HRIC Weekly Brief
October 15, 2024
Top News 头条
Two years ago, on October 13, Peng Lifa bravely hung banners on the Sitong Bridge in Beijing, condemning the government’s Zero-COVID policy and authoritarian repression of the Chinese people. His actions would spur protests across the nation and the world, and inspired countless individuals to speak up in the name of freedom and justice. Peng Lifa’s banners read: “We want dignity, not lies; we want reform, not a Cultural Revolution; we want to be citizens, not slaves.” On this second anniversary of his detention, Human Rights in China calls on the Chinese government to immediately release Peng, who has been missing for the last two years.
In other top news: last week, an emergency resolution was passed by the EU to condemn the Chinese government's persecution of Uyghurs and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of detainees, including Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti and Gulshan Abbas. According to a new report by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, the global pharmaceutical industry, including two U.S. government agencies, still relies on ingredients made in China’s far-western Xinjiang region using Uyghur forced labor despite efforts to eliminate this risk from supply chains. In other news, U.S. footwear and apparel company Skechers has also come under fire for using the star power of controversial actor Donnie Yen to open a new store in Urumqi, despite allegations that ethnic Uyghurs are used for forced labor in the industry.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
September 2024: Retirement Age, Military Training & Economic Data Fraud: The 14th NPCSC convened for its eleventh session and approved several significant bills, including the Decision on Gradually Raising the Statutory Retirement Ages and the revised National Defense Education Law.
The Week in Asian Law: October 6-12: The Ministry of Justice and National Development and Reform Commission released for public comment the draft Private Economy Promotion Law which restates the Communist Party’s consistent position that the state-owned sector should be dominant.
Walkthrough of Tort Interpretation: China’s top court recently released an interpretation on applying the torts section of China’s Civil Code, which has been interpreted in detail by China Law Translate.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
China launches crackdown on ‘unauthorized’ use of language: The Cyberspace Administration of China has launched a campaign to crack down on the widespread use of slang and abbreviations by younger social media users.
A Japanese boy was killed in China. Was cyber-nationalism to blame?: To some, this was part of a wider phenomenon, encompassing both xenophobia and attacks on Chinese nationals for being unpatriotic, as rising anti-foreigner rhetoric spilled over into the real world.
Related: After Guangzhou School Stabbing, “Censorship Won’t Make Us Feel Safe”. The Guangzhou stabbing is amongst other attacks on students, foreigners, and various other innocent bystanders, and in many of these cases, official public statements seemed deliberately vague, and online reporting and discussion of the attacks were heavily censored.
Websites blocked in Hong Kong – when, how, and why the list is growing: A growing list of websites has apparently been blocked by telecoms firms and Internet Service Providers, including those related to the US military, Taiwan, local politics and even a media platform.
Facebook censoring more political content in Hong Kong: At the request of authorities in Hong Kong citing national security concerns, the latest Facebook restrictions have targeted personal Facebook accounts, pages and groups, although some involved restricting individual posts and comments on posts.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
China sanctions Taiwan businessman Robert Tsao and lawmaker for 'separatist' acts: Tsao is one of Taiwan's richest men who pledged two years ago to fund two civilian defense training programs; while lawmaker Shen, with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), helps run one of the training programs.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Human Rights Lawyer Lu Siwei Detained Amid Escalating Crackdown on Dissidents: Lu Siwei, who was forcibly repatriated back to China from Laos last year as he attempted to join his family in the United States, has been detained once again. Lu had been released on bail pending his trial.
Taiwan says 4 Foxconn workers detained in China: The workers have been detained under “strange” circumstances with no explanations given. Foxconn, also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry, declared the company suffered no losses, and the four employees did not harm the company's interests in any way.
Translation: In Open Letter to Xi Jinping, Ren Xinyi Pleads for Medical Parole for Her Father, Ren Zhiqiang: Ren Zhiqiang was an outspoken critic of Xi Jinping’s authoritarian rule and COVID pandemic policies who was detained by Party disciplinary authorities in March 2020, soon after publishing an essay criticizing Xi and China’s COVID-19 policies.
Uyghur filmmaker gets 6 ½ years in prison for ‘separatism’ and ‘terrorism’: 32-year-old Ikram Nurmehmet and four friends with whom he had studied in Turkey were tried in Urumqi People’s Intermediate Court for alleged connections to Turkey-based organizations seeking independence for East Turkistan.
4 Tibetan teens detained for resisting going to Chinese schools: The four boys who had resisted attending government-run schools, where classes are taught exclusively in Mandarin and students study the political ideology of Chinese President Xi Jinping, were detained and subjected to several days of “political re-education.”
Hong Kong judge refuses Jimmy Lai’s bid for jury trial in libel suit against pro-Beijing paper: The court further ordered Lai to pay HK$300,000 in legal fees.
4 Hongkongers convicted of rioting over protest in July 2019 as judge questions possible delay in prosecution: They had been arrested on July 1, 2019, but were not taken to court to face the rioting charge until October 2022, more than three years since the incident.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
X overtakes WeChat in spreading Chinese disinformation about the 2024 US presidential elections: A new report by Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), a US-based non-profit organization, has discovered that X, formerly Twitter, has overtaken WeChat, the most popular Chinese social media platform, in spreading disinformation about the US presidential elections and policies.
Is China taking away people's passports?: The Party has been gradually stepping up controls on officials' personal trips overseas since pandemic restrictions ended, with many working in state organizations required to hand in their passports for "safekeeping," amid concerns that they may not return. Party members have also been warned not to make overseas trips without getting the approval of their employers, or risk "severe disciplinary punishment."
Related: Passport Restrictions on Public Employees, and China’s “New Cultural Emigres”. Several recent reports and articles highlight the experience of those in China who seek to leave the country in search of better opportunities or greater freedom abroad, like Chinese immigrants in the U.S. citing the absence of state censorship and better conditions for raising children.
Xinjiang’s largest cotton producer turned 70; not everyone is celebrating: The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is a massive CCP-backed paramilitary group that functions as an armed force, corporate conglomerate and government administrative unit, which has been criticized for land expropriation, forced labor and extrajudicial detentions that have drawn international condemnation.
China cracks down on Communist party officials for reading banned books: Books by Hillary Clinton and Hannah Arendt are believed to be examples of banned books procured by officials, as Xi Jinping tightens his grip on Communist party.
How China’s crackdown turned finance high-flyers into ‘rats’: In China’s sluggish economy, people are told that loyalty to the Communist Party and country now trumps the personal ambition that had transformed Chinese society and the accumulation of personal wealth in the last few decades.
International Responses 国际反应
Transnational repression endangers Americans: US diplomat: Dafna Rand, the new assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said regular Americans should care about the “great power competition” with China because Beijing’s human rights abuses were being exported to their backyards.
Current Events 热点新闻
China conducts military drills around Taiwan in warning to island’s president: Chinese state media linked a series of large-scale drills, intended as a warning against “separatist acts” to a National Day speech by Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te.