人的身份认同被慢慢塑造，而他们对于这座曾经陌生的城市的归属感，也不断的加强。四十年如一日对于集权的反抗，也让这座城市的人民明白，记忆，除了作为构建集体意识的纽带，也是勇气和力量的源泉。而六四，虽然不是弗罗茨瓦夫自己的记忆，但它所代表的反抗独裁、争取自由的信念，却已经深深扎根在了弗罗茨瓦夫人集体意识里。而六四，也就在八九年那个风起云涌的年代，和波兰人不期而遇，走进了属于他们的历史记忆。

在弗罗茨瓦夫老城区的东南角，距离的一个叫做Galeria Dominikańska的商场不远的主干道上，座落着弗罗茨瓦夫的六四纪念碑。说是纪念碑，其实是一个艺术作品。它的主体是一辆从中间被切开的，倒在鹅卵石地砖上的白色自行车。而今，岁月在这座雕塑上留下了肉眼可见的痕迹。今天，斑驳的自行车随着铁锈的侵蚀，其主体已经慢慢变得不可辨识。如果不是特地留意，很多人也许走过都不会注意到这个被灌木包围的纪念碑。位于而纪念碑下方的铭牌上，用波兰语镌刻着，“天安门”，“北京-弗罗茨瓦夫”，“1989/6/4 – 1999/6/4”。这三段小字引起了我的好奇，为何弗罗茨瓦夫和北京被写在了一起？而1999年的6月4日，这个六四十年之后的日期又意味着什么？好奇心驱使我去了解更多属于这个纪念碑背后的故事。几经波折之后，我竟然有幸去探访到了这个保存了六四记忆的艺术品的创作者，Marek Stanielewicz先生，并能在弗罗茨瓦夫期间和他面对面的交流。

一个雨后的下午，我和一个波兰朋友一起去探访了Stanielewicz先生的工作室。他和夫人接待了我们。Stanielewicz先生大约是六十多岁的年纪，留着长长的胡须，宽大的额头下，有着一双目光深邃，充满智慧的眼睛。他言语中透露着坚定和沉稳，口中的烟斗里，不时冒出些许青烟。因为我不懂波兰语，当我问及能否将采访录音以便于我后续整理和写作，他爽快地答应了。通过我波兰朋友的翻译，他告诉我，其实中国驻波兰的使领馆曾经给弗罗茨瓦夫当地的市政府施压，希望能让他取消这个六四纪念碑的计划，而对此他毫不在意。我对他的勇气非常敬佩，因为这往往意味着他的其他艺术创作可能再也不能进入中国市场，或者他与中国同行的合作可能也会受到限制。短暂的寒暄过后，老人家也慢慢地打开了话匣子，他的侃侃而谈一下子将我和我的波兰朋友拉回了八十年代那个充满希望的岁月。

很多中国人也许并不知道，其实弗罗茨瓦夫在整个波兰争取民主自由的运动中起到了很大的作用。独立的表达和对于强权的反抗，一直流淌在这个城市居民的血液中。上世纪八十年代的在波兰影响巨大的橙色运动（英语：Orange Alternative，波兰语: Pomarańczowa Alternatywa）就起源于弗罗茨瓦夫。橙色运动的核心就是通过一些近乎于无厘头的，却又不失可爱的矮人艺术形象，以涂鸦或者行为艺术的方式，去表达自我，去讽刺和解构当时独裁政权所强调的文化和社会的统一性。在青年艺术家Waldemar Fydrych的发起和带领下，这座城市里的艺术工作者和学生纷纷响应，并最终将这个运动扩大到波兰其他城市，使其成为波兰在一党专政下，年轻人反抗亚文化的一个象征。而Stanielewicz老先生本人，当年也和参与橙色运动中的很多艺术家们是挚友。他自己也是波兰团结工会在弗罗茨瓦夫的一个积极分子。

而历史的某种机缘巧合，在1989年6月4日当天，将波兰人民和中国人民，以一种近乎讽刺却又充满悲剧的方式，联系在了一起。正是在无数包括Stanielewicz老先生在内的波兰人的努力下，6月4日那天，这个被极权政权统治了超过了四十个年头的国度，迎来了第一次民主选举。而正当人们沉浸在团结工会的大胜，独裁政权即将瓦解的喜悦中，六四镇压惨剧的新闻传到了波兰，传到了弗罗茨瓦夫。老先生回忆到，很多参与了民主斗争的年轻艺术家们，很快决定要有所动作。于是六四发生后仅仅两天，一些他认识的朋友们就立起了第一个六四纪念碑。在老人家的回忆中，它的主体是由两排履带组成，而这个含义也是不言而喻的，代表了坦克对于抗议学生的镇压。据老人家讲，这个纪念碑他本人没有直接参与，而我们今天看到的，由他设计的纪念碑，其实是第二代的六四纪念碑了。老人家告诉我们，当年的老纪念碑是全球第一个实体的关于六四的纪念碑。

老人家和我们说，弗罗茨瓦夫之所以和波兰其他城市有所不同，就是因为在弗罗茨瓦夫人的心中，代代相传的抗争精神让年轻人从来就不认同什么自扫门前雪是正确的态度。他们不仅仅关心波兰，也关心世界上其他地区和人民争取民主的斗争。正是这种四海皆兄弟的态度，让那些艺术家们毫不犹豫的对六四去发声。彼时彼刻，在那些艺术家的心里，他们一定不会认为自己国家在89年的成功就代表他们可以置身事外。在弗罗茨瓦夫这座一个从记忆一开始就生活于独裁阴影下的城市，人们更加理解那种对于剥夺自身自由的抗争，和对于他人抗争的支持，以及保存一个群体去进行抗争的记忆，是不可分割，彼此成就的。这也是他们在漫长黑暗岁月中能互相支持，砥砺前行的动力。而自由，恰恰又是不分种族，不分国度的。因此，在六四发生的那一刻，弗罗茨瓦夫人民和北京人民，乃至中国人民的记忆，也就注定要融为一体。

然而这种发声，在当时来看也并不是没有代价的。由于老的纪念碑代表了对于自由民主的追求，在它完成的几天后，还未被民选议会完全取代的旧政府就非常不满，并且通过民兵把它捣毁了。镇压的威胁，仍然悬在波兰人头上。而艺术家们则在政府行动之前，拍下了照片，发给了全世界的媒体，以期能在全波兰乃至全世界范围去唤起民众对于六四被镇压学生的声援和对于暴政的反抗。他们在纪念物附近点燃了蜡烛，摆放了鲜花，并日夜守护。在那一刻，他们守护的，不仅仅是纪念碑，也是自由，也是道义，也是他们对于中国人民的情感表达。在今天新的纪念碑附近，一个由弗洛瓦茨夫市政府树立的信息牌上，还能看到一张当年老的纪念物以及几位参加抗议的学生的照片。

在那个纪念碑被毁坏后，Staneielwicz先生就一直致力于六四纪念碑的重建。从他的谈话中，我可以看出他认为一个纪念碑不仅代表了一个重要的历史时刻，也是弗罗茨瓦夫这座城市集体记忆的一部分。在随后的几年后，他和一位当年参与波兰民主运动的记者朋友去联系了市政府，并最终获得了市长的批准。市政府也赋予了他完全的创作自由，可以不受限制地选择他的设计方案。然而，非常不凑巧的是，那个非常有历史意义的，第一个纪念碑所在的位置当时已经变成了Dominikańska商场的用地。于是，老先生决定在附近的一条主干道和有轨电车线路交汇的地方，来放置这个新的纪念碑。按照老先生本人的说法，在这个交通繁忙的地方，他希望能有很多来来往往的人看到它。

在采访中，老人也强调，他本人当时希望关于这个六四的新纪念碑，无论是建设和后续的宣传，都应该尽可能得去淡化来自市政府的影响，而去应该突出一种来自于公民社会的自发性。能看得出，对于波兰人而言，在后独裁时代，官方的过度参与甚至是背书，都会难免让人联系到某种自上而下的权威，而这种氛围和这个纪念碑所蕴含的自由精神是相悖的。采访中老人也透露，在政府的协调下，新纪念碑的石头地面是市政公司帮忙铺设的，但除此之外，他自己，还有他的妻子，还有他当时只有六七岁大的儿子，也都挽起袖子一起参与到了纪念碑的建造中。那个刻有“北京-弗罗茨瓦夫”的铜质金属铭牌，也是他请了一位好朋友，一位在民主运动年代曾在当地艺术学院担任独立学生会主席的艺术家去制作的。这种近乎于草根的氛围，在老人家看来恰恰是这个纪念碑的核心精神。

