HRIC Weekly Brief
December 30, 2025
Top News 头条
Peng Peiyun, the senior CCP official who spearheaded and enforced China’s coercive and violent national family-planning system from 1988 to 1998, died in Beijing last week at 95 years old. Under Peng’s leadership, enforcement of the one-child policy intensified, employing a system of institutionalized violence to ensure the brutal implementation of the policy at all levels of governance. Implementation included forced abortions, forced sterilizations, arrests, detention, beatings, and collective punishment of entire villages. State media eulogized Peng as a “leader” in population policy, but Chinese social media revealed a different story: as one viral comment read, “那些赤裸身亡的孩子，正在另一边等着你。” — “The children who died naked are waiting for you on the other side.”
In a moment of tragic irony, the CCP’s new focus on increasing birth rates continues to target reproductive rights: contraceptive products are now subject to a 13% VAT tax as of last week, and outrage spiked online as one village attempted to mandate that “all mothers of childbearing age must publicly report their names, phone numbers, and dates of their last menstrual period” in line with national policy shifts.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government’s crackdown on Uyghur culture and language even includes the erasure of common greetings and popular folk songs. A new investigation from the Associated Press reports numerous cases of detention and multi-year prison sentences for playing, sharing, and downloading Uyghur-language songs such as “Besh pede,” a common wedding ballad. Residents have further been ordered “to replace the popular farewell phrase ‘Allahqa amanet,’ which means ‘May God keep you safe,’ with ‘May the Communist Party protect you.’”
Law & Policy 法律与政策
The Friends We’ve Made: An Initial Breakdown of Draft Rules for Human-like AI: New rules on “human-like” interactive AI services will require “service providers to profile users based on their interactions with the AI and other available data, both to identify minors and to assess behavioral or psychological risk. These assessments can result in reporting outside the chat, and even direct manual takeover of the interaction.”
Chinese Legislature Seeks Public Comment on 8 Bills: Environmental Code, Ethnic Unity, Childcare, Antarctic Affairs, Banking Regulation, Trademark & More: The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress has opened a public consultation period for eight bills, most notably the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (民族团结进步促进法草案二次审议稿), which is aimed at enforcing cultural and political assimilation under CCP rule.
China’s revised national language law punishes those who ‘interfere’ with others’ learning, use of Mandarin: The revised Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, which will come into effect on January 1, 2026, creates new legal obligations and penalties for “interfering” with Mandarin language learning, a clause which will likely be used against Tibetan-language and Uyghur-language teaching.
NPC (Finally) Responds to Controversy over Sealing Drug-Use Records: A month after revisions to the Public Security Administration Punishments Law that will require the sealing of drug convictions met with an internet firestorm over perceived inconsistencies in China’s generally harsh national drug policy, the legislature issued a statement further explaining the change and responding to criticism.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
As US battles China on AI, some companies choose Chinese tech: China’s open-source AI models are growing in popularity around the world, despite concerns over censorship and security. Cost and flexibility are two major factors: as one entrepreneur explained, “If you need cutting-edge capabilities, you go back to OpenAI, Anthropic or Google, but most applications don’t need that.”
FCC bans new Chinese-made drones, citing security risks: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has announced that it will ban all foreign-made drones from the U.S. market over security concerns, in response to a review which investigated possible national security issues related to two Chinese drone makers.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
【馮睎乾十三維度】中共大外宣內幕 [Feng Xigan’s Thirteen Dimensions: The Inside Story of the CCP’s Grand External Propaganda]: A Chinese military social media influencer has released a recorded conversation with an individual who claimed to be a middleman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and who offered the influencer monthly payments in exchange for posts pointing out weaknesses in Taiwan’s military defense.
Hung jury ends trial of ex-New York governors’ aide accused of selling influence to China: A “hopelessly deadlocked” jury was unable to reach a verdict regarding Linda Sun, the former aide to New York governors who allegedly helped Chinese companies secure contracts with the U.S. government, interfered with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and supported Chinese government priorities in exchange for monetary compensation.
