HRIC Weekly Brief
January 14, 2025
Top News 头条
In a closed-door trial on January 8, filmmaker Chen Pinlin was sentenced to prison for three years and six months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He had produced a documentary film about the White Paper protests and published it online during the one-year White Paper anniversary in November 2023. The sentence exceeded the length requested by the prosecution, and Chen is likely to appeal. Meanwhile, Xu Yan, human rights defender and wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, has been released after serving her sentence. Yu will be detained until April 12, 2026.
Also: Chinese law enforcement is closely surveilling Internet users who download foreign apps, regardless of their level of “sensitivity.” A user of the online platform V2EX posted that he immediately received a phone call from the law enforcement department after he tried to download the Bumble app. Such reports fit with a pattern of intensified restrictions imposed in the last few years to reduce circumvention of the Great Firewall.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
China Unveils New MCN Rules: The Cyberspace Administration of China’s latest draft regulation aimed at standardizing the operations of the multi-channel network institutions emphasizes proper political direction of the Party and adherence to correct “public opinion guidance.”
Cross-Border Data Transfers – New Draft Measures Clarify Personal Information Protection Certification: The Measures for the Certification of Personal Information Protection for Cross-Border Data Transfers released on January 3 for public consultation represent a crucial step in China’s broader strategy to strengthen data governance, ensure cybersecurity, and address global concerns over the safety of cross-border information flows.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
Marvel Rivals Censorship Explained: A new popular video game, Marvel Rivals, has come under controversy for following CCP censorship rules. Banned phrases include Winnie the Pooh; phrases related to Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan; Tiananmen Square; 1989; Wuhan Virus; Mao Zedong; and more.
TikTok Users Move to Xiaohongshu, or "Red Note," A Chinese App With Overt Censorship and Data Collection: Xiaohongshu, also translated as “Little Red Book”—yes, like the famous book of Mao Zedong quotes—or “Red Note,” has grown in popularity as an alternative short-form video platform for some American TikTok users.
Related: Lemon8: Tiktok Sister App Tops App Store Amid Looming Ban. Lemon8 is owned by China-based ByteDance, which also operates Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok that follows Beijing’s strict censorship rules.
Japan links Chinese hacker MirrorFace to dozens of cyberattacks targeting security and tech data: Japan’s National Police Agency said Chinese government-led cyberattacks aimed to steal data on Japanese national security and advanced technology, and targeted its Foreign and Defense ministries and space agency, and individuals including politicians, journalists, private companies and think tanks.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
是冰山，也是星光：对一平的一点纪念 [It is an iceberg, and it is starlight: in memory of Yiping]: In memory of activist and human rights defender Yiping, HRIC commemorates his contributions and legacy to the Chinese democracy movement.
3 of Hong Kong’s most-wanted women on their struggles in exile: Anna Kwok, Frances Hui, and Joey Siu are all in exile in the United States and have no idea when they will be able to return to Hong Kong.
University of Michigan to end partnership with a Chinese university over national security concerns: This is the latest case of American universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, moving away from Chinese universities over concerns that Americans could be helping the Chinese to develop critical technology to boost China’s military capabilities.
New York’s Chinese Dissidents Thought He Was an Ally. He Was a Spy.: “Shujun Wang seemed to be a Chinese democracy activist, but an F.B.I. investigation showed just how far China will go to repress citizens abroad.”
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Chinese police detain artist who supported democracy in Hong Kong: Fei Xiaosheng is a prominent musician and performance artist who had publicly supported the Hong Kong democracy movement. He was detained as he was about to leave the country.
Chinese rights lawyer Xie Yang ‘won’t bow' despite 3 years of pretrial detention: Xie Yang has been behind bars without trial on “subversion” charges for supporting a primary teacher forced into psychiatric “treatment” for her outspoken comments on social media.
Hong Kong former lawmaker and prison rights activist Shiu Ka-chun dies at 55: Shiu, elected in 2016 to represent the social welfare sector and founder of Wall-fare, a prisoners’ rights support group helping those jailed over the 2019 protests, recently passed away from stomach cancer. “His concern for the underprivileged, his insistence on social justice, and his contribution to the work of prisoners’ rights will live on forever,” wrote Shiu’s friend and fellow legislator Fernando Cheung.
‘Impossible task’: Hong Kong’s top judge raises questions over whether Tiananmen vigil activists given fair trial: During the trial and appeals at lower courts of three Tiananmen vigil activists, including Chow Hang-tung, heavily redacted information was presented as evidence that they had acted as “foreign agents.” The trio argued that the redaction of such information denied them a fair trial.
Hong Kong pollster under investigation over allegedly assisting wanted person who ‘absconded overseas’: Robert Chung is now under investigation for allegedly assisting former deputy CEO of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, Chung Kim-wah, who is wanted on suspicion of national security offences.
Hong Kong’s Ming Pao rebuts government accusation of ‘biased’ report on cybersecurity bill: Ming Pao had expressed concern about the bill’s overlapping regulations and “unclear” definitions of what would constitute “material changes” to computer systems. The bill lays down the legal obligations of critical infrastructure operators regarding cybersecurity.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
How the Chinese Communist Party manages public opinion: The Party’s “public opinion guidance” system includes not only tightly controlling the media, but also populating social media platforms with views seen as “correct” by Beijing, especially positive economic news.
China Opens ICC to Rebrand Xinjiang: Xinjiang’s newly opened International Communications Center in Urumqi is part of a broader propaganda push to whitewash the region’s human rights abuses.
How China is Erasing Tibetan Culture, One Child at a Time: A New York Times investigation includes video, photos, and interview evidence to portray the systematic removal of Tibetan children from their families at a very young age in favor of Mandarin-only residential schools.
Total War for Global Minds: The Party is going all-out in a “total war” to revolutionize China’s international communication, demanding the involvement of the entire Chinese media ecosystem, bureaucracy, and society.
Journalism students' report probes Hong Kong’s nebulous ‘care teams’: The care teams have been likened to the local officials and volunteers who carry out government surveillance and implement CCP policy in mainland Chinese residential neighborhoods.
International Responses 国际反应
Thailand urged not to deport 48 Uyghurs to China: The Uyghur men have been held at Thailand’s Immigration Detention Center since 2014, after attempting to escape persecution in China through Thailand. The Thai authorities have allegedly coerced them to fill out forms in preparation for their deportation.
UK lawmakers slam Shein for refusing to answer questions on its cotton supply: Shein lawyers had declined to answer repeated questions at a hearing on whether cotton from Xinjiang or elsewhere in China is present in the products it sells.
Taiwan’s spy agency says China is working with gangs, shell companies to gain intelligence on Taiwan: According to a report released over the weekend by Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, Chinese agents have sought to use the Taiwanese underworld to channel funds to those with information to sell.