而至于这个纪念碑的主体，自行车，老人家也如数家珍地向我们介绍了他当年的设计。他说选择自行车，是因为在他心中和很多波兰人心中，自行车是中国人民的象征。为此，他还特地和他的夫人去了旧货市场，并找到了一辆真正来自中国的自行车。而将自行车切开，并固定在不平整的鹅卵石头表面上，也是象征着一辆坦克开压过广场的路面，从自行车上碾压而过。老人还说到，他想天安门广场的地面，一定不是用鹅卵石铺成的，但是建筑物所用的鹅卵石，却是弗罗茨瓦夫街区地面上所常见的。这样一来，北京和弗罗茨瓦夫，也就通过一辆来自中国的自行车和来自当地的鹅卵石联系在了一起。虽然老人家没有在采访中提及，但是我本人的遐想告诉我，用代表弗罗茨瓦夫的鹅卵石所铺就的地面，也许恰恰象征着，弗罗茨瓦夫人民愿意去分担那来自坦克和极权体制的重压。正是他们，在用他们的身躯去托起那辆象征着中国人民的自行车。正是他们，在分担着命运对中华民族的不公。包括Stanielewicz老先生在那些的艺术家们的举动，让我认识到弗洛瓦茨夫人民对于六四悲剧的感同身受，也让我感动于他们对于我们民族记忆的守护。

在第二个纪念碑揭幕的时候，老人家有意避开官方的宣传，而是通过他自己的人脉，和社会影响，邀请到了很多活跃在艺术圈和社会运动圈的朋友一同见证那个时刻。尽管老人家有些记不清具体年份和日期了，但我想这就是碑文上1999年6月4日的来源。老人家告诉我，揭幕的那一天，很多波兰人自发地聚集，并带来了鲜花和蜡烛。然而，最让他触动的一个场景，是一位陌生人在一张纸片上写下了如下的文字，并放在了纪念碑前：“自由从来不是被施舍的，要争取自由就要通过不停的抗争。“老人家说，这句话虽然不是来自于他，但恰恰是对他设计这个纪念碑背后源动力的最好表达。对于自由的不懈奋斗，正是他最希望通过这座六四纪念碑所传达的。

老人家也高兴地告诉我们，他相信很多人看到了。他提到，自从第二个纪念碑完成后，每年六四周年，都有很多人自发地在那一天来到纪念碑前，通过不同的方式去表达自己的情感。有的是鲜花，有的是蜡烛，也有人的会写下一段话，年年如此。而来参访的人也并不一定是中国人，老先生说，在波兰还是有很多波兰人自发组织去参与纪念六四的活动。而有些年份，当人们留下的东西太多时，老人还会自己去打扫和整理。

当他说到这一段时，我很好奇，便通过我的波兰朋友问他，他是否知道有中国人专门来参观过这个纪念碑。老人回忆到，他曾经带一位来自湖南的艺术教授看过这个纪念碑，那位教授的反应比较克制，并没说什么，但老先生还是从他的面部细微表情中看到了一丝动容。老人家告诉我，作为同样成长于一个极权体制下的波兰人，他完全能理解这种反应。而有的时候，这种对于情感的掩饰也会变成开诚布公的交流。当有一些来波兰中国人从网上得知他是这个纪念碑的设计者，他们也会主动联系他。如今他在当地的艺术学校任教，因此有的时候也会接触到来自中国的访问团。对于来自中国的访客，他在和六四相关的话题上也都会比较谨慎。当他在讲述这些故事的时候，我内心在想，其实关于六四记忆的火种，不论此刻显得多么弱小，但它通过像Stanielewicz老先生这样的国际友人能被保存和传承下去。而其他许许多多的像这个纪念碑一样的六四纪念物，只要在这个世界上存在一天，那么关于六四的记忆就不可能被彻底抹去。而这一点记忆的星火，在中国的未来的某个时刻，就有可能像1989年的波兰，蜕变成熊熊燃烧的，烧毁独裁制度枷锁的烈焰。

老人家同时也兴奋地告诉我，虽然说老纪念碑随着时间的流逝和风吹雨打已经不复当年的容貌，但他已经在设计第三代六四纪念碑了。老人家说，就在不久前，长期和他合作的弗罗茨瓦夫历史中心的一位负责人联系到了他。中心认为非常有必要去建立一座新的六四纪念碑，并希望他能负责这个项目。我听到之后很欣慰，因为我想这也意味着，关于六四的记忆和对它的纪念已经被刻进了弗罗茨瓦夫这座城市的历史中，而纪念六四的艺术也自然而然地成为了她文化的一部分。老先生也谈到，他的新设计很快就要完成了，而新纪念碑的地点就选在Dominikańska商场内的一个角落。他说，之所以选择这个位置，正因为这里是1989年当年第一个纪念艺术诞生的地方。而这座城市关于六四的记忆，也在兜兜转转了三十七年之后，终于将回到那个它第一次被塑造的场合。老先生是那多么有心啊！

老先生还说，在他的新设计里面，里面的一些灵感和元素来自于一位在弗罗茨瓦夫当地艺术学院访学的一个中国艺术家的其他作品。因为六四这个话题本身对于中国人的敏感程度，老人家不确定能否争得这位艺术家的同意去使用他的创作，但老人家本身对此仍然非常期待。而对我而言，如果这个合作能够达成，这也将意味着，一位来自中国的艺术家能参与到一个波兰城市为了保留六四记忆所做的努力中。某种程度上，这将不仅仅是我们中国人对六四记忆的再一次诠释，也将是中国人对弗罗茨瓦夫市民几十年来守护我们民族历史之努力的一种回报。

当这次访谈快要结束时，我问了老人家对中国人追求自由民主的斗争有没有什么建议，尤其是当下这个严酷的环境中，我们年轻一代有没有什么可以做的。老先生看了看我，说道，他年轻的时候，也不曾想过有朝一日共产主义在波兰会被推翻，而苏联帝国会解体。然后他出乎意料地用了一句中文成语“水滴石穿”作为鼓励。他说，当年有一次他在电视上看到，一位白俄罗斯人在明斯克街头对着记者采访的镜头公开诉说自己对这个体制的不满，当时他就预感到笼罩整个东欧的红色政权很快就要崩溃了。我明白他的意思，他想说的是，当民众不再对政权的镇压感到畏惧，或者说即使恐惧也变得敢于公开表达自己的想法，而且当这些声音在社会上变得足够大时，那这个独裁政权距离死亡也就不远了。而对于极权统治的噤声，也许有着明哲保身的必要，但却也是对这种统治本身合法性的默认。而波兰人，弗罗茨瓦夫人，他们从来不曾停止表达。表达有时会被镇压，会被忽视，但这些失败的表达也会变成抵抗记忆的一部分，去激励更多人去进行下一次表达，直到最终到达某个临界点。临别时刻，我和波兰朋友对老先生和他的夫人表示感谢，并和他们二位合影留念。

在临离开弗瓦兹洛夫的那个下午，我再次回到了那个纪念碑。就在几天前，我去给那个纪念碑献上了一束鲜花来表达我的敬意。经过一场大雨后，鲜花上我附上的卡片已经被大雨冲到了地面，而我惊异地发现，一个有心人用几块小的鹅卵石压住了卡片，使它不会被风吹走。即使在我即将离开弗罗茨瓦夫时，这座城市仍然在以不同的方式让我感动和充满敬意。阳光照在我的那张卡片上，而上面是我通过翻译软件用波兰语写下的一句短语：“即使已经过去了三十六年，我们中国仍然不曾停下我们追求自由的脚步”。而在下面，我又用中文写下了“为了自由民主的新中国“。几天前，当我献花之后，一个路过的波兰中年男子看到了我的卡片。他比划着双手想对我说些什么，然后在我用英文自我介绍后，他明白我不会说波兰语。于是他掏出手机，通过翻译软件给我输了一段文字。大意是，中国是一个古老的文明，中国人给这个世界带来了很多的智慧，我真心地为中国的未来祈祷。那一霎那，泪水浸润了我的双眼。我握住了这位萍水相逢的波兰人的双手，对他点头致意。

