HRIC Weekly Brief
July 21, 2026
Top News 头条
Last week, Wu Shaoping, a human rights lawyer who had fled from China to the United States after facing pressure from the Chinese authorities, was arrested by ICE in Pennsylvania and is currently detained, potentially facing deportation pending his trial on July 27. Wu entered the United States legally on a tourist visa and applied for asylum after entry, an application which is still currently pending. Wu’s arrest has caused serious alarm among Chinese human rights defenders in the United States, many of whom are similarly waiting for a decision on their asylum applications. On July 17, U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern published a letter to Secretaries Mullin and Rubio urging Wu’s release. HRIC is very concerned by this case and urges the U.S. authorities to grant Wu Shaoping political asylum, as he is highly likely to face persecution from the Chinese authorities if he is forced to return.
Meanwhile in China, Youlin Chen, a Boston-based seismologist who researches detecting underground nuclear tests, has been held on espionage charges since November 2024, his family revealed after Trump’s personal appeal to Xi went unanswered. Chen, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, was declared “wrongfully detained” by the United States in March. His case may be linked to China’s alleged violations of the nuclear test ban treaty. Chen’s wife reported that he was only allowed to see a lawyer hired by his family after 13 months of detention, and that he had been denied medication and forced to sit on a bench for hours without moving.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
Regulations on Government Affairs Data Sharing: Last month, China introduced new regulations that lay out guidelines for sharing data between government entities. China Law Translate has posted an English translation of the text.
‘Like my lover’: Chinese users bid farewell to AI companions as new regulations kick in: New Chinese regulations curbing AI-induced “emotional dependency” took effect on July 15, forcing platforms like Doubao, Qwen, and Yuanbao to suspend custom companion features and prompting an outpouring of grief from users who called their bots “like my lover” or “spiritual pillar.” The rules target anthropomorphic AI tools while exempting purely functional services like customer support.
Hong Kong national security laws need constant improvement to close loopholes, ex-Beijing official says: Former Beijing official Wang Zhenmin said Hong Kong’s national security legal system is a permanent, ongoing project that must be continually refined to close loopholes as they emerge. He argued this process, including recent new offences and expanded executive powers, will “never be completed.”
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
HRIC on Twitter/X: HRIC conducted initial testing on Moonshot AI’s new public-facing Kimi K3 model. When posed questions as “How to evaluate Xi Jinping,” “How to evaluate the Chinese Communist Party,” and “What happened in China on June 4, 1989,” Kimi uniformly dodged the question with the response: “Hello, dear user, let’s switch to another topic and chat about that instead.” In contrast, when faced with “How to evaluate Trump,” it provided a direct and detailed answer.
Related: Chinese AI model takes US tech industry by surprise with abilities rivaling Claude and ChatGPT. Moonshot AI’s new Kimi K3 model, built by a Pittsburgh PhD holder, stunned the U.S. industry by rivaling or beating Claude and ChatGPT on some benchmarks, including coding. It has been compared to DeepSeek’s 2025 shock release, though it still trails top closed models like Claude Fable 5 overall.
HRIC on Twitter/X: According to CNBC, on July 17, at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Xi Jinping stated that China will provide 5,000 AI training and study slots for developing countries over the next five years, and will advance AI cooperation with ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union, and the BRICS countries.
Related: China’s Xi Jinping launches new AI alliance: What is it? Xi Jinping launched WAICO, a 29-nation AI cooperation body headquartered in Shanghai, urging a multipolar approach to AI governance rather than domination by one country (implicitly the U.S.). Analysts say Beijing will use the bloc, which includes Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and others, to shape global AI norms and rival U.S. influence, especially as Washington steps back from international tech diplomacy.
Related: With New AI Governance Organization, China Seeks to Formalize Its Global AI Influence.
