HRIC Weekly Brief
August 6, 2024
Top News 头条
The Chinese government revealed plans to implement digital ID cards with unique codes to encapsulate a person’s key personal details, claiming that it would protect user data, available for public comment till August 25. However, critics maintain that this would instead intensify online censorship, and urge for an end to real-name registration for online platforms instead. A concern raised by China Law Translate, which has drafted a translation in English, following the “use and abuse” of digital health codes during the COVID-19 pandemic, is that the tokens could be used to limit online activity as well as to track it. Cementing fears about government surveillance and abuse, Chinese censors have taken down online posts from experts and commentators who have criticized this plan.
In other news, HRIC stands with Fang Yirong, a young White Paper Movement protestor, who held a protest on a bridge in Xinhua County, Hunan on July 30. Fang displayed a banner on the overpass and playing the following message from a loudspeaker: “We want freedom, we want democracy, we want votes! Strike and remove the dictator Xi Jinping!” The protest closely resembled that of Sitong Bridge protestor Peng Lifa, who hung a banner from an overpass in Beijing.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
NPC Calendar: August 2024: In the wake of COVID-19, this session will review the draft revision to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and is expected to review draft Public Health Emergency Response Law.
China Unveils Ambitious 5-Year Plan to Overhaul the Hukou System: In a significant move to address economic and social disparities between urban and rural residents, China will aim to dismantle the hukou system and integrate rural migrants into urban economies, despite the numerous challenges ahead.
China’s factory activity contracts for 3rd month, as Beijing vows more state support to boost economy: July marks the third month of decrease in output from Chinese factories. This decrease in output contrasts with Beijing’s vow to increase factory output by 5% in 2024.
China sanctions US Democrat Jim McGovern for ‘interference’ over Tibet support: China has sanctioned a U.S. lawmaker over his support for a U.S. bill that encourages talks between China and Tibetan leaders. McGovern and his family are no longer welcome to visit China or hold any assets there.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
China dismisses Germany accusations over cyberattack: Germany accuses China of being behind a cyberattack on the country’s federal cartography agency in an attempt at cyber-espionage. The Chinese embassy released a statement calling the accusation “groundless” and claims China’s own victimhood by hackers.
Related: Germany accuses China of conducting 2021 cyberattack on cartography agency. Germany is the latest country to accuse China of cyber-espionage, after the United States, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Philippines and New Zealand.
Top Chinese nationalist commentator mysteriously absent online after questioning economic policy: Hu Xijin, a prominent Chinese commentator, went unusually silent on his Weibo account with 25 million followers after he argued online about recent national economic policies. Many believe Hu was blocked from his account.
Russia, China leading wave of ‘unprecedented’ intelligence threats to US: U.S. officials are accusing China, Russia and other countries on collaborating on espionage. In addition, China was accused of using companies in China, the Middle East, and Latin America, to push disinformation campaigns and other influence operations.
CCTV Broadcast Falls Silent During Queer Scenes in Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony: During the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, CCTV commentators remained silent during a skit hinting at an LGBTQ+ ménage à trois scene. Netizens hint that the silence was censored by Weibo, exemplifying the intolerance for queer sexual expression and LGBTQ+ censorship in China.
Taiwan struggles to combat Chinese influence in its generative AI tools: A Taiwanese AI chatbot produced answers consistent with the Chinese government agenda, shocking the public and bringing up concerns about China’s AI influences on Taiwanese technology.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Reimagining China in Tokyo: A new community of Chinese expats have settled down in Tokyo, doing what they could not do in China—opening bookstores, attending lectures, and exercising their fundamental freedoms and rights in the relative safety of Japan.
Calls grow for release of Hong Kong translation activist from U.S. detention: Yuen Hong Tam, 22, had been denied bail after bid for political asylum linked to dissident translation group, the Great Translation Movement, an anonymous Twitter account offering raw translations of online comment from Chinese social media that has been widely criticized by Chinese state media for "smearing" China.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Chinese University of Hong Kong merges politics department into school of governance as enrolment declines: CUHK’s politics department was one of the most historic political schools in Hong Kong, with graduates ranging from the most prolific pro-democracy figures to Beijing loyalists.
Hong Kong young people struggle to rebuild their lives after being jailed under Beijing's crackdown: More than five years after Hong Kong's Anti-ELAB protests in 2019, the numerous young pro-democracy activists who were jailed or arrested during Beijing’s political crackdown on Hong Kong remain in limbo.
Tiananmen vigil activists to take appeal against conviction over refusing nat. sec. data request to Hong Kong’s top court: Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong have been granted permission to take their appeal to the Court of Final Appeal. The three had been convicted and jailed last March for failing to comply with a notice issued by national security police demanding information about the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
Detained activist Chow Hang-tung launches legal bid after 4 ‘anti-authority’ books kept from her by prison dept.: Chow argued that the Correctional Services Department’s (CSD) barring her from receiving certain books is unconstitutional and a violation of her freedom of expression as protected by law.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
Chinese state TV pulls plug on Taiwan's badminton victory: Chinese state TV censored the Olympics when the Taiwanese badminton team beats China in the men’s doubles. Live broadcast by CCTV throughout Taiwan omitted sections in which Taiwan was clearly winning, as well as the medals ceremony and celebrations.
Xinjiang authorities target Uyghurs cadres in ‘dark forces’ crackdown: According to authorities in Korla, the second-largest city by population in Xinjiang, over 200 Uyghurs deemed problematic had been investigated as part of a nationwide “dark forces” crackdown on the mostly Muslim group that began on July 15.
China trains politically correct Protestant pastors: Pastors from 100 churches across China participated in an intensive training on “sinicization” of their churches at the behest of the government. This training program is part of the CCP’s program to control religious activity, in which many churches have had crosses removed and portraits of Xi Jinping installed.
Hong Kong secondary students may soon be schooled in ‘Xi Jinping Thought’: For Hong Kong students in their third year at secondary school, for new subject Citizenship, Economics and Society would be teaching them the political ideology of China’s leader Xi Jinping.
International Responses 国际反应
US mulls new curbs on China's access to AI memory chips, Bloomberg News says: The U.S. is considering unilateral restrictions on China's access to AI memory chips, as soon as next month, to prevent companies like Micron, and South Korea's Samsung from suppling Chinese firms with high bandwidth memory chips that are essential in helping run complex generative artificial intelligence programs.
Justice Department sues TikTok, accusing the company of illegally collecting children’s data: The latest lawsuit focuses on allegations that TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance violated a U.S. federal law that requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parental consent before collecting personal information of children under 13 years old.
Current Events 热点新闻
Taiwan is readying citizens for a Chinese invasion. It’s not going well: The threat from Beijing has intensified as Chinese leader Xi Jinping has declared China’s “reunification” with Taiwan inevitable, but Taiwanese are not answering the call, hampered by a lack of equipment and unsuccessful attempts to professionalize reservist training.