如果说这一次在弗罗茨瓦夫的短暂停留让我明白了什么，或者有什么思考，那就是对于历史的真实记忆可以成为一个民族在追求自由的旅程上最有推动力的燃料。珍视历史，保卫共同的记忆不被消灭和篡改，是对于强权话语权的最有力反抗。同时，追求自由永远不是哪一个独立个体或某一个小团体的责任，而剩下的人都可以坐享其成，或者相信自由可以被施舍。只有当一个群体众志成城一起去追寻自由，并且在自由尚未来临之前互相鼓励，守望相助，那么那些反对自由的势力才不能将我们各个击破。即使远在天涯海角，来自不同的文化，不同的宗教信仰，不同的种族，只要这些人有着一颗追求自由的心，那么他们就值得我们去守护。毕竟如果我们不去守护他们，当有一天他们被消灭，而我们的自由受到威胁时，谁又来守护我们呢？

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The year 2026 marks the 37th anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre of 1989, which unfolded in Beijing, China’s capital, on the night of June 3-4, 1989. Acting on the orders of a small group of leaders then in power, the military carried out a bloody crackdown on peacefully protesting students and residents.

As victims of the June Fourth Massacre, we call on the government to address, through lawful means and in a spirit of peace and reason, all the wounds and unresolved injustices left by those events, and to restore justice and dignity to every family that lost a loved one.

This was a tragedy caused entirely by the government at that time, one that gravely violated China’s Constitution, violated the most basic principles of humanity, and trampled upon the civil rights of its citizens. Precisely because it was an act of state power, this human calamity remains, 37 years on, no closer to resolution. To this day, the government continues to evade responsibility, refuse redress, and suppress all public discussion of what took place.

Despite extraordinary advances in information technology, truthful accounts of the June Fourth Massacre remain inaccessible within China. People cannot discuss it openly or mourn it publicly. Even commemorations held by the victims’ families have long been subject to intense surveillance. This reality has left many young people unaware that in June 1989, in Beijing, soldiers opened fire on unarmed students and civilians. It is as if nothing ever happened.

The Chinese authorities’ official narrative of the June Fourth bloodshed has shifted repeatedly, from the original “suppressing turmoil and quelling a counterrevolutionary rebellion,” to a “political disturbance,” back to “turmoil” and “counterrevolutionary rebellion,” and most recently, in the November 2021 Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century, to “a serious political disturbance” and “opposing turmoil,” with the phrase “quelling a counterrevolutionary rebellion” dropped entirely.

Whatever the wording, all of these formulations serve to conceal the essential truth: that the government deployed the military against its own people, taking innocent lives. We lived through this tragedy. The people of Beijing witnessed it. Citizens across China, and people around the entire world, saw it unfold.

The military’s violence left countless students and citizens dead in the streets. The youngest victim in our records was only nine years old. Was a nine-year-old child a “rioter”? Who has the right to make such a designation? Can those in power simply invent charges with no basis in the law, and by force of that power compel an entire society into silence?

The tragedy of 1989 occurred in a time of peace, when China faced neither war nor foreign invasion. In those days, the broader public stood squarely behind the students. On April 15, 1989, the death of national leader Hu Yaobang sparked a wave of mourning that gradually grew into a nationwide student movement. Students called for an end to corruption and official profiteering, demanded disclosure of officials’ assets, and advanced other reform-minded appeals which resonated widely across society. People from all walks of life in Beijing took to the streets in support, while cities across China, as well as Hong Kong, voiced solidarity in turn. Through peaceful action, the public sought to make its aspirations heard: that the government respect the will of the people, advance the rule of law, and build a country that guarantees freedom of expression and embodies the values of a modern civilization.

What few anticipated was that the government would ultimately turn the army’s guns on its own people. Today, there is still no clear accounting of how many were killed, how many were wounded, or how many disappeared in the crackdown. The government has a duty to confront these unresolved historical issues honestly, to acknowledge its errors and make them right, to disclose the truth, and to provide an account to the families of the victims and to the Chinese people as a whole.

We will not forget Xu Qinxian, commander of the 38th Army, who refused to carry out the order to open fire. He said: “Such an action must be able to withstand the judgment of history. . . Carrying out such a mission might earn one merit, or it might make one a criminal in the eyes of history. I cannot bring myself to execute such an order with weapons in hand.” For that refusal, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Yet in doing so, he preserved the conscience of a soldier and embodied the finest qualities of our common humanity. He was a general of iron principle. His courage and conscience will endure through history, live on in the hearts of the people, and history will, in time, render him the judgment he deserves.

We must also ask: did the soldiers who that day turned their weapons on the people realize they were facing their own fellow citizens? Every person in power who gave the order to fire on the people should bear responsibility before both history and the law.

It is with deep sorrow that we inform the world of another loss: Xiong Hui, father of one of the victims, passed away from illness in May 2025 at the age of 87.

His son, Xiong Zhiming, was 20 years old when he was killed. He was an undergraduate student in the Class of 1988, Department of Economics, Beijing Normal University.

On the night of June 3, 1989, Xiong Zhiming and a female classmate took shelter in the entrance of a hutong alley. When she was struck by a bullet, he rushed forward to help her and was shot dead on the spot. Other students nearby identified him by his clothing as a student from Beijing Normal University, and his body was taken back by the university.

Xiong Zhiming’s parents were farmers from Jinxi County in Jiangxi Province. For a family of modest means, his admission to university in Beijing was a source of immense pride. Because the family was so poor, not a single photograph of him survives—only a school bag remains as his sole memento. His parents once said in grief: “Our child went to Beijing to study. He never finished his studies, he lost his life.” Those words speak for the countless families who have suffered the same loss.

For thirty-seven years, we, the Tiananmen Mothers, have never forgotten the pain of losing our loved ones. Because we have persisted in speaking the truth, we have long suffered unjust treatment, and our family lives have been deeply affected. Yet we continue, peacefully and rationally, in our pursuit of justice.

We reaffirm our three longstanding demands:

1. Disclose the full truth of the June Fourth Massacre;

2. Provide just compensation for the victims and their families;

3. Hold those responsible legally accountable in accordance with the law.

On November 20, 2025, Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled Remarks at the Symposium Marking the 110th Anniversary of Comrade Hu Yaobang’s Birth, in which he praised Hu Yaobang in glowing terms. Xi said Hu was “selfless and fearless,” that he insisted on correcting mistakes whenever they were found, and that he acted decisively to overturn wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice. He credited Hu with restoring persecuted veteran officials to leadership posts and vindicating large numbers of cadres, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens who had suffered political persecution.

Xi continued: “Over a revolutionary career spanning 60 years, Hu embodied the noble character of steadfast faith and devotion to ideals; concern and dedication to the people; a commitment of seeking truth from facts; the fine qualities of being pragmatic and courageous in shouldering responsibility; and the lofty conduct of being principled, fair, and disciplined in all things. He is eternally worthy of our study.”

The June Fourth Massacre remains a historical wrong that China cannot evade. We, the families of the victims, hope that the country’s present leaders will uphold the spirit shown by Hu Yaobang: his selflessness, moral courage, and the willingness to correct errors when they are made. We urge them to accept their responsibility to history and resolve this injustice through legislative and judicial means.