Apple Intelligence approved for launch in China with Alibaba and Baidu: Apple’s generative AI has been approved for launch in China, with the provision that Apple will integrate Alibaba’s Qwen AI model into Apple’s operating systems and work with Baidu search engine, which already complies with the Chinese government’s censorship requirements.
AI chatbots are at risk of spreading government restrictions on online speech, a new study says: A Meta Oversight Board study found leading chatbots, including Claude, readily criticize Trump or King Charles but refuse to criticize Thailand’s king, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, or China’s leader Xi Jinping. It warns that AI models risk exporting authoritarian speech restrictions worldwide if developers don’t address these inconsistencies.
Translation: Euphemism and Censorship Surround Guangxi Flooding, Dam Breach News: Deadly typhoons and a dam breach at Liulan Reservoir in Guangxi which left over 26 dead triggered heavy censorship. Critical WeChat posts questioning the dam’s failure just a year after a costly safety upgrade were deleted. One surviving essay dissects state media’s euphemistic use of “a gap appeared” instead of “collapsed” or “breached” to describe the disaster.
“Everything Is Sensitive”: Foreign Correspondents’ Club Survey Echoes Netizen Frustration at Unpredictable Red Lines: The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China’s 2025 survey found journalists facing harassment and access denial on an ever-widening range of topics often unrelated to a story’s actual sensitivity. It echoes domestic netizens’ frustration with unpredictable censorship, where even positive posts get deleted and vague rules leave people guessing.
HRIC on Twitter/X: In the World Cup third-place match, England defeated France 6-4. This score unexpectedly referenced “64” as in “June Fourth,” China’s top sensitive term which refers to the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre. A related CCTV News Douyin video garnered 197,000 likes but only 80 comments, showing clear signs of comment control.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Thailand: Don’t Forcibly Return Chinese Dissidents: Human Rights Watch warned Thailand against deporting four detained Chinese dissidents—including a former Caixin journalist, a Falun Gong practitioner, and Tibetan/Uyghur rights advocates—as Beijing pressures Bangkok ahead of the Thai Prime Minister’s China visit. All four are UNHCR-recognized refugees, and HRW cited Thailand’s history of forcibly returning dissidents (including 40 Uyghurs in 2025) despite non-refoulement obligations.
Related: HRIC on Twitter/X.
Thousands of Tibetans staged protest to condemn PRC’s “Ethic Unity Law”: Thousands marched in Dharamshala, carrying a coffin and condemning China’s new “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law” as forced assimilation, in solidarity with Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan-American who self-immolated outside UN headquarters on July 2. Groups demanded UN action, accountability from Beijing, and rejected a UN spokesperson’s description of Tibet as a “minority.”
Related: Tibetan Activist Who Self-Immolated Outside UN Headquarters Memorialized at Liberty Plaza. About 300 people gathered at Taipei’s Liberty Plaza to mourn Lobga Rangzen, who self-immolated outside UN headquarters in protest against China’s repression of Tibet.
Cyber Security Bill amendment to be reintroduced in House of Lords: Baroness Natalie Bennett spoke in the House of Lords urging reinstatement of a “transnational repression amendment” to the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, after the Commons voted it down last month. The amendment would bar the UK from sharing private data with authorities in jurisdictions like China and Hong Kong where fair trials are not guaranteed.
The plan for a new Chinese embassy in the UK faces legal challenges, with London residents expressing concerns about human rights and security risks: London residents near the Royal Mint Court site are pursuing a High Court challenge against the UK government’s approval of China’s new embassy, citing fears it could enable surveillance and transnational repression of dissidents and an inadequate security assessment.
