HRIC Weekly Brief
October 7, 2025
Top News 头条
On October 1, Xi once again emphasized his hard line stance against Taiwanese independence in an address for the PRC’s 76th National Day, mirroring the CCP’s recent aggressive crackdown on “separatism.” In Tibet and Xinjiang, arrests spiked and controls on movement tightened around the holiday. Globally, however, thousands rallied outside Chinese consulates and embassies, while isolated acts of defiance surfaced online in the form of digital campaigns condemning authoritarianism, censorship, and Beijing’s territorial claims. Former Tibetan political prisoner Namkyi testified against China’s persecution of faith in Washington D.C. on the eve of National Day to confront the Chinese Communist Party’s escalating assault on religious freedom.
Eight days after holding a Tiananmen Massacre commemoration near Bangkok, Zhou Junyi, a political exile living in Thailand, was arrested by Thai police at his home and is now awaiting deportation over visa offenses. The suspicious timing of Zhou’s arrest leads him to believe that he was targeted on behest of Beijing. In recent years, China’s push for strengthened relations with its southern neighbors has led to an increase in cross-border law enforcement. Relatedly, four independent United Nations Special Procedures recently issued a letter to the Vietnamese government regarding Mr. Tulku Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche, a Tibetan spiritual leader, who died in custody in Vietnam on 28 March 2025. The letter asks for information about his arrest and death, as well as any potential transnational cooperation with the Chinese authorities.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
China: Courts used as tools of systematic repression against human rights defenders: A new report by Amnesty International has exposed the judiciary’s central role in sustaining the Beijing authorities’ crackdown on fundamental freedoms and details how Chinese courts are rubber-stamping convictions against peaceful activists, journalists, lawyers, and ordinary citizens, often on the basis of their words, associations or international contacts.
NPC Calendar: October 2025: The Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee will convene for its Fourth Plenum from October 20 to 23. The Plenum is expected to approve the Central Committee’s Recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.
China’s 2025 Competition Law Creates Executive Liability and Extraterritorial Reach: On October 15, 2025, China’s revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law will take effect, which will expand China’s regulatory reach beyond its borders, codify new rules for the digital economy, and make executives personally liable for misconduct.
Keeping Each Other Afloat, Pt. 3 – The Gig Economy Era: The Saturation of the Employment Reservoir, New Regulations Incite Controversy: Platform-based gig workers are facing strict supervision from platforms, regulatory agencies, and even the property management offices of housing developments due to the revised “Measures for the Administration of the Express Delivery Market” that went into effect on March 1st of 2024.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
Ahead of Global Women’s Summit in Beijing, More Feminist Content Blocked on WeChat: Although the Global Women’s Summit will be held in Beijing, Chinese grassroots NGOs aren’t invited, and several bloggers reported that their articles about women’s rights or even their entire social media accounts were deleted by the state censorship apparatus in the lead-up to the event. Censorship of feminist social media content has become routine in China after years of crackdowns on women’s rights defenders.
Alibaba’s AI Bias Problem: Tests of Alibaba’s latest models reveal that English-language outputs are sometimes more likely to be propagandized than Chinese answers, as there has been a greater focus on international public opinion to ensure that Party narratives have an impact globally.
_China_Chatbot_29 ---> New AI Safety Framework; Alibaba’s Got a Propaganda Plan for You; an AI Talent Crunch: An updated version of last year’s AI safety framework looked into three big trends: creating detailed and systematic risk assessments; “application-derived safety risks,” and aligning with international AI safety talking points.
Hong Kong plans big AI-powered surveillance boost: Under the new plan, the number of cameras will balloon to 60,000 by 2028, according to documents submitted to the legislature.
Related: Hong Kong to install surveillance cameras with AI facial recognition. Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog declined to say whether it had been consulted in drawing up plans to expand the surveillance camera program, and the city has no clear rules on AI use by law enforcement agencies.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Jerome Cohen, the “Evergreen Pine of Rule of Law in China,” Remembered: Cohen was well known for his involvement in legal activist Chen Guangcheng’s escape from China, and he was frequently and energetically outspoken in support of others suffering official repression in China.
