Top News 头条
Human Rights in China joins 40 human rights organizations and the international community in strongly condemning the Hong Kong court’s unjust sentencing on November 5 of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who had already been imprisoned for nearly six years, to an additional ten years in prison on charges of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.” This is yet another shameful step towards the ongoing destruction of Hong Kong’s democratic movement and deprivation of the Hong Kong people’s fundamental freedoms.
On November 6, 2026, a Macau court also found 69-year-old former pro-democracy legislator Au Kam San guilty on five counts, including “subversion of state power,” “endangering national security by maintaining ties with overseas organizations,” and “violating confidentiality obligations,” sentencing him to 12 years and 6 months in prison, with his sentence expected to end on January 29, 2038. Au Kam San was tried in a closed-door trial in September and his family was unable to hire a defense lawyer on his behalf, raising serious concerns about his right to due process.
Human Rights in China calls on the Hong Kong and Macau authorities to immediately release Joshua Wong and Au Kam San, alongside all political prisoners detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights. We also urge the international community not to turn a blind eye to Hong Kong and Macau’s deteriorating human rights situations, but to continue pressuring Beijing and holding those responsible accountable.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
Chinese Legislature Seeks Public Comment on 5 Bills: Criminal Procedure, Tax Administration, Renewable Energy, Financial Regulation & State-Owned Assets: The NPC Standing Committee opened public comment through December 5 on the draft Criminal Procedure Law amendment, Tax Collection Administration Law revision, Renewable Energy Law revision, Finance Law (second draft) and State-Owned Assets Law (second draft). The same session approved the Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law, Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law, Antarctic Activities and Environmental Protection Law, a Water Law revision, and Emergency Response Law amendments.
USALI This Week in Asian Law November 1 – November 7: The Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Law clarifies the role of the powerful Procuratorate to bring civil and administrative litigation when “national interests or societal public interests” (undefined terms) are deemed to be at stake. In addition, proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law would expressly prohibit presuming suspects’ guilt and limit use of “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL) to national security and terrorism cases. RSDL allows police to hold suspects incommunicado outside regular detention facilities for up to six months.
HRIC on Twitter/X: On November 6, 2026, the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress voted to pass the “Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law of the People’s Republic of China,” comprising six chapters and 47 articles, effective from the date of its promulgation. Particularly concerning is that the law further strengthens the Chinese government’s control over cross-border investigations, the provision of evidence, and data flows, potentially creating new obstacles for independent investigations and human rights activism.
Crypto holders face tax reporting under new law passed by LegCo: Hong Kong’s new Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2026 requires that “relevant crypto-asset service providers must begin collecting user transaction data next year.”
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
Police say linking mall cameras to AI facial recognition network complies with Hong Kong privacy laws: Police say connecting mall cameras to the SmartView network complies with Hong Kong’s privacy law, as they prepare to switch on AI facial recognition across it this month. Searches need an inspector’s approval, data is kept up to 180 days, and the network targets about 60,000 cameras by 2028. As of November 8 one tracker found no public response from the privacy commissioner.
What comes after networked authoritarianism?: Rebecca MacKinnon, who coined the term 15 years ago, argues that tech power is exercised by governments and companies in ways that are hard to challenge, pointing out that China is part of a network of authoritarian states building a global surveillance market.
Where the Weight Lies: A Balancing Act for the Governance of Open-Weight AI Models: The authors argue that debates over restricting Chinese (or American) open-weight models wrongly assume power travels with the weight file, when it actually sits in compute, hosting, standards and law. They say past restrictions on open technologies, from 1990s encryption to GitHub’s sanctions, pushed rivals toward their own institutions, and that “digital sovereignty” means four different things to four blocs.
Prominent Tibetan NGO’s website hit by cyberattack; data breach and AI-driven threats feared: The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy’s website went down on October 30 and has reportedly been seriously compromised, apparently via an open port flagged by the host. The attackers and extent of data exposure, including possible credentials and sources inside Tibet, are still unknown. TibCERT notes China-linked actors often target Tibetans and warns that AI is raising the scale of such attacks.