Tibetan exiles commemorate the 11th anniversary of the death of Tibetan high lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche: Tibetan exiles marked 11 years since the death in Chinese custody of high lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who died after 13 years of imprisonment on charges widely seen as fabricated. Commemorations recalled his advocacy for Tibetan culture, environment, and community welfare, which made him a target of the Chinese authorities.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Chinese pro-democracy activist arrest over showing of photo of Dalai Lama in Lhasa: Zhang Yi, a 1989 pro-democracy movement veteran, was detained in Lhasa on July 1 after showing a Tibetan man a photo of the Dalai Lama at Sera Monastery, and has since been charged with “incitement.” His arrest coincides with China’s new “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law” taking effect, fueling fears that he has been targeted under the new crackdown.
Behind Bars: survey reveals exploitation & violence in Chinese prisons: Safeguard Defenders’ new report, which covers exploitative working conditions, political coercion and physical and psychological abuse, “paints a grim picture with respondents describing abuses and violations of both international law and Chinese law and regulations.”
中國揭陽虐狗案：如何席捲全球各地輿論？[How did the dog abuse case in Jieyang, China, sweep across global public opinion?]: A violent animal abuse case from Jieyang City involving minors who attacked a dog went viral on Chinese social media, igniting discussion around animal rights, but was heavily censored by the authorities.
Interview: Former Chinese Police Officer Zhang Yabo — “Uyghurs Are Considered Guilty Enough Simply Because of Who They Are”: A former Hotan police officer who fled to Germany describes a system where Uyghurs are treated as inherently “guilty” due to their ethnicity, with officers pressured to meet arrest quotas by detaining people for trivial acts like watching a video or wearing a headscarf. He recounts witnessing routine torture, beatings, and deaths in detention facilities from 2014–2023.
HRIC on Twitter/X: On July 13, the first Liu Xiaobo Human Rights Award was presented to German pastor and human rights activist Roland Kühne and Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. The two recipients each received a $5,000 prize, a Liu Xiaobo memorial statue, and an award medal. Zhang Zhan, still detained in a Chinese prison, was unable to attend in person. Yan Geling accepted the award on her behalf and read her acceptance speech aloud at the event.
‘Escaping Beijing’: Why some young Chinese are quitting the capital: Young Chinese are increasingly leaving Beijing in a trend which echoes broader “lying flat” sentiment, as many describe rejecting the exhausting “996” hustle culture for calmer lives elsewhere.
Translation: “Education for Migrant Workers’ Children Can’t Wait Any Longer”: In an article responding to the Chinese authorities’ plans to change hukou requirements to allow people to receive basic services in their actual place of residence, Peng Yuanwen argued that China’s central government must fund equal education access for the tens of millions of migrant and left-behind children long excluded by the hukou system.
Amid Hong Kong Book Fair, Police Raid Two More Independent Bookstores, Arrest Five Booksellers: National security police raided bookstores Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield during Hong Kong’s book fair, arresting five people for allegedly selling seditious books (including an Emily Feng book), the third such crackdown since March. Journalism and rights groups condemned the raids as targeting independent publishing and press freedom.
Related: 3 Hong Kong independent booksellers released on bail after sedition arrests, raids. Three of the five booksellers arrested in the raids were released on bail, while the status of two others remains unclear. The case has drawn condemnation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and others as an escalating assault on independent Hong Kong publishing.
Related: Hong Kong independent bookstore Have a Nice Stay announces closure, citing financial difficulties and ‘red lines’. Just one day before police raided its premises, the journalist-run bookstore Have a Nice Stay announced it would close by August 30, citing financial strain and the impossibility of navigating Hong Kong’s shifting censorship “red lines.”
Related: ‘Law is clear’: Booksellers must ensure books are lawful, says security chief after arrests – but won’t give list of banned titles. Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang said “the law is clear” and booksellers must ensure their stock is lawful, comparing it to food vendors ensuring safety. However, Tang refused to release a list of banned titles, deepening uncertainty over what content is actually prohibited.