Signatories:

You Weijie, Guo Liying, Zhang Yanqiu, Wu Lihong, Zhu Zhidi, Ye Xiangrong, Ding Zilin, Zhang Xianling, Qian Putai, Wu Dingfu, Song Xiuling, Sun Chengkang, Yu Qing, Sun Ning, Huang Jinping, Meng Shuying, Yuan Shumin, Liu Meihua, Xie Jinghua, Ma Xueqin, Kuang Ruirong, Yang Darong, He Tianfeng, Liu Xiuchen, Shen Guifang, Xie Jingrong, Yao Furong, Meng Shuzhen, Shao Qiufeng, Tan Hanfeng, Wang Wenhua, Chen Mei, Zhou Yan, Li Guiying, Xu Baoyan, Di Mengqi, Wang Lian, Guan Weidong, Liu Shuqin, Sun Shanping, Liu Tianyuan, Zhang Caifeng, He Ruitian, Tian Weiyan, Yang Zhiyu, Li Xianyuan, Wang Yuqin, Fang Zheng, He Xingcai, Liu Ren’an, Qi Guoxiang, Han Guogang, Pang Meiqing, Huang Ning, Wang Bodong, Zhang Zhiqiang, Kong Weizhen, Liu Baodong, Qi Zhiying, Fang Guizhen, Lei Yong, Ge Guirong, Zheng Xiucun, Gui Delan, Wang Yunqi, Huang Xuefen, Guo Daxian, Wang Lin, Zhu Jingrong, Wang Zhengqiang, Ning Shuping, Cao Yunlan, Feng Shulan, Fu Yuanyuan, Li Chunshan, Jiang Yanqin, He Fengting, Xiao Zongyou, Qiao Xiulan, Lu Yanjing, Li Haoquan, Lai Yundi, Zhou Xiaojiao, Zhou Yunjiao, Chen Yongbang, Liu Yongliang, Zhang Jingli, Sun Haiwen, Wang Hai, Lu Sanbao, Yao Yueying, Ren Gailian, Ni Shishu, Yang Yunlong, Cui Linsen, Wu Weidong, Shi Jing, Yuan Ren, Bao Limei, Xi Guijun, Zhong Junhua, Ya Aiqiang, Chen Weidong, Hao Jian, Zhang Suying, Lin Li, Duan Changqi

(107 signatories in total)

At the proposal of fellow bereaved families, we also append the names of signatories from previous years who have since passed away, in honor of their final wishes and in respect for their memory.

Wu Xuehan, Su Bingxian, Yao Ruisheng, Yang Shiyu, Yuan Changlu, Zhou Shuzhen, Wang Guoxian, Bao Yutian, Lin Jingpei, Kou Yusheng, Meng Jinxiu, Zhang Junsheng, Wu Shouqin, Zhou Zhigang, Sun Xiuzhi, Luo Rang, Yan Guanghan, Li Zhenying, Kuang Diqing, Duan Hongbing, Liu Chunlin, Zhang Yaozhu, Li Shujuan, Yang Yinshan, Wang Peijing, Yuan Kezhi, Pan Muzhi, Xiao Changyi, Ya Weilin, Liu Jianlan, Suo Xiunü, Yang Ziming, Cheng Shuzhen, Du Dongxu, Zhang Guirong, Zhao Tingjie, Lu Masheng, Jiang Peikun, Ren Jinbao, Zhang Shuyun, Han Shuxiang, Shi Feng, Wang Guirong, Sui Lisong, Tian Shuling, Sun Shufang, Chen Yongchao, Sun Hengyao, Xu Jue, Wang Fandi, Li Xuewen, Wang Shuanglan, Zhang Zhenxia, Xiao Shulan, Tan Shuqin, Gao Jie, Jin Yaxi, Xing Chengli, Zhou Guolin, Hao Yichuan, Lu Yubao, Cao Changxian, Yin Min, Liu Qian, Lin Wuyun, Jin Zhenyu, Feng Youxiang, Wang Huirong, Zhu Yuxian, Zhang Shushen, Wang Guangming, Zhou Shuzhuang, Qi Zhiyong, Jia Fuquan, Huang Dingying, Xi Yongshun, Mu Huailan, Wang Deyi, Zhao Jinsuo, Xiong Hui

(80 signatories in total)

1989年“六四”惨案三十七周年祭

天安门母亲

2026年5月27日

进入2026年，是1989年6月3日至4日发生在中国首都北京的“六四”惨案37周年。这一事件由当年少数当权者下令、军队参与，对和平示威的学生和市民实施了血腥镇压。作为“六四”惨案的受害者，我们呼吁政府通过法律途径，以和平、理性的方式解决当年遗留下来的所有创伤和问题，还每一个遇难者家庭以公道。

这是一件由当年政府一手造成、严重违背中国宪法、违背人性、侵犯民权的事件。正因为是政府行为，这一人间悲剧在37年后依然看不到解决的可能。政府至今仍采取回避、不解决、全面压制言论的态度。尽管信息技术高度发达，在国内仍无法获取有关“六四”惨案的真实信息。人们不能公开讨论、不能公开悼念，甚至遇难者亲属的悼念活动也长期处于严密监控之下。这样的现实，使许多年轻人甚至不知道1989年6月在北京曾发生过军队向手无寸铁的学生和市民开枪的惨烈事实，仿佛一切从未发生。

中国官方对“六四”血腥屠杀的叙事不断改变，从最初的“制止动乱和平息反革命暴乱”，到“政治风波”，到再提“动乱”和“反革命暴乱”；最新的是2021年11月的《中国共产党第三个历史决议》，其中只见“严重政治风波”和“反对动乱”，不再提“平息反革命暴乱”。不管其表述如何改变，都是在掩盖政府动用军队镇压民众、剥夺无辜生命的本质和事实。我们是这一惨案的亲历者，北京市民是见证者，全国人民乃至全世界都曾目睹这一历史悲剧。军队的暴力行动导致无数学生和市民倒在街头。我们记录在册的最小遇难者年仅9岁。难道9岁的孩子也是所谓的“暴乱分子”？谁有权如此定义？当权者是否可以凭借手中的权力，为同胞编织没有法律依据的罪名，使整个社会在高压之下被迫噤声？

1989年的悲剧发生在一个没有战争、没有外敌入侵的和平时期。当时，广大民众站在学生一边。1989年4月15日，国家领导人胡耀邦逝世，引发悼念活动并逐渐演变为学生运动。学生提出反腐败、反官倒、要求公开官员财产等诉求，得到社会广泛响应。北京各界人士走上街头声援学生，全国多个城市乃至香港地区也纷纷表达支持。人民以和平方式表达诉求，希望政府尊重民意，推进依法治国，建设一个保障公民言论自由、符合现代文明理念的国家。

然而，出乎所有人意料的是，政府最终动用了军队向人民开枪。在这场镇压中究竟有多少人死亡、多少人受伤、又有多少人失踪，至今仍无明确答案。对于这些遗留问题，政府理应本着实事求是、有错必纠的原则，公布真相，回应历史，给遇难者家庭一个交代，也给全国人民一个交代。

我们不会忘记拒绝执行开枪命令的第38军军长徐勤先。他曾表示：“这样的行动必须经得起历史检验……执行这样的任务可能立功，也可能成为历史的罪人。带武器执行这样的命令，我无法做到。”他因此被判刑五年，但他却坚守了军人的良知，绽放出人性的光辉。他是一位铁骨铮铮的将军，他的勇气和良知将永垂史册，被铭记在人民心中，历史也终将给予他应有的评价。

我们也要追问：当年那些将枪口对准民众的军人，是否意识到面对的是自己的同胞？当权者中，凡是下令对人民开枪的人，都应承担历史与法律的责任。

我们怀着沉痛的心情告知世人：又一位遇难者的父亲熊辉，于2025年5月因病去世，享年87岁。

遇难者熊志明，男，遇难时20岁，北京师范大学1988级经济系本科生。

1989年6月3日晚，熊志明与同班一位女生躲进一个胡同口，女生被子弹击中，他立刻上前救援，也遭到射杀，当即死亡。遗体被同在现场的其他学生通过其身上所穿的衣服，辨认出他是北京师范大学的学生，被学校领回。

熊志明的父母是江西省金溪县农民。在当时并不宽裕的家庭条件下，他能够考入北京读大学，是全家的骄傲。由于家境困难，他甚至没有留下照片，仅有一个书包成为唯一遗物。其父母曾悲痛地说：“我们的孩子是到北京读书去的，书没有读成，命却丢了。”这句话，道出了无数遇难者家庭共同的心声。

37年来，我们“天安门母亲”群体始终没有忘记失去亲人的痛苦。因为坚持讲述真相，我们长期遭受不公正对待，家庭生活受到严重影响。但我们依然坚持，以和平、理性的方式，继续寻求正义。

