HRIC Weekly Brief
June 17, 2025
Top News 头条
In the first publicly known joint operation between Hong Kong police and Beijing’s national security office, China’s Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS) requested assistance from the Hong Kong police’s National Security Department (NSD) to investigate six people suspected of colluding with “a foreign country or with external elements” to endanger national security from November 2020 to June 2024. While the identities of the individuals remain unknown, they were required to surrender their travel documents. Officers searched their homes and offices and seized exhibits such as bank documents and devices for further investigation. Meanwhile, over 920,000 reports have been made to the Hong Kong national security hotline in past 4 years. The hotline was established by national security police in November 2020, four months after the promulgation of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law. Despite this, Chief Executive John Lee has maintained that Hong Kong’s national security arrests only “make up 0.2% of wider annual police tally.”
Law & Policy 法律与政策
May 2025: The Case of Dwindling NPC Delegate Bills: An analysis by Changhao Wei reveals that the National People’s Congress’s Standing Committee (NPCSC) has been intentionally limiting the number of delegate bills through new pre-submission quality-control mechanisms.
NPCSC Session Watch: Public-Order Offenses, Unfair Competition, Community Governance, Social Welfare, Food Safety & Law Propaganda: The 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for its sixteenth session from June 24 to 27, which will consider twelve legislative bills, hear three oversight reports, and ratify the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation.
China Proposes Strengthened Procedures for Formulating State Council Regulations: China’s Ministry of Justice issued a proposed revision of the State Council’s Regulations on Procedures for Formulating Administrative Regulations, which regulate the drafting and modification of nationally-applicable administrative regulations promulgated by the State Council.
Related: Regulations on Procedures for Formulating Administrative Regulations (Revision Draft for Soliciting Comments). There is a thirty-day public comment period starting from June 5, 2025.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
China's Global AI Firewall: In recent months, DeepSeek has increasingly aligned its products with the demands of the Chinese government, and its models could strengthen and even deepen the compartmentalization of Chinese cyberspace, creating a fluid and expansive AI firewall.
Hong Kong police tell people not to download ‘secessionist’ mobile game: Taiwan-developed mobile game Reversed Front: Bonfire, allows users to “pledge allegiance” to various groups including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Manchuria, in order to “overthrow the communist regime.” Ironically, the Hong Kong authorities’ efforts to ban the game have led to an overall increase in interest towards it.
Billions of data records relating to Chinese citizens leaked online, including WeChat and Alipay details: The 621GB haul of information could allow attackers to triangulate users’ places of residence, spending habits, debts, and savings, as part of a surveillance effort targeting Chinese citizens.
Is China's facial recognition data for sale?: Vast data collection by China’s millions of surveillance cameras begs the question of who can access this information and how it has been used, including sale to various parties.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
【对话】周锋锁：六四依然在以不同形式影响着一代又一代的人（上 [[Dialogue] Zhou Fengsuo: June 4th still affects generations of people in different ways (Part 1)]: On the significance of June Fourth, Zhou reflects: “Its power is very, very great, because it is a matter of life and death, and it surpasses the importance of all other things in my life… I did not expect that from that moment on, my life would be determined by Tiananmen Square.”
Hong Kong exiles seek to preserve democracy’s memory through Lennon Walls in Taiwan: Lennon Walls were iconic features of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, transforming public spaces into canvases for democratic expression, that have all disappeared within the city.
反修例六年｜英倫展覽 「記憶對視」 收集五噸藏品 感受社運回憶 [Six years of anti-extradition bill protests | British exhibition "Memories in Confrontation" collects five tons of collections to experience the memories of the social movement]: More than 1,300 people participated in the week-long exhibition in London.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
China urged to release #MeToo journalist: On the first anniversary of her sentencing, NGO Reporters Without Borders issued a renewed call for the immediate release of Chinese journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin, whose case is widely seen as emblematic of a broader pattern in China in which journalists are increasingly prosecuted under national security laws.
Two Tibetan Buddhist monastery leaders sentenced for Dege dam protests: Sherab and Gonpo of Yena Monastery have been sentenced to three- and four-year prison terms for their roles in unusual public protests in 2024 against a planned Chinese hydropower dam project.
China labor rights group shuts down in latest setback for civil society in Hong Kong: The closure of prolific Hong Kong-based NGO China Labor Bulletin came as authorities launched a new national security investigation into six unnamed people and one organization suspected of “colluding with a foreign country.”
Nat. security case of wanted Hong Kong activist Anna Kwok’s father adjourned until August: The prosecution applied for an adjournment on the basis that the insurance company involved in the case would need more time to prepare and submit relevant documents to the police while the defense had requested witness statements from the police but had yet to receive them.
Freelance journalist Selina Cheng re-elected chair of embattled Hong Kong Journalists Association: No member voted against or abstained from voting for Cheng. The new 2025-26 Executive Committee consists of four members.
Related: New head of Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club Morgan Davis vows to hold the line. Davis maintained that the press club will “stay the course” under her tenure by supporting journalists and seeking dialogue with governments, including by issuing press freedom statements.
4 Hong Kong activists fined up to HK$6,600 for fundraising and displaying posters without permit: Before the judge delivered the verdict, Chan Po-ying, Dickson Chau, Yu Wai-pan, and Lee Ying-chi unfurled a banner outside the courthouse accusing authorities of “suppressing freedom of expression.”
Hong Kong social worker Jackie Chen loses licence for 5 years over rioting conviction: To date, two registered social workers, including Chen, have permanently lost their licenses due to convictions for “endangering national security.”
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
Risk at the Source: Critical Mineral Supply Chains and State-Imposed Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region – New Report: A new report by Global Rights Compliance’s landmark titled Risk at the Source: Critical Mineral Supply Chains and State-Imposed Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region reveals how critical mineral mining has fueled systemic repression through family separation, forced “re-education,” land dispossession, and the destruction of communities.
Related: Uyghur Forced Labor Continues to Plague Global Supply Chains.
How Chinese media ignores the environmental toll of the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa: China has become a major investor across Africa, but the environmental damage tied to some of these ventures has never been reported in Chinese-language state media.
New Hong Kong Watch report warns of exposure risk to human rights violations via the Hong Kong Stock Exchange: According to a new report analyzing recent regulatory and policy changes in Hong Kong and the PRC, many sanctioned entities from the PRC have securities that are purchasable by foreign investors via the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.