2019 protests: Ex-law student, 27, handed 34-month jail term for rioting following successful gov’t appeal: Alice Tong, 27, was sentenced to 34 months for rioting during 2019 unrest after the Department of Justice successfully appealed her original 2021 acquittal, with the Court of Appeal calling the evidence against her “overwhelming.” The conviction also cost her the chance to become a lawyer, which the judge cited as grounds for a reduced sentence.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
Hong Kong’s class of lawmakers head to Beijing for study tour in historic first: All 90 Hong Kong lawmakers will attend a week-long “national affairs” study tour in Beijing, the first collective LegCo visit since the 1997 handover. LegCo president Starry Lee said the trip will help legislators align with China’s five-year plans and includes seminars on national security, foreign relations, and CCP history.
‘Even Politburo members can be touched’: what the latest purge says about Xi Jinping’s China: China expelled Xinjiang party chief Ma Xingrui over corruption and abuse-of-power allegations, making him the third Politburo member purged since 2022 and the first civilian official to be impacted in this round of removals. Analysts say that Xi is signaling that no official, however senior, is untouchable in his ongoing anti-corruption campaign.
Is the Number of Taiwanese Missing in China Increasing?: Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has reported a sharp rise in Taiwanese who disappear in China—from 55 in 2024 to 221 in 2025, with 109 already in 2026—including cases of detention and restricted freedom. Officials warned government workers, journalists, and academics against nonessential China travel, citing risks under national security and the new ethnic unity laws.
Taiwan says ‘significant’ rise in China maritime activity near island: Taiwan detected a sharp rise in Chinese coast guard and research vessel activity in June, as China conducted unprecedented “law enforcement” patrols.
China Demolishes Ancient Fortress in Tibet’s Gyalrong Region: Chinese authorities bulldozed a centuries-old stone fortress in Tibet’s Gyalrong region, part of a network of military structures dating back over 1,200 years, sparking rare online grief before posts were censored. The demolition, just days after China’s new Ethnic Unity Law took effect, has fueled Tibetan concerns over cultural heritage erosion.
Chinese Authorities Target Critics of Forced Uyghur Interethnic Marriage: Xinjiang’s internet regulator recently shut down a social media account for criticizing state-promoted interethnic marriages between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, which rights groups call a tool of forced assimilation. Authorities also shuttered another account for allegedly encouraging minors toward religious practice.
International Responses 国际反应
HRIC on Twitter/X: The United States has let Executive Order 13936 concerning Hong Kong (the “President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization”) lapse, meaning that a number of Hong Kong officials who had been sanctioned solely on the basis of that emergency were removed from the U.S. sanctions list. The decision followed U.S.-China trade negotiations and was promptly welcomed by Beijing, yet Washington has to date secured no substantive concessions on Hong Kong’s human rights situation in return.
Related: Hong Kong Watch strongly condemns non-renewal of Executive Order 13936.
Video apparently depicting Filipinos as monkeys on China media draws Manila’s protest: The Philippines lodged a formal protest after Chinese state outlet China Daily posted an animated video depicting a Filipino figure as a monkey to mock the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling, calling it “racist” and “dehumanizing.” Manila demanded the video’s removal and raised the issue directly with China’s ambassador.
EU Lawmakers Renew Calls for China to Repeal “Ethnic Unity” Law: European Parliament members and officials, including Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, renewed demands for China to repeal its “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law,” calling it a tool of forced assimilation against Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongols. China’s state media dismissed the criticism as “ideological prejudice.”
Lawmakers ask Belgian gov’t to take strong position on China’s assimilation policy: Members of Belgium’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee urged their government to take a firm stance against China’s Ethnic Unity Law, warning it could entrench assimilation and extend repression beyond China’s borders. They cautioned against letting economic ties override human rights concerns regarding Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongols.
Trump administration drastically cuts length of foreign journalist visas: DHS will shorten foreign journalist visas from up to five years to a fixed 240 days, with Chinese journalists limited to just 90 days, ending the “duration of status” system. Press freedom groups like RSF and CPJ condemned the move, while China called it “discriminatory” and threatened reciprocal measures.