Top News 头条
On October 18, at least 20 individuals were detained by police at a private home in Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, where a number of Christians were gathered to discuss scripture with Deng’an Church leader Mr. Ding. Witnesses report at least 40 police officers involved in the raid. The incident follows a recent trend of increased pressure on Chinese “house churches” which conduct religious worship outside of official government-sanctioned spaces, and have faced harassment and prosecution for doing so. The status of Ding and other church workers, who were still detained as of early last week, remains unclear.
According to Weiquanwang, land-rights activist Chen Jianfang remains under house arrest following her release in October 2023 after serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power.” She has reportedly been prevented from seeking hospital treatment or attending church, while friends attempting to visit have been turned away or taken to a police station. Weiquanwang also reports that she lost 14 teeth as a result of torture and abuse during her imprisonment.
Meanwhile, China’s Central Committee is holding its fifth plenary session from October 26-29, the last major gathering before the 2027 Party Congress where Xi is expected to take a fourth term. Analysts say it will ratify recent purges, replace those removed, and tighten internal control, with some speculating Xi could take on the title of “party chairman.” Other reporting notes that millions of officials have been investigated and hundreds of senior figures and generals purged.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
NPCSC Session Watch: Rights of the Accused, Cross-Border Corruption, Tax Administration, Public Interest Litigation, Renewable Energy & Global AI Governance: China’s legislature will meet November 2-6 to review ten bills, including an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law (likely headed to the full NPC in March), the Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law, and revisions to the Renewable Energy and Tax Collection Administration laws. It will also consider ratifying the treaty creating the Chinese-led World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The CPL reforms pushed by scholars include allowing counsel at interrogations and setting limits on so-called “residential surveillance at a designated location.”
Related: Torture Tales from China’s Black Jails. Safeguard Defenders has released a new book, “People’s Republic of the Disappeared,” exposing the cruelty of “residential surveillance at a designated location” (“black jails”) through the first-hand stories of those subjected to it.
USALI This Week in Asian Law: China issued outbound-investment rules (effective December 1) requiring reports of foreign demands for tech, data or divestment, and tightened export controls on tunnel-boring machines and drone parts.
2026 AI Regulations in China: Enforcement, Guidance and Compliance: Regulators moved to active enforcement in April, acting against Jianying, Maoxiang and Jimeng for failing to implement AI-content labelling rules. The Supreme People’s Court’s September 7 opinions set notice-and-takedown duties for AI providers and address voice cloning and training data.
Related: China’s AI Regulation in 2026: New Laws, Rules, and Compliance Requirements. A comprehensive AI law is on the 2026 legislative agenda, but no draft exists yet. The amended Cybersecurity Law added an AI provision, rules on human-like companion AI took effect July 15, and an AI agent policy and the September AI Safety Governance Framework 3.0 extend regulation to agents.
Hong Kong press group urges authorities to scrap new rules tightening media access to land records: New land title rules would limit searches to nine specified purposes that do not include news reporting, so journalists would need the registrar’s approval on public-interest grounds. The Hong Kong Journalists Association says this system, set to start in the first half of 2027, is a threat to investigative reporting.
The foreign judge Hong Kong was looking for: Samuel Bickett argues that retired New Zealand judge Sir Terence Arnold, 79, newly named as the sixth overseas judge on the Court of Final Appeal, has a record of siding with the state in security and liberty cases, including a vote to clear extradition to China on Beijing’s assurances. Bickett notes that six of the ten overseas judges in his 2024 report have since left and urges Arnold to decline before taking the oath.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
How Generative AI is Scaling Transnational Repression: Citizen Lab researchers say Anthropic’s September threat report is concrete evidence that AI is being built into cross-border repression, citing a China-aligned operator who used Claude to track Uyghurs in Syria and recruit informants. They urge AI companies to publish dedicated reports, improve detection and refusals, notify affected communities and preserve evidence.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Kylian Mbappe, the famous Real Madrid player, has lost endorsements in China and has been censored by social media platforms over his recent acknowledgement of an internet meme that superimposes his face over a portrait of a Chinese dictator, adding that he often uses it with friends. Mbappe didn’t name names, but an image of his face superimposed on a portrait of Mao Zedong has been circulating online for months. Dongpeng Beverage (a beverage brand), Mengniu, and Miaokelanduo announced the termination of their business cooperation with him, citing “zero tolerance for behavior that hurts national feelings.”
