HRIC Weekly Brief
December 9, 2025
Top News 头条
The aftermath of the Tai Po tragedy continues to dominate headlines. While some on mainland social media noted the relative openness of discussion in comparison with Beijing’s typically heavy-handed silencing of public mourning, the Hong Kong authorities have in many ways mirrored the mainland in cracking down on civil society and free expression in the name of national security. In the past week alone, a solicitor was taken in by national security police for planning to speak at a press conference; a YouTuber was arrested for sedition; Hong Kong Baptist University suspended its student union; and even flowers and tributes left to the victims have been removed overnight. Meanwhile, Beijing vowed to pursue “hostile external forces,” while the foreign media in Hong Kong were warned not to cause trouble.
On a related note, Hong Kong held an election to elect new lawmakers to Hong Kong’s 90-member Legislative Council just 11 days after the Tai Po fire, though most of the seats have already been reserved for Beijing-backed “patriots.” The Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested four men on election day for allegedly leaving comments on social media encouraging Hongkongers not to vote, or to cast an invalid ballot, in the Legislative Council election. There were over 3% invalid votes, a new high since the 1997 Handover. The issue of invalid votes, including blank votes, has come under the spotlight since the 2021 LegCo polls, after self-exiled democrats called on Hongkongers to cast blank votes as a form of protest against the electoral changes.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
Zhang Zhan Judgment Accuses Her of “Picking Quarrels and Provoking Trouble”: In September 2025, journalist Zhang Zhan was unjustly sentenced to another four years in prison for her work defending human rights. HRIC has translated the full text of her judgment and sentencing, now publicly available for the first time, into English.
[Full Court Transcript] The Case of Xu Qinxian Resisting the Martial Law Order: A complete transcript of the trial of Major General Xu Qinxian in a military court. Xu was removed from his position for refusing to lead the 38th Army into Beijing to enforce martial law and for opposing the use of force to suppress students, and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison.
SPC Cases on Domestic Violence: The cases, intended to serve as both public legal education and guidance to lower courts, largely showed increasing compliance with international legal norms.
Revised Law Sparks Debate in China Over Petty Offense Privacy: Per the Public Security Administration Punishments Law revised in June, China will now mandate the confidentiality of “administrative violations” relating to drug use, prostitution, and gambling, except in certain cases.
China’s Turn to National Security Lawfare: China has been imitating the U.S. playbook by rolling out new laws that mirror the national security legal tools the U.S. has deployed against it. Assembling its own legal toolkit allows China to demonstrate deterrence and channel nationalism, while mitigating the associated economic costs.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
Tencent enlisting American cloud hosting providers to enforce censorship: Last month, American cloud hosting company Vultr complied with demands from Chinese company Tencent (submitted via a proxy) to censor FreeWeChat, which tracks censored and uncensored posts from the public-facing website of WeChat, the most popular Chinese social media app.
The party’s AI: How China’s new AI systems are reshaping human rights: A new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reveals the new ways that the Chinese Communist Party is using large language models and other AI systems to automate censorship, enhance surveillance and pre‑emptively suppress dissent.
Shanghai launches clampdown on property market doom-mongering, targeting RedNote, Bilibili: Internet regulators from the Shanghai branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China shut down 70,000 accounts in a “special campaign” against pessimistic content as real estate jitters continue.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Fengsuo Zhou on Twitter/X: HRIC Executive Director Zhou Fengsuo spoke at an event at the Liberty Sculpture Park in California, where over a hundred people gathered at the unveiling of a mural depicting Xi Jinping falling from power to advocate for freedom in Hong Kong.
How three Uyghur brothers fled China – to spend 12 years in an Indian prison: The brothers were arrested in 2013 on the Himalayan border. According to detention orders, which Indian authorities continue reissuing, the three men may remain imprisoned indefinitely, pending the government’s decision on their release or deportation to China.
Thailand’s Deportation of Uyghur Refugees Ruled Illegal: Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission has determined that the Thai government violated both international and domestic law by deporting 40 Uyghur refugees to China in February 2025.
Opposing China’s Super Embassy Plan | 3,000 People March in Support of BN(O), Urging Labour Government to Keep Promises and Avoid Pro-China Relations: More than 3,000 people marched once again to oppose the Chinese “super embassy” in London. This was the eighth large-scale protest in 10 months, with many locals participating, including residents from the vicinity of the Royal Mint where the embassy is located.
Related: UK government delays decision on China’s super-embassy until January. The final decision on whether to grant planning permission has been delayed to January 20, 2026, around the time when the prime minister Keir Starmer is planning to travel to China for bilateral talks. It is the third time ministers have deferred the decision.
TWA marks 30th anniversary of historic ‘Silent Protest’ in Beijing by exile Tibetan women: During the original protest in 1995, nine Tibetan exile women stood in silent defiance, scarves tied over their mouths, to symbolize China’s systematic silencing of Tibetan women’s voices.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
China rearrests Tibetan singer Ah Sang after brief release in August: Ah Sang was reportedly taken into custody a few days after briefly reappearing online in August 2025. His current whereabouts remain unknown, but he is believed to remain in detention without formal charges.
Tibetan human rights activist Tsering Tso is under house arrest by Chinese authorities in Chiga County, Tibet: Tibetan human rights activist Tsering Tso was accused of conducting online human rights activities without government permission and of creating social unrest.
Family alarmed over Jimmy Lai’s deteriorating health as he languishes in solitary confinement in Hong Kong: Lai’s children have voiced new concerns over his health, describing his dramatic weight loss, teeth rotting, and nails turning green before falling off.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
Senior Chinese leader pushes intensified ‘sinicization’ of Tibetan Buddhism during visit to Labrang Monastery: He Moubao instructed prefectural and county-level cadres to “fully implement the Party’s strategy for governing Tibet in the new era,” emphasizing absolute political loyalty, unwavering gratitude to the Party, and deeper assimilation of Tibetan society into the overarching Chinese national identity.
International Responses 国际反应
Taiwan blocks Xiaohongshu amid fraud, security concerns: Taiwanese authorities ordered a one-year block of popular Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, in Taiwan due to cybersecurity failures and widespread fraud activity on the platform.
Advocacy group urges Macron to address human rights issues during China visit: Macron visited China from December 3-5 for high-level discussions aiming to shift geopolitical dynamics between Europe, China and the United States. Rights groups urged Macron to address human rights issues; however, the main points of discussion revolved around trade and Russia-Ukraine relations.
EU looks at legally forcing industries to reduce purchases from China: The European Commission unveiled a €3bn strategy to reduce its dependency on China for critical raw materials amid a global scramble caused by Beijing’s “weaponization” of tech materials, from chips to rare earths.
Handling of China spying case was ‘shambolic’, security committee concludes: The UK committee’s six-week investigation into the collapse of the high-profile trial of Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher, who faced allegations of espionage, says ‘systemic failures’ led to collapse of trial, but found no evidence of U.K. government interference.
Exceptional roundup of this week's developments. The parallel between Hong Kong's crackdown after Tai Po and the ASPI report on automated censorship really underscores how the party's control mechanisms are evolving from reactive supression to predictive containment. Shutting down 70k accounts on Bilibili/RedNote for doom-mongering about real estate before the sentiment spreads is basically sentiment control as infrastructure, not just ad-hoc moderation.