我们重申三项诉求：

一、公布“六四”惨案真相；

二、对遇难者及其家属给予合理赔偿；

三、依法追究责任者的法律责任。

中国国家主席习近平2025年11月20日发表《在纪念胡耀邦同志诞辰110周年座谈会上的讲话》，称赞胡耀邦：“他无私无畏，坚持有错必纠，大刀阔斧平反冤假错案，坚决落实党的干部政策和知识分子政策，使大批受到迫害的老同志重新走上领导岗位，使大批蒙受冤屈和迫害的干部、知识分子和普通群众得到平反昭雪。”“在长达60年的革命生涯中，他充分展现了坚守信仰、献身理想的高尚品格，心在人民、利归天下的为民情怀，实事求是、勇于开拓的探索精神，求真务实、敢于担当的优秀品质，公道正派、廉洁自律的崇高风范。他永远值得我们学习。”

“六四”惨案是中国无法回避的历史问题。我们难属希望现国家领导人秉持胡耀邦的无私无畏、有错必纠的精神，勇于承担历史责任，通过立法与司法程序，公正解决这一问题。

签名者：

尤维洁 郭丽英 张彦秋 吴丽虹 祝枝弟 叶向荣 丁子霖 张先玲 钱普泰 吴定富 宋秀玲 孙承康 于 清 孙 宁 黄金平 孟淑英 袁淑敏 刘梅花 谢京花 马雪琴 邝瑞荣 杨大榕 贺田凤 刘秀臣 沈桂芳 谢京荣 要福荣 孟淑珍 邵秋风 谭汉凤 王文华 陈 梅 周 燕 李桂英 徐宝艳 狄孟奇 王 连 管卫东 刘淑琴 孙珊萍 刘天媛 张彩凤 何瑞田 田维炎 杨志玉 李显远 王玉芹 方 政 何兴才 刘仁安 齐国香 韩国刚 庞梅清 黄 宁 王伯冬 张志强 孔维真 刘保东 齐志英 方桂珍 雷 勇 葛桂荣 郑秀村 桂德兰 王运启 黄雪芬 郭达显 王 琳 朱镜蓉 王争强 宁书平 曹云兰 冯淑兰 付媛媛 李春山 蒋艳琴 何凤亭 肖宗友 乔秀兰 陆燕京 李浩泉 赖运迪 周小姣 周运姣 陈永邦 刘永亮 张景利 孙海文 王 海 陆三宝 姚月英 任改莲 倪世殊 杨云龙 崔林森 吴卫东 石 晶 袁 刃 包丽梅 奚贵君 钟俊华 轧爱强 陈卫东 郝 建 张素英 林 莉 段昌琦

（共107人）

根据难友们的提议，决定把历年来签名者中已故难友的名单附录如下，以尊重死者遗愿：

吴学汉 苏冰娴 姚瑞生 杨世钰 袁长录 周淑珍 王国先 包玉田 林景培 寇玉生 孟金秀 张俊生 吴守琴

周治刚 孙秀芝 罗 让 严光汉 李贞英 邝涤清 段宏炳 刘春林 张耀祖 李淑娟 杨银山 王培靖 袁可志

潘木治 萧昌宜 轧伟林 刘建兰 索秀女 杨子明 程淑珍 杜东旭 张桂荣 赵廷杰 陆马生 蒋培坤 任金宝

张淑云 韩淑香 石 峰 王桂荣 隋立松 田淑玲 孙淑芳 陈永朝 孙恒尧 徐 珏 王范地 李雪文 王双兰

张振霞 肖书兰 谭淑琴 高 捷 金亚喜 邢承礼 周国林 郝义传 陆玉宝 曹长先 尹 敏 刘 乾 林武云

金贞玉 冯友祥 王惠蓉 朱玉仙 张树森 王广明 周淑庄 齐志勇 贾福泉 黄定英 奚勇顺 穆怀兰 王德义

赵金锁 熊 辉

（共80人）

Human rights defender Dong Guangping arrived in South Korea on the night of May 25 after crossing the Yellow Sea in an inflatable boat to seek political asylum. He is currently being detained by the Taean Coast Guard in South Chungcheong Province on allegations of violating immigration laws. HRIC urges the South Korean government to uphold humanitarian principles and international human rights obligations by ensuring that Dong Guangping is not returned to China, where he faces a grave risk of persecution and torture. Read HRIC’s full statement here.

In Hong Kong, the closing arguments of Hong Kong Alliance leaders Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan’s national security trial began last week. Chow Hang-tung urged the court to safeguard ‘dignity, bottom line of law’ and warned judges not to become ‘accomplices’ in political repression, framing the case as a test of whether Hong Kong law protects CCP rule or the people’s right to advocate for democracy. Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung have been charged with inciting subversion for organizing Tiananmen vigils, with a verdict expected in July.

In other news, the only designated protest area at Hong Kong’s legislature has been repurposed as a car park, symbolically eliminating the last formal space for public demonstration at the seat of government.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

2025 Recording & Review Report: Hukou-Based Restrictions and Collateral Consequences Again Under Scrutiny: China’s NPC annual report on citizen-submitted legislative complaints again flagged hukou-based restrictions and the collateral consequences of criminal records as persistent problem areas.

USALI This Week in Asian Law: Key developments include China tightening state control over rare earths, and that the State Council instructed “local governments to gradually begin providing basic public services to long-term residents regardless of their “hukou” or place of household registration.”

Lawfare Daily: Ancient China and Modern Politics: A Lawfare podcast interview with Daniel Bell of the University of Hong Kong discusses how ancient Chinese political philosophy, including Confucianism, meritocracy, and cosmological statecraft, continues to directly inform PRC governance and Xi Jinping’s political ideology today.

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

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.

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.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Safeguard Defenders’ China Program Director Laura Harth publicly released a batch of AI-generated pornographic deepfakes targeting her personally, and named the culprit behind them: the Spamouflage foreign influence network linked to China’s public security system.

New Chinese surveillance leaves foreigners nowhere to hide: Cybersecurity researcher NetAskari spoke to Deutsche Welle about his discovery of an unsecured Chinese police dashboard, the “Dynamic Control Platform for Foreigners,” that compiles holistic surveillance profiles of foreign nationals, integrating facial recognition, visa records, travel data, and personal contacts, with foreign journalists and Five Eyes nationals as priority targets.

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.

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.

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.

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

HRIC on Twitter/X: The Chinese Embassy in Germany pressured the Technical University of Berlin to cancel a Xinjiang-related discussion event organized by the student union. The event, with the theme “A Decade of Mass Detention of the East Turkestan Nation,” was co-hosted by the student union and the Support Uyghur People Berlin Student Organization, and included a documentary screening and discussion.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Zhou Fengsuo, Executive Director of HRIC, recently spoke to Taiwan’s Central Broadcasting Corporation, where he shared his observations from participating in multiple democracy initiative events during his visit to Taiwan and praised Taiwan’s commemoration events around the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre.

German authorities arrest 2 on China espionage allegations: German federal prosecutors arrested a married couple in Munich on May 20 on suspicion of working for Chinese intelligence, using cover identities as translators and auto industry workers to cultivate university professors in aerospace, AI, and IT, some of whom were allegedly lured to China to deliver lectures that actually took place before state arms company employees.

‘Taiwan Travelogue’ author hopes award-winning novel can be read in China, spark dialogue: Yang Shuang-zi, who became the first Taiwanese author to win the International Booker Prize for her novel Taiwan Travelogue, said she hopes the book can one day reach Chinese readers and open dialogue about “what future Taiwanese people want.” The novel, though published in 2020, has never been released in China.

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

HRIC on Twitter/X: Xu Guang recounts his prison hunger strike: “I have been on hunger strike for four years, I have no other demands whatsoever. The only demand is: do not forget June Fourth! Do not forget 8964 in our lifetime. Our generation of June Fourth is fighting for freedom and democracy for the country and the nation. We have sacrificed for this, paid for this, strived for this. We have no regrets!”

