Top News 头条
Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to make a state visit to the United States from September 23 to 25, 2026, meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington for high-stakes bilateral talks. Experts flagged potential topics for the meeting to include the fate of the Busan tariff/export-control truce, a possible AI safety dialogue, the still-undelivered $14 billion Taiwan arms package, and whether any concrete deliverables emerge beyond symbolic “strategic stability” language.
Human rights groups, pro-democracy organizations, cultural groups, and more have begun gearing up for protests and actions to oppose Xi’s visit and raise awareness of human rights issues in China. On September 20, pro-democracy demonstrators encountered a parade involving pro-Beijing Chinese community groups in Flushing, New York. As the two sides broke into conflict, a man grabbed an anti-CCP banner and was subsequently handcuffed and taken away by police. Police also reportedly separated the groups during another confrontation.
Ahead of Xi’s visit, 30 human rights organizations, including Human Rights in China, also wrote a joint open letter to Xi Jinping, urging him to:
Immediately and unconditionally release prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders, and individuals arbitrarily detained due to their family members’ advocacy activities;
Repeal or amend laws passed during Xi’s tenure that violate international human rights obligations, including but not limited to the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law and the 2026 Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress;
Confirm that individuals abroad, including the 14th Dalai Lama, who wish to travel to China to reunite with family and community, will be permitted safe entry;
Publicly commit, prior to arriving in the United States, that all members of Xi’s delegation and their associates in the U.S. will not engage in transnational repression or collective punishment retaliation against protests and boycotts during this visit.
Analysts say a successful, high-profile Washington summit would help Xi project strength domestically ahead of a possible unprecedented fourth term and reassure the military of his continued command amid ongoing PLA purges, with Taiwan arms sales seen as Beijing’s biggest red line concern. Taiwan conducted drills combining attack drones with missiles for the first time, which President Lai called proof of military modernization, as Taiwan awaits a still-postponed $14 billion US arms package.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
HRIC on Twitter/X: On September 15, China began implementing new entry and exit regulations, further tightening border controls. On the same day, the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders released an investigation pointing out that China’s use of “exit restrictions” (border controls) has been growing explosively in recent years. In just China’s Supreme People’s Court judgment database alone, there were 188,760 judgments mentioning “exit restrictions” in 2025.
Related: China can block citizens from leaving the country over national security or tech export violations. The rules, reflecting Beijing’s growing anxiety over tech transfer amid AI competition with the US, also let authorities deny entry to foreigners for one to five years over false visa information, and aim to curb citizens being lured abroad into forced scam operations.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Starting from November 15, 2026, Beijing will fully upgrade its drone control measures: The entire administrative area of Beijing will be designated as a drone control zone, prohibiting drone flights. Furthermore, within Beijing, it will be forbidden to possess or store drones and their core components, and also prohibited to transport or carry drones and their core components into Beijing. Drones and related equipment already stored in Beijing prior to this must be transferred outside the capital before November 15.
USALI This Week in Asian Law 09/18: The National Cybersecurity Standardization Technical Committee, a standards body guided by the Cyberspace Administration of China, released the third version in three years of its non-binding Artificial Intelligence Safety Governance Framework. Additionally, China’s Supreme People’s Court published four guiding cases on internet law, including holding a company liable for an AI-cloned celebrity voice used without consent in ads, while clarifying that AI search engines aren’t liable for pirated content links they promptly remove.
Advocates call for stronger consent laws as Hong Kong to criminalise persistent child sexual abuse and ‘cyberflashing’: Hong Kong’s Security Bureau confirmed it will create a new offense for prolonged child sexual abuse and criminalize “cyberflashing,” but advocacy group We Are X is pushing for stronger limits on the “honest but mistaken belief of consent” defense that survivors say lets attackers evade accountability.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
Anthropic report reveals China-based AI-enabled surveillance on CTA, ICT and SFT: Anthropic disclosed that a China-based, government-aligned actor used Claude to conduct surveillance targeting the Central Tibetan Administration, ICT, and Students for a Free Tibet, including compiling personal data, monitoring social media, and researching religious venue floor plans for use in intelligence dossiers.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Huanyu Zhiying 1.0, unveiled by Sun Yat-sen University in April, can simulate foreign-media coverage, predict how different audiences might react, then refine Chinese messaging in response. Instead of broadcasting a narrative and seeing what lands, researchers can potentially test it against synthetic audiences first.
Related: HRIC on Twitter/X. An analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on the “Global Audience Intelligence Response 1.0” system reveals that the system has built a database covering 18 countries with over 10,000 simulated personas, drawing on international surveys, social media data, and research on attitudes toward China in different countries. It aims to simulate foreign media coverage and audience reactions, then adjust dissemination strategies accordingly.