AI Authorship in a Party Mouthpiece: Jilin Daily ran an autumn essay bylined “AI” on October 12, which media circles called a first for a Party paper. CMP says the piece was part of an essay contest inviting readers to compete with AI, although the paper didn’t disclose the model or give readers that context.
Who Hit the Brakes on Negative Public Opinion?: A Dongchedi test video showing the brake pedal bracket snapping on Huawei-backed Maextro’s V800 minivan disappeared from platforms within 24 hours, prompting discussion online related to who was responsible for removing the video. A week later, the industry ministry opened a safety probe, with an unusual caveat: the “Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s top internet control body, would be joining the investigation to look into the problem ‘reflected online.’”
Taiwan says China cyberattacks, disinformation up ahead of local elections: Taiwan’s National Security Bureau says China spread over 2.5 million pieces of disputed content in the first nine months of 2026, about 48% more than the year prior. It warns of rising operations ahead of November 28 local elections, focused on energy, food security, defense and candidates. Beijing has denied interference.
冯正虎：一篇文章”违规”，整个账号被封停？——正虎纪实百家号账号被封事件始末 [Feng Zhenghu: One article “violation” and the entire account was suspended? — The whole story of the suspension of Zhenghu’s Baijiahao account]: The Baijiahao account Zhenghu Jishi was banned on October 18 after one article describing the author’s experience in promoting rule of law and the Constitution was found to “contain violations.” The author appealed, arguing only the single article should be pulled. Due to China’s real-name registration laws, the harshly disproportionate measures taken against accounts that are found to have crossed censorship “red lines” have a significant impact on individuals’ ability to re-access internet platforms.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Taiwan charges five men over plot to run over comedian for his Xi Jinping jokes: New Taipei prosecutors indicted five Taiwanese men for allegedly accepting NT$450,000 from a China-based contact known as “K” to injure comedian Huang Yi-hao, whose comedy mocks Xi Jinping. A suspect allegedly tracked Huang with a GPS tag, and on September 11 a car struck his scooter, luckily only leaving him with bruises.
Legally in the US, Hong Kong citizens caught in ICE crackdown: ICE has reportedly detained at least a dozen Hong Kongers at US airports since June and pressed them to sign voluntary-departure agreements, though they hold Biden-era Deferred Enforced Departure protection through early February 2027. DHS says the deferral “does not confer legal status,” and there has been no announcement of an extension under Trump.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
New Call for China to Free U.S. Scholar Min Zin, Detained Since June: Forum 2000 and the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal call for the release of Burmese democracy advocate and US citizen Min Zin, detained since June 3 in Yunnan after being invited to a university workshop. He is held on suspicion of espionage, and the U.S. State Department designated him wrongfully detained in August.
Online post purportedly by Chinese students calls for restoring term limits for Xi: An “open letter” purportedly from students at 14 Chinese universities appeared on October 26, the day a Party plenum opened, urging restored presidential term limits, democratic constitutional amendment and room for public discussion. RFA could not independently verify the authors or whether the letter in fact came from inside China.
China covered up the cause of a detained Uyghur father’s death: Police in Aksu confirmed to RFA that bus driver Yasinjan Toxti died in custody in a “re-education” facility in 2018, contradicting the traffic-accident story given to his family. He had been detained repeatedly since 2016 over religious suspicion, including pausing his bus so passengers could pray, and his sister in Belgium says other relatives were later detained as well.
Translation: “The Shawshank Redemption” Hits Chinese Theaters at Last, But “Had to Cut a Slice Off Its Tongue” First: Commentator Li Yuchen’s essay says the August 28 release’s subtitles changed “homosexual” to “people who are different,” “queer” to “pervert,” and “institutionalized” to “cage-tamed.” She argues the wording tracks a 2017 industry code and strips the film’s political metaphor, but cites the restored Fight Club ending as proof that “the line is elastic.”