HRIC on Twitter/X: The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy report on the circumstances of Beijing Zion Church pastor Jin Mingri’s detention by Chinese authorities, as well as the large-scale crackdown on Chinese Christians. Jin was a student in Peking University’s Department of Geophysics in 1989. After experiencing the Tiananmen Square events, he converted to Christianity, went to the United States to pursue a PhD in theology, and returned to China in 2007 to found Zion Church.

Prominent Uyghur Religious Scholar Abdushukur Rahmatulla Hajim Reportedly Detained by Chinese Authorities: Abdushukur Rahmatulla Hajim, a prominent Uyghur imam, Islamic scholar, and former CPPCC delegate, has reportedly been detained by Chinese authorities, with Xinjiang Daily announcing he had been stripped of his political advisory seat for suspected “illegal and criminal activities” without further explanation.

Chinese Restrictions Tightened at Choktrul Dorje Ten Rinpoche’s Monastery During Saga Dawa: Months after the arbitrary detention of Tibetan spiritual leader and educator Choktrul Dorje Ten Rinpoche, Chinese authorities have tightened restrictions at his monastery.

“I Tried to Warm Him Up… But He Never Opened His Eyes Again”: Uyghur survivor Mihrigul Tursun gave testimony recounting how her infant son died during her family’s detention in Xinjiang.

Careful Words on the Trump-Xi Summit: Lingua Sinica analyzes how China’s People’s Daily covered Trump’s first Beijing visit in nearly a decade with deliberate understatement, burying the summit beneath routine ideological content, as a calculated exercise in controlling the narrative and avoiding any appearance of concessions.

China’s Development Journalism Goes Global, an Oops Moment for AI Anchors, and Taiwan’s Public Broadcaster in Limbo: Lingua Sinica’s media digest covers China’s push to export its “development journalism” model to the Global South, an AI anchor gaffe, Taiwan’s public broadcaster PTS mired in political uncertainty, coordinated online attacks on Hong Kong’s main press association, and Vietnam’s impossible bind when covering China.

2-month suspended jail term for elderly man who reposted social media call to boycott legislative elections: According to a press release from the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Lam Kin-sik admitted to “inciting” another person not to vote, in violation of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance.

4 plead guilty to rioting at PolyU during 2019 protests: The four defendants were not prosecuted after their initial arrests in 2019 and 2020, but were apprehended again in June 2024 for “rioting” at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus at the height of the anti-extradition protests.

Construction worker pleads guilty to distributing ‘seditious’ materials, incl. calls to boycott ‘patriots only’ polls: Raymond Wong has pleaded guilty to making and distributing “seditious” materials, including calling for a boycott of the “patriots only” legislative elections last year.

Affective Encoding: Coping with Political Depression through Urban Wall Writing in Post-2020 Hong Kong: Despite numerous challenges, Hong Kong’s art scene is proving resilient. Artists continue to produce work that reflects political depression under censorship in the city’s complex socio-political landscape, through nuanced and innovative means.

Host of Hong Kong LGBTQ radio show ‘We Are Family’ says Metro Radio halts relaunch: Metro Radio abruptly cancelled plans to relaunch ‘We Are Family,’ Hong Kong’s only LGBTQ radio show, which was axed by RTHK in 2023 after 17 years, with the incoming management offering no explanation.

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

Numbers of Tibetan exiles plummet as China tightens grip: The number of Tibetans reaching exile has collapsed from thousands per year in the late 1990s to just 81 in the past five years combined, as Beijing tightens border controls, cutting off the exile community’s main source of firsthand information about conditions inside Tibet.

Related: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has restricted the exit of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and human rights lawyers from the country, and the ban is trending towards expansion.

Rights group says global executions hit 44-year record high: Amnesty International recorded at least 2,707 executions in 2025, a 78% increase and the highest figure since 1981, driven primarily by Iran more than doubling its executions to 2,159, while China remained the world’s top executioner with thousands of additional cases classified as state secrets.

China’s Africa trade push: Partnership or power grab?: China’s zero-tariff push into Africa is as much a geopolitical play as a trade offer, seizing on AGOA’s expiry and Trump’s tariff chaos to lock in raw material supplies and soft power.

Chinese Authorities May Have Banned Uyghur Doppa Hats Even in Commercial Designs: According to a video message shared by human rights activist Zumret Dawut, Chinese authorities may have gone so far as to prohibit the use of the traditional Uyghur doppa hat, a symbol of Uyghur cultural identity, even in commercial product designs.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) warned India against interfering in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, claiming it is China’s “internal affair.”: The Chinese Communist Party recently warned India not to interfere in the matter of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, stating that it is China’s “internal affair.” China also stated that it hopes India will not provide a platform for activities supporting “Tibetan independence.”

International Responses 国际反应

Rights organizations issue joint letter on human rights ahead of EU–China engagement and MEP visit: Over 40 human rights organizations issued a joint public letter urging MEPs visiting China to raise specific cases of political prisoners and systemic abuses, warning against allowing trade interests to sideline human rights in EU-China engagement.

US Department of State calls on China to release 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet: U.S. Department of State issued a statement on May 18, 2028, the day after the 31st anniversary of the disappearance of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. The State Department calls on China to immediately release the 11th Panchen Lama and his family, and stop persecuting Tibetans on the basis of their religious beliefs.

EU presses Nepal to address the rights of undocumented Tibetan refugees: The European Union has formally urged the Government of Nepal to address the longstanding humanitarian and administrative challenges faced by undocumented Tibetan refugees in the country, according to an official communication from the European External Action Service.

Chinese human rights cases in limbo after Trump-Xi summit: Trump raised the cases of Jimmy Lai and detained Pastor John Cao at the Beijing summit, but families of both men say there have been no further developments, leaving advocates to pin hopes on Xi’s planned White House visit in September as the next opportunity for progress.

Canada Defies Beijing as MP Michael Chong Visits Taiwan: Canadian MP Michael Chong, who is sanctioned by Beijing, visited Taiwan in a deliberate show of solidarity, defying Chinese pressure and signaling continued Canadian parliamentary support for Taiwan’s democratic governance despite diplomatic costs.

The United States has introduced a Tibet-related bill that requires the State Department to push for recognition of the Central Tibetan Administration: Representatives McCain and McGovern, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, jointly introduced a resolution in the House calling on the State Department to push for recognition of the Central Tibetan Administration. The bill has been submitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for consideration.

Trump’s shifting remarks on Taiwan are perfect for China to exploit: Trump’s contradictory signals on Taiwan — praising Xi while floating a pause on arms sales and suggesting a direct call with Lai — hand Beijing a strategic gift by creating deliberate ambiguity that China can exploit to pressure Taipei and test American resolve without firing a shot.

Related: US arms sales to Taiwan on ‘pause’ due to Iran war, says acting navy chief. The US acting navy chief confirmed that a planned $14 billion arms package to Taiwan has been paused because American military resources are strained by the Iran war, alarming Taipei and its supporters who warn Beijing will read the delay as a weakening of the US commitment to Taiwan’s defense.

Serbian president deepens ties with China while facing pressure from protests at home: Serbian President Vucic traveled to Beijing and signed over 20 cooperation agreements with Xi Jinping, receiving China’s Friendship Medal, while mass anti-government protests and police clashes raged in Belgrade, underscoring how Vucic uses China partnerships to shore up his increasingly embattled rule.

‘Multipolar world’: What Xi and Putin announced after Beijing summit: Xi and Putin’s Beijing summit produced declarations of a deepening strategic partnership and commitment to building a “multipolar world” order, with both leaders positioning their alignment as a counterweight to US global dominance, while announcing increased energy and military-industrial cooperation.

Germany urged to stop admiring Beijing and wake up to ‘China Shock 2.0’: A Centre for European Reform report warns that Germany, losing 10,000 industrial jobs a month with its trade deficit with China doubling to $25 billion in a year, risks sleepwalking into de-industrialization unless it stops viewing China’s export surge with “admiration” and treats it as a structural threat requiring urgent policy action.

Current Events 热点新闻

HRIC on Twitter/X: A coal mine gas explosion occurred in Qinyuan, Shanxi, trapping 247 miners underground. At least 82 people have been confirmed dead so far. Xi Jinping has not expressed condolences, but foreign and regional leaders have issued statements one after another.