Translation: Article on Media’s Survival Fails to Survive: A frank WeChat article from Zhejiang’s provincial propaganda department candidly admitted the structural crisis facing Chinese local media, including control by tech platforms and shrinking revenue, was censored within hours, illustrating how even officially sanctioned honesty about media decline is unwelcome.
MiniTrue: ByteDance Censors’ List of 5,241 Sensitive Terms: CDT published and analyzed a leaked 2020 internal ByteDance moderation lexicon of 5,241 sensitive words and phrases covering political figures, historical events, and locations, used to censor content across TikTok’s sister apps Douyin and Toutiao.
China and the US are competing for AI dominance but have shared concerns over safety: Ahead of a planned Trump-Xi summit, both nations continue competing fiercely for AI dominance—with Trump dismissing AI danger warnings as a “hoax”—even as officials on both sides acknowledge shared risks around AI-enabled cyberattacks and loss of human control.
China dismisses AI ‘fearmongering’ as spy chief warns of threat to Communist party rule: While China’s foreign ministry publicly rejected Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow and contain China’s AI progress as destructive “fearmongering,” China’s intelligence chief Chen Yixin separately warned domestically that AI poses a genuine internal threat to Communist Party rule via disinformation and cyberattacks, naming Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s models as concerns.
Huawei unveils new chip technologies as Chinese firm steps up the AI race with Nvidia: Huawei launched its upgraded Atlas 960 SuperPoD computing cluster just before the Trump-Xi summit, underscoring China’s rapid push for chip self-sufficiency amid US export restrictions, though Chinese AI systems still often rely on some American components.
Policy Address 2026: Hong Kong will build an ‘AI City Brain’ for urban management: John Lee unveiled the “AI City Brain” initiative to consolidate data for traffic and emergency response across multiple government bureaus, modeled on systems already deployed across mainland Chinese cities since Hangzhou’s 2016 pilot.
Related: Planned AI ‘City Brain’ system not meant for surveillance – top Hong Kong official. Amid lawmakers’ privacy concerns, Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary defended the planned HK$200 million “AI City Brain,” insisting it will only monitor traffic and urban conditions, not individuals or crime.
Policy Address 2026: Hong Kong to appoint AI commissioner and consider deepfake laws – leader John Lee: In his Policy Address, John Lee announced a new AI Commissioner post to combat AI-enabled crime and said the government will study deepfake legislation, following cases of scammers using cloned voices to steal over HK$10 million.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
A detained US scholar’s wife asks Trump for help as Xi’s Washington visit nears: Sylvia Zin, wife of detained scholar Min Zin, urged Trump to secure her husband’s release when meeting Xi next week; Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien also lobbied Congress for his father’s release, noting Lai’s daughter is undergoing cancer treatment.
HRIC on Twitter/X: An exclusive Newsweek investigation has revealed a political warfare operation originating from China and spreading to the streets of the United States. In March of this year, the slogan “Hands Off Asia” first appeared on social media, and by the end of April, the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research officially launched an online campaign in Beijing. In July, the Colombo conference solidified it into the “Colombo Declaration,” directly targeting the U.S. military presence in Asia. By August, the movement had expanded to Philadelphia and New York.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Four members of Congress—Representatives James McGovern and James Walkinshaw and Senators Jeff Merkley and Tammy Duckworth—have issued a letter calling on the U.S. government to protect individuals who could face severe persecution if returned to China. The letter specifically highlights the cases of Guan Heng and human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping, both of whom HRIC has previously reported on.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
‘People had naive expectations’: How MeToo has changed in China: As #MeToo journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin was released after five years in prison, Chinese feminism has retreated into private, low-visibility spaces as hashtag campaigns have been scrubbed from the internet and a younger generation remains largely unaware of the movement’s earlier public battles.
Joint Statement: Ensure Sophia Huang Xueqin’s release and guarantee her freedom from arbitrary restrictions: Over 60 civil society organizations urged China to ensure Huang’s genuine freedom upon release, warning against continued surveillance, harassment, or restrictions, and called for legal reforms preventing the misuse of subversion charges against human rights defenders.
Friends, rights groups worry for Chinese #MeToo activist’s life after jail: Friends of Sophia Huang Xueqin and rights groups fear she’ll face a “non-release release” with ongoing surveillance and restricted freedom, a pattern seen with other released Chinese dissidents like Zhang Zhan.
Macau concludes first closed-door nat. security trial against ex-lawmaker and Tiananmen vigil co-organiser Au Kam San: Proceedings concluded in Macau’s first-ever closed-door national security trial against former lawmaker and Tiananmen vigil organizer Au Kam San, who faces up to 25 years for subversion; critics called the secret process “farcical” given he lacked independent counsel.