Chinese Communist Party Infiltration | Senior New Zealand Police Officer Accused of Acting as China’s “Gatekeeper”; Intelligence Agencies Had Issued Warnings: A senior officer in the New Zealand Police Force, Jessica Phuang, is accused of assisting the Chinese consulate on multiple occasions.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
‘Is this real?’: wife of detained pastor describes anguish as China cracks down on unofficial churches: For the past two months, Zion Church senior pastor, Gao Yingjia, has been held in a detention center in Guangxi province. As part of China’s nationwide crackdown on Christians, Gao was arrested and charged with “illegal use of information networks.” Now his wife, Geng Pengpeng, faces the difficult decision of whether she should return to China to be closer to her husband, or seek safety for herself and their young son without him.
Related: Dear A-Ba || An Open Letter to Pastor Jin. Grace Jin Drexel, daughter of Beijing Zion Church pastor Jin Mingri, released a video open letter to her father, who is imprisoned in China. She explained that since his arrest in October, her father has been held in a detention center with extremely harsh conditions, where he was shaved bald, crammed into a cell with over 30 people, exposed to wind and rain without glass on the windows, and family visits and supplies were all denied.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Today, December 30, Dr. Wang Bingzhang spent his 78th birthday in prison. A leader of the Chinese pro-democracy movement, Dr. Wang has been imprisoned for 23 years since Chinese agents kidnapped him in Vietnam and forcibly returned him to China in 2002.
Minthang residents threatened with punishment after arrest of educationist Chogtrul Dorje Tenzin: Following the arrest of Chogtrul Dorje Tenzin, a respected religious leader and teacher, residents in a small Tibetan town have been forced to attend a state-led governance meeting and have been prohibited from engaging in activities deemed to threaten “social stability.”
Third college student union at Chinese University of Hong Kong suspends operations in a week: The Chinese University of Hong Kong has ordered the New Asia College Student Union to cease operations just days after two other college unions were forced to shut down. This closure is the latest example of how organizing efforts at the University, and within Hong Kong as a whole, are consistently impeded.
University of Hong Kong denies fire vigil venue, citing instability, ‘force majeure’: Five student societies who urged the government to address public’s concerns regarding the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire have since been denied a campus venue to host a memorial event. The University of Hong Kong’s reasoning included only vague concerns about “current social instability and force majeure.”
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
China launches live-fire drills around Taiwan simulating blockade of major ports: China initiated a “warning against ‘Taiwan independence’” by conducting air and maritime live-fire drills near the shores of Taiwan, deploying a large supply of “destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers, drones and long-range missiles” as a display of military strength.
Related: Chinese military stages drills around Taiwan to warn ‘external forces’, AP explains.
China’s foreign affairs ministry in Hong Kong summons UK, US representatives over remarks on Jimmy Lai conviction: China’s foreign affairs ministry in Hong Kong “lodged solemn representations” against several representatives of state consulate generals after multiple foreign ministers strongly condemned the conviction of pro-democracy advocate, Jimmy Lai, and called for his immediate release.
Myanmar is going to the polls. But it’s not the people who hold the power – it’s China: Experts say China has provided a critical role in supporting Myanmar’s military regime by offering diplomatic support, weapons sales, and land transfers. Now, China has endorsed the ongoing Myanmar elections, which have been criticized as offering “no true opposition,” with candidates largely consisting of military leaders.
International Responses 国际反应
MEPs condemn Chinese authorities arrest of 80 Tibetans in Sershul County, Tibet: Members of the European Parliament’s Inter-Parliamentary Group for Tibet issued a statement denouncing the mass arrest of peaceful protesters in Tibet. Members further reiterated their continued support for the Tibetan people and their right to exercise their international human rights and to “safeguard their land, culture, and way of life.”
Current Events 热点新闻
Japan’s cabinet approves record defence budget amid escalating China tensions: As tensions with China continue to rise, Japan has approved a record $58 billion defense budget, part of its larger initiative to double its annual arms spending.
China imposes sanctions on US defence firms over Taiwan arms deal: Ten individuals and twenty companies have been sanctioned due to the recently approved $10 billion in arms sales from the U.S. to Taiwan. Measures include freezing assets held in China and prohibiting all business dealings and travel to the country.