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Dong Guangping, 68, from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, is a veteran dissident who has courageously resisted the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian rule for decades. In 1999, he was dismissed from the police force after signing a petition supporting the victims of the June Fourth massacre. He was later convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” and imprisoned from 2001 to 2004. In July 2014, he was again detained for participating in activities commemorating the Tiananmen massacre and was held in solitary confinement for more than eight months.

In 2015, Dong and his family fled to Thailand, where they were officially recognized as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and approved for resettlement in Canada. However, just before departure, Thai authorities — under pressure from the Chinese government — unlawfully deported him back to China, while his family was able to resettle in Canada. Upon his return, Dong was subjected to a forced televised confession and sentenced again, serving another prison term from 2016 to 2019.

After his release, he continued to face constant surveillance, harassment, and economic persecution. In December 2019, he attempted to swim to Kinmen in search of freedom but was intercepted and returned. In January 2020, he escaped to Vietnam, hoping eventually to reunite with his family in Canada. Yet on August 24, 2022, Vietnamese police detained him in Hanoi, forcibly disappeared him, and secretly deported him back to China in blatant violation of the international principle of non-refoulement. In April 2023, a court in Zhengzhou sentenced him to 11 months in prison for “illegally crossing the border.” He was released in October 2023.

The many years of imprisonment and persecution Dong Guangping has endured stem solely from his peaceful exercise of fundamental human rights and freedoms. For more than a decade, he has never ceased striving for liberty and reunion with his family.

That a man nearing seventy years old was driven to cross open seas in a small inflatable boat is itself a devastating indictment of China’s human rights situation.

HRIC urges the South Korean government to uphold humanitarian principles and international human rights obligations by ensuring that Dong Guangping is not returned to China, where he faces a grave risk of persecution and torture. We further call on South Korea to allow him to seek political asylum or facilitate his safe passage to reunite with his family in Canada.

中国人权紧急呼吁：关注人权捍卫者董广平

董广平于5月25日深夜驾驶橡皮艇横渡黄海抵达韩国寻求政治庇护，目前被韩国忠清南道泰安海洋警察署以涉嫌违反出入境管理法为由拘留。

董广平今年68岁，原籍河南郑州，是勇敢反抗中共暴政的资深异议人士。1999年，他因联署声援"六四"被开除警籍，后被判“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”，于2001年至2004年身陷囹圄。2014年7月，他因参加纪念"六四"活动被以“寻衅滋事罪”拘押，单独关押八个多月。2015年9月，他携家人逃往泰国并获联合国难民署正式承认为难民、获加拿大重新安置许可，但在即将赴加之际，泰国当局应中国政府要求将他非法遣返中国，他的家人则于同年成功在加拿大定居，从此一家天各一方。回国后他遭被迫电视认罪，被重庆一家法院判刑，于2016年至2019年再次入狱。

出狱后他继续遭受监控骚扰、断绝生计。2019年12月，他曾泅水试图前往金门，失败被遣回。2020年1月，他潜逃越南，等候赴加与家人团聚，却在2022年8月24日于河内遭越南警方带走，强迫失踪后被秘密遣返中国，违反了国际法规定的不驱回原则。2023年4月，郑州中级法院以"非法越境"罪判处他11个月监禁，同年10月20日刑满出狱。多年的牢狱之灾，全部源于他行使捍卫中国人应有的自由和权利。十一年来，他从未停止过与家人团聚、获得自由的努力。

一个年近七旬的老人，被迫以橡皮艇横渡公海，这本身就是对中共人权状况最沉痛的控诉。中国人权呼吁韩国政府出于人道主义给予董广平帮助，切勿将他遣返中国，允许他寻求政治庇护或前往第三国与在加拿大的家人团聚。

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A new leak has exposed a Chinese surveillance platform called the “Dynamic Management Platform for Overseas Personnel,” a remote tracking system and data analysis tool for mass surveillance of foreign nationals developed for the Zhangjiakou Public Security Bureau, near Beijing. Although the site appears to be a “demo,” it contains the information of real people living in China. The Telegraph’s former China correspondent, Sophia Yan, discovered that the system contains her passport number, mobile phone number, and workplace, and she is marked as a “trackable” subject. It logged the details of her movements within China: she was recorded 78 times at a certain intersection, with records of entries and exits at supermarkets and subway stations, and even relationship graphs to determine the identity of her associates. Interestingly, the data comes not only from official surveillance devices, but also privately owned devices such as ski lift cameras.

A relevant new report by Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association, on digital surveillance and assembly/association, describes China as an extreme case of surveillance ubiquity, with activists describing how WeChat and Alipay generate comprehensive digital footprints, Tibet characterized as “a giant prison” under 24/7 monitoring, and exiled Hong Kong activists documenting how protest-app data makes demonstrators easily trackable by police. China is also identified as a source of active transnational repression, with Tibetan defenders reporting state-linked cellular network and SIM-cloning attacks, while the ILO found a “near complete absence of civic space for collective labour actions in China,” leaving civil society organizations too fearful to recruit new members or expand their networks.

In other news, HRIC has launched a monthly Digital Rights Report, covering what you may have missed in the China digital rights space. This past April, top stories included the loss of a major VPN and an uptick in transnational digital repression.

Law & Policy 法律与政策

Tong Lihua and the “Law of the User”: A User Rights’ Based Approach to Platform Regulation: Chinese legal scholar Tong Lihua argues that existing law still treats digital life as mere commerce, when in reality platforms have become unavoidable infrastructure governing speech, work, identity, and social organization, requiring a framework grounded in user rights rather than consumer protection.

China’s National Legislature Releases 2026 Legislative Plan: China’s NPC Standing Committee released its 2026 legislative work plan scheduling 34 bills for review, with main themes spanning economic and financial regulation, social welfare, criminal justice, and national security, plus 22 lower-priority backup projects. The plan also leaves room for additional legislation to accommodate emerging needs in areas such as reform, defense modernization, and the development of foreign-related rule of law.

China’s new rules give the West a new headache: Beijing introduced sweeping new industrial and supply chain security regulations in April 2026, giving Chinese authorities a formal mechanism to investigate and penalize foreign companies that reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing or comply with Western sanctions and export controls targeting Chinese entities, creating a direct conflict-of-laws problem for multinationals.

Human rights concerns abound over China’s ‘state secrets’ regulation in the Uyghur region: A Xinjiang-specific state secrecy regulation that took effect on March 1, 2026 extends China’s national secrecy framework with provisions requiring grassroots party branches to designate liaison officers, mandating AI and big data surveillance of information flows, and barring former officials with access to classified information from traveling abroad or speaking publicly, creating a legal wall around those most likely to have witnessed detention system abuses.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

US jury convicts man who ran secret Chinese ‘police station’ in New York: “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 64, was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent and obstructing justice for running the first known Chinese overseas police station on US soil in Manhattan’s Chinatown, where he was tasked by Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security to locate and monitor US-based pro-democracy dissidents.

Teacher Li on Twitter/X: After the Chinese Communist Party repeatedly threatened to “arrest” Teacher Li and his family, five Chinese nationals conducted surveillance and took photos of Teacher Li’s residence. Subsequent related documents show that these individuals were associated with local Chinese chambers of commerce or student associations.

HRIC on Twitter/X: Elon Musk and other American business leaders recently accompanied President Trump on a visit to China. During this period, Musk replied on X to well-known Chinese blogger Teacher Li, stating: “My son is learning Mandarin.” This incident quickly generated tens of millions of views, topping the trending searches on Chinese social media, but all Chinese domestic media and official reports uniformly omitted Teacher Li’s account information and the context of the post.

Canadian officer accused of spying for China acquitted of charges: Former RCMP financial crimes officer William Majcher was acquitted of foreign interference charges in a BC Supreme Court ruling that found the Crown’s evidence insufficient to prove he intended to act for China’s benefit. Canada has never successfully convicted someone of spying for China, despite CSIS identifying Beijing as the country’s top espionage threat.

Panchen Lama’s 31^st year of enforced disappearance marked by Exile Tibetans: Tibetan exile groups held commemorations in Dharamshala and protests outside Chinese consulates across North America and Europe to mark 31 years since Beijing abducted six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama as the 11^th Panchen Lama, and replaced him with a state-appointed candidate.

