Top News 头条
Last Friday, Reporters Without Borders released their annual press freedom ranking in honor of World Press Freedom Day. Hong Kong placed 135 out of 180, with China at 172. Across Asia, 23 of the 32 countries and territories included in the report saw their freedom scores drop in the last year. Meanwhile, pandemic-era restrictions on information access are still in place in China, and journalists are facing harsher restrictions than before. This year, the number of writers imprisoned in China reached 107, a new record, including more than half in jail for online expression. Furthermore, evictions, harassment, and surveillance are the norm for outspoken journalists and dissidents in China, who are considered targets for so-called “stability maintenance.” Citizen journalist Fang Bin, known for reporting on the situation in Wuhan during the early COVID-19 pandemic, reported last week that he has been forcibly evicted from a newly rented apartment after the authorities put pressure on his landlord.
Saturday, May 4th, was Youth Day in China, commemorating the May 4th student movement in 1919. At only fifteen years old, Bao Zhuoxuan, the son of human rights lawyers Wang Yu and Bao Longjun, was beaten by the police, violently coerced into confessing, tried to smuggle himself out of the country but failed, and had a gun pointed at his head in Myanmar. Human Rights in China has published the story of Bao Zhuoxuan’s detention and torture by the police and his subsequent recovery.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
China’s revised state secrets law has come into force. Here’s what to know: The revisions to the Law on the Guarding of State Secrets came into force on May 1. U.S.-based law firm WilmerHale said that the law “may lead to self-censorship and impair ordinary business operations,” while the Taiwanese government warned its citizens against visiting China.
Related: China's amended secrets law sparks fears over widening state powers.
China vows reforms at long delayed party conclave amid challenging economy: The CCP Central Committee will hold a plenum, or meeting, in July—delayed from late last year, when it was “postponed without explanation.” The plenum is expected to provide information on the leadership’s reform priorities in the medium term.
Xinjiang Social Credit Regulations: Despite the government’s intent to form a nation-wide social credit system, social credit as it exists today is largely fragmented. Here, China Law Translate provides a translation of Xinjiang’s social credit law.
Courts have no jurisdiction over nat. security committee, judges rule amid Jimmy Lai’s bid to challenge foreign lawyer ban: Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal has ruled that the courts have no jurisdiction to review decisions made by the national security committee, which had prevented Lai from hiring British lawyer Timothy Owen to represent him.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
China trying to develop world ‘built on censorship and surveillance’: China’s “Digital Silk Road” seeks to export its authoritarian style of internet governance abroad, particularly in the strategically relevant Southeast Asian region. Cambodia, for example, is currently building a firewall similar to China’s, while Nepal and Thailand are reportedly considering doing the same.
On ‘China’s Instagram’, women find a space to discuss the routine and taboo: On social media app Xiaohongshu, young Chinese women discuss topics from job hunting to divorce and domestic violence. While these personal narratives often skirt the attention of the censors, some topics—such as freezing one’s eggs—are still not permitted.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Brown University Student Group Invites HRIC Executive Director: On April 23, HRIC’s Zhou Fengsuo spoke to a packed room at Brown University. Director Zhou was invited by the Brown Political Union to share his experiences as a Tiananmen student leader and discuss the political trajectory of the CCP’s regime from 1989 to the present day.
Related: HRIC's Zhou Fengsuo Speaks at Liberty Con Europe.
Tibetan, Uyghur protesters greet Xi Jinping in Paris: During Xi Jinping’s two-day visit to France, over a thousand Tibetan and Uyghur protestors, and allies, rallied across Paris to draw attention to human rights abuses under Xi’s reign, particularly ethnic cleansing in Tibet and Xinjiang. A group of activists from Students for a Free Tibet dropped a banner from a bridge as Xi’s motorcade passed, reading “Free Tibet—Dictator Xi Jinping, Your Time is Up.”
As China and Iran hunt for dissidents in the US, the FBI is racing to counter the threat: In the United States, FBI officials described the “alarming rise” in serious threats of transnational harassment and even violence aimed at U.S.-based dissidents as a “huge priority” for the department, and named China and Iran as the top two culprits.
Related: Chinese dissidents living in U.S. endure harassment campaigns they claim come from Beijing.
New queer museum pop up opens in SF Chinatown: A first-of-its-kind Chinese queer museum pop-up by artist-activist Xiangqi Chen has opened in San Francisco’s Chinatown, highlighting the experience of the Chinese LGBTQ+ diaspora.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Chinese scientist who published COVID-19 virus sequence allowed back in his lab after sit-in protest: Scientist Zhang Yongzhen, who has faced pressure and shutdowns from the authorities since publishing a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in early 2020, was suddenly locked out of his laboratory last week. After protesting for days outside the lab, he and his team have been tentatively allowed back inside to continue their research.
In China, Ruled by Men, Women Quietly Find a Powerful Voice: Carefully skirting the edges of what is allowed by government censors, feminist and “women-themed” bookstores have emerged as a gathering space for women in China’s larger cities who seek to connect with each other and discuss issues such as domestic violence and misogyny.
Veteran Chinese activist safe in US after grueling rainforest trek: Activist Tian Yongde has successfully reached the United States and applied for political asylum. Tian fled China after multiple instances of questioning by police led him to believe he may soon be jailed.
Quiet Mourning for Dissident Lin Zhao on the 56th Anniversary of Her Execution: Although public mourning for Lin Zhao remains sensitive in China, many public accounts on Weibo and WeChat expressed remembrances for her, honoring her “spirit of insistence on the truth.”
Updates to [ChinaFile] Database of Arrests under the Hong Kong National Security Law: New updates to ChinaFile’s dataset tracking arrests under the Hong Kong National Security Law show four arrested for signing up for Nathan Law and Ted Hui’s Patreon accounts. Others criticized officials and called for protests on social media.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
Red Renaissance: China’s rural “cultural revitalization” efforts largely are aimed at spreading political directives and reinforcing the power of the CCP at the grassroots. Nearly 600,000 “red bookrooms” have been built, alongside scores of wetland parks and sports centers that even official newspapers have described as environmentally wasteful political posturing.
Uyghurs have highest rate of imprisonment in world: report: The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) reports that approximately 1 in 26 Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region are imprisoned, more than three times higher than the world’s next highest incarceration rate and 47 times China’s average. UHRP says that number only includes prisons, not internment camps, which China claims to have closed.
International Responses 国际反应
US Congressional Uyghur Caucus introduces new sanctions bill: The newly introduced Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act, currently in the U.S. House of Representatives, would expand sanctionable activities, counter propaganda efforts, and allocate funds for the preservation of Uyghur culture.
Chinese-made surveillance kit to be removed from sensitive sites by 2025, says UK: The British government has announced that all Chinese-made surveillance equipment, such as security cameras, will be removed from “sensitive sites” such as military bases by 2025.
Interim report finds 'some interference' in Canadian elections: An official investigation has found evidence of foreign government interference in Canada’s last two elections, in particular interference from China, but says that it did not undermine the integrity of the electoral process.