China’s first AI-generated film is a flop. Some still see it as the future of cinema: Sanxingdui: Future Past opened October 23 and earned roughly $180,000 against a reported $1.5 million budget. Some industry insiders nonetheless say it is just the beginning of AI cinema in China, where short AI videos already draw huge online audiences.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Uyghurs facing deportation by Thailand say they will be ‘like slaves’ in China: Two Uyghur men held in Thailand since 2014 told rights groups in letters that they want to go “anywhere else but China,” and one said he would be “like a slave” there. They reportedly pleaded their case to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission. Thailand’s foreign ministry declined to comment. The US and Canada had earlier reportedly offered to resettle such detainees, but Bangkok appeared to decline to avoid upsetting Beijing.
Related: China seeks arrest of five Uyghurs held in Thailand.
Chinese Embassy in Netherlands attempts to dissuade Dutch officials from meeting CTA President: In a November 4 letter, China’s embassy urged Dutch Foreign Affairs Committee members not to meet CTA President Penpa Tsering, calling Tibet “purely China’s internal affair” and the CTA a “separatist” body. The CTA president went ahead with meetings with Dutch officials and media and addressed the IPAC summit in The Hague.
Beyond censorship: China’s growing influence on Thailand’s media: Beijing has expanded its influence through embassy pressure, content-sharing deals, sponsored press trips, and Thai-language state outlets. In recent years, Thai PBS removed an online Taiwan interview after embassy contact and an art exhibition was censored in 2025. Thai newsrooms’ financial strain deepens the dependence, as one local journalist warns of becoming a “Chinese vassal state.”
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
HRIC on Twitter/X: According to a report by Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, Rahile Omar, a Uyghur woman from Shufu County in Kashgar who appeared in the “Xinjiang Police Files” released in 2022, has recently been confirmed to have died while serving her sentence, at just 23 years old.
Gonpo Kyi reportedly suffers bone fractures, internal injuries following repeated police assaults: Gonpo Kyi, sister of life-sentenced Tibetan businessman Dorjee Tashi, reportedly has broken bones and internal injuries after police repeatedly assaulted and dragged her away during peaceful protests in Lhasa, including an incident on October 26.
A pastor at a Beijing underground church has been arrested, his wife says: Pastor Cui Xianfeng (Edward Cui), founder of Beijing Jiaquan Church, was formally arrested on fraud charges on October 23, his wife told AP, amid a wider crackdown on unregistered churches. He and seven colleagues had been held since September on suspicion of “fraud,” a common charge used against religious practitioners operating outside of officially sanctioned spaces.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Hubei human rights defender Yin Xu’an was forcibly taken away on August 11, 2025, while seeking medical treatment in Beijing. His whereabouts remain unknown, and he has been forcibly disappeared for nearly one year and three months. A friend recently reportedly received a handwritten plea letter signed by Yin, stating that he is being held in secret at a psychiatric hospital in the Huangjinshan Development Zone of Huangshi, where he has been placed in solitary confinement and is not receiving the necessary specialist treatment for his severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Chinese grassroots environmental advocate Zhang Wenbin was taken away across provincial borders on October 20 by the Wanzai County Public Security Bureau in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, and criminally detained on “extortion” charges. His family said police had notified them that he would be held for at least 37 days. On the same day, two other local environmental volunteers from Jiangxi, Luo Wenbin and Xiong Qu, were also criminally detained by Wanzai police on suspicion of the same offense.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Ding Xingan, a leader of a house church in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, is being held under suspicion of “organizing others to illegally cross national borders or frontiers” for traveling to Indonesia to attend theological training. On October 18, 2026, around 40 armed police officers raided two house church meeting sites in Pingxiang, taking away 27 attendees. All were eventually released except Ding Xingan and fellow church worker Liang Yichao, who remain in custody.
Who Supervises the Sky Eye?: Independent journalist Fu Song reported “wave after wave of retaliatory actions against him and his collaborator” after his investigation exposed that a hotel linked to the Chinese Academy of Sciences sold access to the FAST radio telescope’s protected zone. Said retaliation included calls from the authorities and police questioning of a friend. According to this article, state-media “red-washing” let the exposé spread while Fu’s account of pressure from the authorities was suppressed.