Media Without “Humanity”: After singer Na Ying improvised a tribute song during a concert, Hunan’s Xiaoxiang Morning Post asked authorities directly whether she had broken pre-approval rules. Critics, including state outlets, branded the move as “informant-style reporting,” which crosses the line from fact-checking to policy enforcement.
UN experts warn of human rights violations facing North Koreans forcibly repatriated from China: Three years after China’s resumption of mass returns, UN-appointed experts say many returnees remain unaccounted for and face a longstanding pattern of rights violations, with women also exposed to trafficking and exploitation. They call on China to honor non-refoulement and on North Korea to disclose returnees’ fates.
李翘楚：已就山东省政府作出的《驳回行政复议申请决定书》向其上级行政单位提交了《行政复议监督反映书》 [Li Qiaochu: I have submitted an “Administrative Reconsideration Supervision Report” to the superior administrative unit regarding the “Decision to Reject the Application for Administrative Reconsideration” issued by the Shandong Provincial Government.]: Li, who applied to marry imprisoned democracy activist Xu Zhiyong, asked the State Council to correct Shandong’s July 15 decision rejecting her bid to force the prison bureau to act. She argues that the “penal enforcement” ground has no legal basis and was applied at the wrong stage. She notes the same prison reportedly helped 28 inmates register marriages in 2024, yet no agency has given her a written decision in over 16 months.
Hong Kong’s Vanishing Rainbow Shows How China’s Social Control Travels: Hong Kong’s largest LGBTQ carnival was cancelled for a second year as Pride organizers lost another venue to a “booking overlap,” while foreign embassies’ LGBT+ events in China face increasing pressure.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
China’s sanctions on Taiwan allies project its power, but with limited effect: Beijing’s October 12 sanctions on Paraguay’s ICT minister and Belize’s foreign minister serve to project power and warn off potential Taiwan allies, analysts say, but in fact have little financial bite and haven’t dented Taiwan’s ties.
CCTV cameras at Hong Kong malls to be linked to police surveillance network, says security chief: Security chief Chris Tang says police are in the final stages of talks with private shopping centers to link their cameras to the “SmartView” network, with live-feed access depending on crime risk. The target is 66,500 cameras by 2031, with facial recognition capabilities planned.
International Responses 国际反应
Six-monthly report on Hong Kong: 1 January to 30 June 2026: The UK government’s new report on Hong Kong states that its national security laws have “expanding scope and application” and have damaged freedom of expression, assembly, and the press. It cites rule amendments giving police power over devices and travel, as well as the new Procedural Matters Regulation.
Related: Hong Kong slams UK’s ‘untruthful remarks’ in 6-monthly report highlighting ‘expanding scope’ of national security laws. Hong Kong and Beijing rejected the report as “untruthful remarks, slanders and smears.”
The Global Cost of Ignoring Xinjiang: The authors of this opinion piece argue that Western attention to the Uyghur crisis has faded, yet Xinjiang is at the heart of “two of the most consequential policy challenges of our time”—global climate and nuclear risks. They cite Xinjiang’s coal-to-chemicals buildout, its role in polysilicon and forced labor in solar supply chains, and new construction at the Lop Nur nuclear test site, calling the region a “sacrifice zone” where local resistance has been eliminated, with an estimated 400,000-500,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic people imprisoned.
Pentagon designates Confucius Institutes a national security threat: On October 23, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Pentagon added Confucius Institutes to its list of institutions threatening national security, saying “sleeper organizations” resurfaced under new names after Congress banned them. The move follows the earlier audit of partnerships with 30 universities and the lists of blacklisted foreign entities.
Current Events 热点新闻
Powerful earthquake hits Tibet killing 16 people, reports say: A magnitude 7.0 quake struck Baqên County in Nagqu at 10:33 p.m. on October 22, killing at least 16, injuring dozens, and collapsing hundreds of homes.
Related: Rescuers search for survivors after deadly earthquake in China’s Tibet region. The temperature and altitude conditions have impacted rescue efforts, and official media reports that communications have gone down in some areas.