NGO concerned about South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan, 3 years after apparent disappearance: Reporters Without Borders marked three years since defense reporter Minnie Chan vanished after covering Beijing’s Xiangshan security forum, saying sources believe she’s held on undisclosed national-security charges potentially carrying a 10-year sentence.
Two Tibetan Officials Expelled After Joining Prayer Group for the Dalai Lama: Two Tibetan government officials in Lithang County were expelled from their posts after Chinese authorities discovered they’d secretly joined a 2024 prayer group for the Dalai Lama during his knee surgery, illustrating Beijing’s strict suppression of devotion to the exiled leader even among its own officials.
China Shuts Down Livestream After Tibetan Woman Singing a Tibetan Song: Authorities abruptly cut a Tibetan woman’s livestream simply for singing a Tibetan song, part of intensified Sinicization under the new Ethnic Unity Law that removes Tibetan language from public life and livestreaming, a key income source for many Tibetans.
HRIC on Twitter/X: HRIC has translated Gao Zhen’s final statement from his one-day, closed-door trial for infringing on the reputation of “heroes and martyrs” with works created before the law he was charged with, in a strong defense of artistic freedom and rule of law.
Rights group, relatives accuse China of using torture in prison: A Chinese Human Rights Defenders report examined 209 prisoners from 2016–2025 who alleged torture and mistreatment, finding a fifth beaten and 16 dying from denied medical care, with authorities rarely investigating complaints and sometimes punishing those who raise them despite China’s UN torture-convention obligations.
‘Soft resistance’ is the ‘most malicious’ threat to nat. security in Hong Kong – security chief: Security chief Chris Tang called the vaguely-defined “soft resistance” the most dangerous of Hong Kong’s “four great national security risks” precisely because its harm isn’t obvious, a term used since 2021 without ever being legally defined.
Netflix and the Nanny State: An analysis of Chinese streaming platforms’ content restrictions, framing state oversight of entertainment (à la Netflix’s total exclusion from China) as part of Beijing’s broader “nanny state” approach to controlling cultural and media content.
‘Cantonese is strictly forbidden’: Hong Kong school principal apologises after unapproved language ban sparks outrage: Prestigious Good Hope School faced backlash after a leaked graduation video guideline declared Cantonese “STRICTLY FORBIDDEN” in favor of English or Mandarin; the principal apologized, calling it an unapproved draft that didn’t reflect school policy, though the incident fueled fears about Cantonese’s status in Hong Kong.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
China expels two top ‘disloyal’ military leaders from Communist Party: Beijing expelled Zhang Youxia—Xi’s longtime ally and second-in-command of the Central Military Commission—and Liu Zhenli from the Communist Party over corruption and disloyalty, continuing a purge that leaves just two active members on the once seven-member CMC, timed days before Xi’s Washington summit.
Policy Address 2026: Hong Kong to expand gov’t-funded national security exhibition: John Lee announced Hong Kong will expand its government-funded National Security Exhibition Gallery — which has drawn 1.9 million visitors since 2024 — to promote the idea that “security brings prosperity.”
International Responses 国际反应
European Parliament calls for sanctions on Hong Kong officials over arbitrary detentions and crackdown on fundamental freedoms: MEPs overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging Magnitsky-style sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials over the jailing of Tiananmen vigil organizers and bookseller Leticia Wong, also calling for repeal of the security laws and review of Hong Kong’s WTO status.
US lawmakers hold hearing on plight of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, as Hong Kong slams ‘hypocrisy’: The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing featuring Lai’s son Sebastien and introduced a bill targeting officials over Hong Kong political prisoners; Hong Kong’s government angrily rejected the hearing as collusion with “anti-China” forces and denied any press-freedom dimension to Lai’s case.
Taiwan Hits Out at Chinese Checkbook Diplomacy, Even as Also Engaging In It: Leaked documents show that China has offered cash and grants to Pacific and African nations to isolate Taiwan diplomatically. The piece notes Taiwan also supports allies like Eswatini with similar financial inducements, but it is unable to match Beijing’s spending power.
Chinese ship rams Philippines gov’t vessel in South China Sea: Coastguard: A China Coast Guard ship rammed the Philippine fisheries vessel BRP Datu Magat Salamat off Palawan while it delivered fuel to Filipino fishermen, causing damage but no injuries; Beijing blamed Manila for allegedly cutting across its bow.
Current Events 热点新闻
‘This is seriously bold’: How China turned Taiwan tensions into a top-rating TV spy drama: The Long Watch (Jiaofeng), a 40-episode series co-produced with China’s Ministry of State Security dramatizing decades of cross-strait espionage, has become a surprise hit for directly depicting sensitive history, including a fictionalized nod to Taiwan’s 1995-96 strait crisis, surprising viewers with its boldness.