A Loyal Journalist Takes the Helm: Cui Shixin, a former People’s Daily deputy editor-in-chief, was named head of the All-China Journalists Association, which enforces a code putting Party loyalty first. CMP highlights his seven years running Tibet Daily, including four commentaries blaming the “Dalai separatist forces” after the 2008 protests, and contrasts him with Chang Ping, who was demoted for questioning Tibet censorship and now lives in exile.
Translations: On the Long-Delayed COVID-Themed Film “Angel in White” and the Sanitization of Memory: The film, based around the Wuhan lockdowns, was not released on its official November 6 release date. Online commentary on the film criticized filmmakers for not including a character based on Dr. Li Wenliang and noted “the vast gulf between the film’s heroic depiction of doctors on the front lines of the pandemic and what ordinary Chinese people remember most vividly about those years.”
HRIC on Twitter/X: Zhang Jianhong, the former executive of Apple Daily and administrative president of Next Digital Group, recently appeared in political propaganda for Phoenix TV. Originally scheduled for release in 2028 upon completion of his sentence, he has now been released early and participated in a Shenzhen visitation program organized by the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department. It is a common practice of the Chinese authorities to coerce detained lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, and dissidents into participating in propaganda footage through televised confessions, public repentance, and official media interviews, in which the individuals admit to mistakes and disavow their past.
Court rejects ex-press union head Ronson Chan’s bid to take police obstruction appeal to top court: The High Court judge who upheld his conviction refused to grant the former press union head permission to take his case to the Court of Final Appeal. Chan was convicted over delaying showing his ID to police in 2022 and served five days after losing his appeal in May.
Hong Kong national security police arrest man over allegedly importing ‘seditious’ books: National security police arrested a 34-year-old Mong Kok man on November 5 under the national security law for allegedly importing seditious publications from Taiwan in October, an offense carrying up to seven years. Local media identified him as head of the prisoner support group Waiting Bird.
Related: Hong Kong prisoner support group says Customs confiscated over 60 books imported from Taiwan. Waiting Bird said books due October 13 arrived a week late with over 60 volumes missing, after customs reportedly seized them under national security rules.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
Schooling China’s Storytellers: Five Chinese universities opened international communication schools this year, turning Xi’s “tell China’s story well” push into a degree program. These programs openly aim to promote the image of the Party, with Fudan partnering with state-owned media Xinhua and the Communication University of China pledging to “shoulder the mission of the national team.”
Under its Sinicisation Policy, China Shuts Down Three Tibetan Schools in Golog: Since late August, authorities have closed three private or community Tibetan schools in Golog, including a nomadic boarding primary school in Machen County, which was founded in 1995 and was the county’s last of its kind. The displaced children are being sent to new state boarding schools outside the prefecture, such as Golog Tsoshar Middle School near Xining, opened September 1 with 1,200 mostly Tibetan students. Educator Gyal Lo calls self-run Tibetan schools “a thorn in [Beijing’s] side.”
Related: Thousands of Students from Nomadic Regions in Tibet Transferred to Urban Colonial Boarding Schools. After the October 22 earthquake, 1,498 students from Drachen (Bachen) County in Nagchu were relocated to Lhasa between November 1 and 3, in what the outlet calls “urban colonial-style boarding schools.” Students from large Golog schools are similarly being moved to Xining and Haidong state schools.
International Responses 国际反应
Estonian MPs meet Dalai Lama, urge Tibetans not to lose hope for statehood: A delegation of Estonian parliamentarians met the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala on November 5 and urged Tibetans not to lose hope for statehood. Earlier Estonian delegations made a similar point, saying Estonia’s peaceful path to independence offers Tibetans reason for hope.
Taiwan detains a Communist Party leader over alleged Chinese sponsorship in election: Authorities detained Lin Te-wang, founder of the fringe Taiwan People’s Communist Party, accusing him of directing a party member to run for ward chief in Hsinchu under the sponsorship and direction of China’s Communist Party. The case comes ahead of Taiwan’s November 28 local elections.