HRIC Weekly Brief
January 16, 2024
Top News 头条
Taiwan’s closely watched presidential election wrapped up this weekend, as despite influence campaigns and threatening maneuvers from Beijing, Taiwan elected pro-independence candidate Lai Ching-te last Saturday. However, Lai’s party, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), failed to win a majority of seats in parliament, with 51 seats to the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang’s 52. The Taiwan People’s Party came in third with eight seats, making it a key ally in a potential coalition. Meanwhile, Beijing has reiterated its claim that reunification between China and Taiwan is “inevitable.” While Biden reiterated the United States’ position that it does not support Taiwanese independence, an unofficial American delegation of former top officials traveled to Taiwan to meet with Lai and incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen.
Special Feature - Shengchun Sophie Luo: A Woman with Voice and Attitude
HRIC has released the fourth part of our feature on human rights activist Luo Shengchun. When Ding Jiaxi was sentenced to 12 years in prison in April, 2023, Luo openly expressed her opposition to the Chinese Communist Party. In this part of Luo’s story, we focus on Luo’s anger at the severe sentence that Ding was subjected to, and her resolution to stand firm against the CCP.
Just catching up? Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
Charity Law of the PRC (2024): China’s new Charity Law, which governs public interest activities, came into force on January 1st, 2024. The law emphasizes that “[c]harity work is to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China,” and states that “organizations must not engage in or fund activities that endanger national security or social public interests.”
新疆民族同化政策合法化遭质疑 [Xinjiang Authorities Draw Scrutiny with Legalization of Ethnic Assimilation Policies]: In Xinjiang, new laws codify and formalize various assimilation measures used by the authorities to erase Uyghur culture, particularly aimed at the youth.
Hong Kong tables new security bill amid fears of widening crackdown: Hong Kong’s upcoming National Security Law, intended to broaden the scope of its existing one, has officially been added to the Legislative Council’s agenda for 2024. However, no specific timeline has been announced.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
Is Apple's AirDrop safe to use in China?: Apple’s AirDrop function was used last year during the White Paper Movement to share images of Peng Lifa’s Sitong Bridge protest. Last week, Beijing authorities announced that they have managed to de-anonymize AirDrop, in another blow for internet privacy and activism.
Chinese social media users glued to 'interesting' Taiwan election: Despite a lack of official coverage, Weibo users in Mainland China discussed the Taiwanese elections from a range of perspectives, not always sticking to the party line.
Chinese controls 'more efficient' as country marks 30 years online: Last week marked the thirty-year anniversary of China’s access to the internet. Early hopes that the internet would increase the level of freedom in China were dashed as China developed increasingly sophisticated methods for censoring content.
China's military and government acquire Nvidia chips despite US ban: An investigation by Reuters shows that batches of Nvidia chips, which fall under the United States’ export ban, are still changing hands in China. The suppliers are unknown, but an underground market has sprung up around surreptitiously obtaining and selling the chips via alternative markets.
Enforcing the CCP's Media Leadership: At a recent meeting of China’s top propaganda leadership, the focus was enforcing “Xi Jinping Thought on Culture” and guarding against “ideological risks.” However, the exact details of the meeting were not released to the public.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Hong Kong police question relatives of wanted overseas activists: In the last few weeks, Hong Kong National Security Police raided the homes of the families of overseas activists Frances Hui and Simon Cheng, and took them away for questioning.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
湖南政治犯歐彪峯披露入獄前遭酷刑致精神創傷 [Hunan political prisoner Ou Biaofeng reveals that he suffered mental trauma due to torture before being imprisoned]: Ou Biaofeng, Chinese activist jailed for publicly supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong, has told his family that he was tortured by the authorities while detained prior to trial.
清華教授赴四通橋拍照證中國有「言論自由」遭公安盤問 [Tsinghua professor went to Sitong Bridge to take photos to prove that China has "freedom of speech" and was questioned by the police]: A professor at Tsinghua University was detained by the authorities for questioning after taking pictures of Sitong Bridge, the site of Peng Lifa’s protest that sparked the White Paper Movement last year. He didn’t believe students who reported being detained for taking pictures, so he took pictures himself to test the theory and was taken away by police.
Tibetan woman detained and beaten for social media posts critical of China: Tsering Tso, Tibetan rights activist, was detained for 15 days in October-November 2023, and experienced beatings and interrogation related to her anti-China social media posts.
Hong Kong man handed 2-month suspended jail term over inciting boycott of ‘patriots’ District Council election: A Hong Kong programmer has been given a two month suspended sentence for sharing a video on social media that called for the boycotting the “patriots only” district council election.
Shih Ming-teh, Taiwan Democracy Activist, Dies at 83: Shih Ming-teh, Taiwanese democracy activist and former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, has passed away at 83 years old.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
财新网披露新疆警方刑讯逼供致死案 报道遭删除 [Caixin reveals Xinjiang police torture and death case, report deleted]: Chinese media outlet Caixin recently reported and quickly deleted a news report on a man who died from police torture in Xinjiang under suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a catch-all charge used for political dissidence. A former police officer in Hunan acknowledged that torture is a very common method used by police to extract confessions.
‘It’s difficult to survive’: China’s LGBTQ+ advocates face jail and forced confession: In the last several years, the Chinese government’s shift towards more social conservatism has led to intensifying persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals and activists.
Authorities enforce ban on Tibetan students taking outside classes: In Tibet, China has strictly banned children from participating in any Tibetan language courses, religious activities, or other extracurricular classes. In order to enforce the ban over the winter holiday, the authorities are conducting random residential searches, day and night.
Experts denounce trips to Xinjiang as ‘genocide tourism’: In the last year leading up to China’s Universal Periodic Review, it has been pushing government-organized tourism in Xinjiang as a way to cover up its persecution of Uyghurs in the region.
International Responses 国际反应
Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns: A new report from Human Rights Watch warns of the worrying implications of unevenly applied human rights standards, as “governments turn away from their legal obligations on human rights for short-term political gains and seek to consolidate power.”
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Twitter/X: The United States’ Congressional-Executive Commission on China has released a list of key arbitrarily detained political prisoners in the leadup to China’s Universal Periodic Review, and urged the State Department to call for their release.
Seoul submits written questions to UN on China's forced repatriation of NK asylum seekers: For the first time, South Korea has submitted a set of questions to the UN for China’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review on the topic of forced repatriation of North Koreans.