Ex-soldier, Army officer indicted for alleged military leak to China: Taiwan’s Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted a former soldier and an active-duty Army lieutenant for leaking classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative in exchange for money, after the former soldier was recruited through a financial difficulty contact in November 2023.

East Turkistan Government-in-Exile Files Historic UN Decolonization Petition Against China: The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile submitted a 25-page petition to the UN Special Committee on Decolonization requesting that East Turkistan be inscribed as a Non-Self-Governing Territory—the first time any entity has formally challenged China as a colonial power before a UN body—arguing that no treaty has ever legitimized China’s control of the region since its 1949 invasion.

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

HRIC on X/Twitter: Li Qiaochu, fiancée of Xu Zhiyong, who was sentenced to 14 years for initiating the New Citizens Movement, expresses her demands: “My marriage application with Xu Zhiyong was submitted almost a year ago. The prison says it has been reported to the Administration Bureau, but the Administration Bureau says it’s not under their jurisdiction. I contacted the prison and the Civil Affairs Bureau, but the Civil Affairs Bureau said the inmate needs to be present, but he can’t come out.”

An Australian journalist turns her harrowing China prison ordeal into a memoir and play: Cheng Lei, the Australian journalist detained by China for over three years after breaking by seven minutes an embargo on a Li Keqiang economic report, which she believes was hostage diplomacy over Australia’s call for a COVID-19 inquiry, has channeled her experience into a memoir and a one-woman play titled “1154 Days.”

HRIC on X/Twitter: Hong Kong Alliance vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung, who has been detained for over 1,700 days, has released excerpts of her closing statement on her Patreon page. She will personally deliver her oral statement on May 19 at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court in Hong Kong on the charge of “incitement to subvert state power.”

Hong Kong court must not ‘pay lip service’ to human rights, lawyer tells trial of Tiananmen vigil activists: As closing arguments began in the national security trial of Hong Kong Alliance leaders Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, charged with inciting subversion for organizing Tiananmen vigils, defense counsel urged the three-judge panel not to “pay lip service” to human rights, arguing that calls to end one-party rule constitute protected political expression rather than incitement to unlawful action.

Jailed activist Joshua Wong to face foreign collusion charge at High Court as transfer procedures completed: Joshua Wong’s national security case has been transferred to the High Court, where the already-jailed pro-democracy activist faces up to life imprisonment on a charge of conspiring with exiled activist Nathan Law to solicit foreign sanctions or hostile activities against Hong Kong and China—a charge that was brought against him in June 2025 while he was already serving a four-year-and-eight-month sentence.

No more media interviews, outspoken Tai Po fire survivor says after release over fraud arrest: Jason Kong, a former Wang Fuk Court owners’ board member who had been an outspoken public voice for survivors of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, told reporters he would no longer give media interviews after his release from police custody following an arrest over alleged government loan fraud.

Case of 2 men accused of conspiring to incite others to riot in 2019 moved to higher court: Two men accused of conspiring to incite others to riot during Hong Kong’s 2019 protests have had their case transferred to the High Court, where they face more serious sentencing exposure, as the authorities continue to pursue prosecutions more than six years after the unrest.

Two-thirds of journalists report worsening Hong Kong press climate, FCC survey finds: A Foreign Correspondents’ Club survey found that two-thirds of journalists working in Hong Kong described the press climate as worsening, citing self-censorship pressures, restricted access to officials, and the chilling effect of the national security law on both local and foreign media.

Related: Contribute to national development by telling ‘good stories’ of China and Hong Kong, John Lee tells journalists. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee called on journalists to frame their role as contributing to national development by promoting positive narratives of China and Hong Kong.

Trolls Target Hong Kong Press Association Chair: The chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association has faced a coordinated online harassment campaign from pro-Beijing accounts and trolls following her public comments on press freedom, part of a wider pattern in which critics of the Hong Kong government’s media record are targeted with abuse designed to silence or discredit them.

Nat. sec police charge 3 more with conspiracy to commit subversion over alleged weapons training: Three more people have been charged under Hong Kong’s national security law with conspiracy to commit subversion, with police alleging they were involved in weapons training — charges that carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and represent the latest in an ongoing wave of NSL prosecutions.

Hong Kong LGBTQ carnival Pink Dot scrapped for second year after venue pulls out: Hong Kong’s Pink Dot LGBTQ carnival, one of the city’s largest pride events, has been cancelled for a second consecutive year after property manager Link REIT withdrew its offer to host the event at Stanley Plaza, citing “licensing issues.” A similarly unexplained venue denial occurred in 2025 from the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.

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

GlobalGiving to change Taiwan’s name to ‘Chinese Taipei’ on its funding platform, citing China ‘requirements’: US nonprofit fundraising platform GlobalGiving announced it would rename Taiwan as “Chinese Taipei” in line with Beijing’s preferred designation, citing compliance with “local requirements” in markets where it operates.

China’s Forced Assimilation Policies Continue in Kashgar Through Weekly Political Indoctrination Campaigns: Residents of Kashgar are reportedly compelled to attend mandatory weekly political indoctrination sessions promoting Xi Jinping Thought and “ethnic unity,” with officials monitoring attendance and threatening consequences for non-participation.

International Responses 国际反应

Trump’s lack of focus on human rights in China is big departure for US diplomacy: Trump’s reluctance to publicly raise human rights during the Beijing summit marks a sharp break from decades of US diplomatic practice, reflecting both the transformation of US foreign policy under Trump and Beijing’s growing immunity to international censure.

HRIC on Twitter/X: On May 13, 2026, a bipartisan resolution jointly proposed by U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Dick Durbin passed in the Senate. The resolution explicitly required President Trump, who was visiting China, to make the freedom of Chinese prisoners of conscience and political prisoners a top priority in this round of bilateral U.S.-China negotiations.

Related: 24 civil society organisations urge President Trump to press Xi Jinping on Jimmy Lai, bounties and sanctions ahead of China visit. A coalition of 24 civil society organizations published an open letter ahead of the Beijing summit urging Trump to demand Jimmy Lai’s release, the withdrawal of Hong Kong government bounties on overseas activists, and targeted sanctions against national security law officials, warning that silence on these issues would amount to a green light for further repression.

Related: Protest in Washington Calls for Release of Political Prisoners Ahead of Trump’s Beijing Visit. Uyghur, Tibetan, Hong Kong, and Chinese democracy activists rallied outside the White House urging Trump to use his Beijing summit to demand the release of political prisoners including Ekpar Asat, Jimmy Lai, and the Panchen Lama, and to reject any deal that traded human rights concessions for economic agreements.

Related: Donald Trump does ‘not feel optimistic’ for Jimmy Lai after speaking with Xi Jinping: Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he raised Jimmy Lai’s case with Xi at least twice and was met with a “not positive” response, with Xi describing Lai as “a tough one,” leaving Trump to say he did “not feel optimistic” about securing the 78-year-old media mogul’s release.

While Trump sits down for tea with Xi, Christians in China face an unprecedented crackdown: As Trump met Xi in Beijing, a simultaneous wave of church demolitions, cross removals, pastor arrests, and forced sinicization of Christian doctrine underscored the widening gap between the diplomatic optics of the summit and the reality of accelerating religious repression across China.

Related: Former US religious ambassador urges Trump to pressure the CCP: Religious persecution is an issue that cannot be ignored. Former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback called on Trump to raise China’s systematic persecution of Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners directly with Xi, warning that the summit represented a rare and potentially irreplaceable opportunity to link trade and diplomatic progress to concrete improvements in religious freedom.

Trump warns against Taiwan independence after visiting China: Returning from Beijing, Trump publicly warned against Taiwanese independence and said he had made “no commitment either way” on US military support for Taiwan, alarming Taipei and fueling speculation that Xi’s warnings had shifted Trump’s stance on the island’s security.

Linguistic workaround allows Marco Rubio, sanctioned by Beijing, to travel to China for the first time: China allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to accompany Trump to Beijing despite having sanctioned him twice as a senator for criticizing China’s human rights record, exploiting a linguistic loophole by quietly changing the Chinese character used for the first syllable of his surname—meaning Beijing’s sanctions technically remained in force against his old name while his new transliteration faced no bar.

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