China’s fifth-ranking official was suspect in dropped Westminster spy case: According to the Guardian, the recipient of “politically sensitive information” from the two men accused of sharing intelligence from Westminster is believed by British prosecutors to be Cai Qi, the fifth-ranking member of the seven-member standing committee of the CCP politburo and one of the most powerful men in China.
German far-right lawmaker’s ex aide sentenced to nearly 5 years for spying for China: The court in Dresden found that Jian Guo was guilty of acting as an agent for a Chinese intelligence service while working for Maximilian Krah, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany.
Hong Kong leader mum on extradition request after wanted activist Nathan Law denied Singapore entry: Law was detained and questioned by Singaporean immigration authorities for four hours after arriving from San Francisco, before he was returned to the United States. Singapore has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, but it is unclear whether the Hong Kong authorities attempted to use it.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Honoring China’s Prisoners of Conscience this Mid-Autumn Festival: Both outside and within China, many are forcibly separated from loved ones because their relatives have been unjustly imprisoned by the Chinese authorities.
Uyghur Survivor’s Heartbreaking Testimony: Imprisoned Uyghurs have returned home to find their families destroyed by the Chinese government officials who detained them, with no legal recourse or accountability.
UN experts condemn reprisals targeting Hong Kong lawyer Kevin Yam: Yam had made public comments on the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary in a May 2023 U.S. Congress hearing. He was then removed from the Roll of Solicitors on July 16, despite not having violated any provisions of the Law Society’s statutes or Code of Conduct.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
HRIC on Twitter/X: According to a Reuters investigation, the Chinese Embassy in Manila, through the proxy company InfinitUs, created and used dozens of fake Facebook accounts disguised as pro-China Filipino netizens to extensively promote pro-Beijing positions, criticize U.S. vaccines, and attack political figures supporting the U.S.-Philippines alliance.
China threatened to retaliate against UK over foreign influence rules: British MPs have so far refused to apply stricter foreign influence rules on lobbyists acting for China. Only Russia and Iran have been included on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, which was introduced in July and came fully into force this month.
China’s top diplomat in Hong Kong cautions new US consul general against colluding with ‘anti-China forces’: The Commissioner listed “four don’ts” for Julie Eadeh, the new US Consul General in Hong Kong: “don’t meet the people the consul general shouldn’t meet with, don’t collude with ‘anti-China forces,’ don’t be involved in ‘activities that undermine stability in Hong Kong,’ and don’t interfere with national security cases in the city.”
Related: Hong Kong Chief Exec. John Lee warns foreign diplomats not to engage in ‘destructive activities’. In 2019, Eadeh, then political chief at the US consulate in Hong Kong, met with pro-democracy campaigners including Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
International Responses 国际反应
UN experts urge China to end repression of Uyghur and cultural expression of minorities: Citing the case of artist Yaxia’er Xiaohelaiti and the enforced disappearance of scholar Rahile Dawut, the experts said: “These cases reflect deeply troubling patterns where cultural identity, artistic creativity, and academic work are treated as threats to national security.”
Sorensen Distinguished Lecture: A Conversation With Volker Türk: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reflects on his engagement with the Chinese authorities: “[M]y strategy is to talk to them again and again and again, not only about the issues in Xinjiang, by the way, also in other parts of China—Hong Kong, Tibet, civic space. . . Whether it will lead to the changes that we all hope for, progress is extremely slow.”
UN Special Rapporteur Raises Concerns Over Paris Museums’ Use of Nomenclature in Tibetan Exhibits: The Musée du Quai Branly and the Musée Guimet have replaced the term “Tibet” with “Xizang Autonomous Region” and “Himalayan World,” respectively, sparking accusations of historical distortion and cultural erasure. The Special Rapporteur, Alexandra Xanthaki, questioned whether these changes comply with international human rights standards around the protection of cultural heritage and the right to self-determination.
Nordic Countries Raise Concerns Over Human Rights in China at UNHRC Session: At the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden raised concerns about ongoing abuses in China.