HRIC Weekly Brief
April 23, 2025
Top News 头条
Prominent Chinese human rights defender and lawyer Lu Siwei, who was arrested and repatriated from Laos in 2023 as he attempted to flee China, has been sentenced to 11 months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan in a closed-door court in Chengdu. Lawyer Ran Tong, who was supposed to testify during the trial, was blocked from the courtroom by the Justice Bureau and the police. The courtroom was also filled with 32 unidentified people, while representatives from foreign embassies and consulates could only watch from outside.
In New York, two cases of transnational repression met different results this week: Michael McMahon, a former New York police sergeant and private detective, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for contributing to a transnational campaign aimed at pressuring a former official to return to China, while Shujun Wang, who was convicted of conspiring to act as an illegal foreign agent for sending information on activists to the Chinese government, was sentenced to time served (Mr. Wang has been free on bail since his arrest) and three years’ supervised release.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
China’s Anti-Sanctions Rules Raise Human Rights Risks for Global Tech Firms: New amendments to China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law expand the scope of targetable entities and possible countermeasures, including the seizure of intellectual property. These changes increase the risk to companies operating in China, increasing the likelihood that companies will be coerced to comply with the authorities’ censorship and surveillance demands.
NPCSC Session Watch: Environmental Code, Private Sector Promotion, Arbitration, Enforcement of Prison Sentences & National Development Planning: The 14th NPC Standing Committee will convene for its fifteenth session from April 27 to 30 and will consider eight legislative bills, including four new bills.
Marriage Registration Regulations: Under the newly revised marriage registration regulations set to take effect on May 10, simplified procedures mean that couples will no longer need to register in their hukou (household registration) location. Marriage is legally defined in the text as between one man and one woman, and divorces require a divorce agreement.
Nat. sec amendments to Hong Kong union laws to be submitted to ‘patriots only’ legislature at end of month: The Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill 2025 will be introduced to the “patriots only” Legislative Council (LegCo) on April 30, aiming to ban individuals with national security offenses on their records from serving in unions, and mandating government approval of overseas funding.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
The Programmable State: The e-CNY and China’s Quest for Smarter Surveillance: The e-CNY, China’s central bank digital currency, has significant implications for both Chinese domestic surveillance and U.S. national security, including increased state surveillance, compromised privacy, and economic retaliation against foreign firms.
Reports Describe Expanding Digital Repression in Tibet: A new report by Turquoise Roof and Tibet Watch titled “A Long Shadow: The expansion and export of China’s digital repression model in Tibet” examines procurement documents from a digital forensics firm integral to the securitization of Tibetans’ digital networks.
China: Southeast Asia visit raises alarm over digital repression: As Xi Jinping conducts a tour of Southeast Asian nations, he seeks to expand China's model of digital repression by deepening regional digital cooperation and law enforcement cooperation agreements.
Bringing AI Down to Earth: China’s AI sector, now the crown jewel of its technological ambitions, could be perpetuating a lofty and unrealistic self-image exaggerated by Chinese state media.
Weibo Users Say “Dr. Li, We Haven’t Forgotten You!”; DeepSeek AI Asks, “Dr. Who?”: While Chinese citizens continue to remember the events of COVID-19 and to pay tribute to Dr. Li Wenliang and others, several recent posts have been censored to “officially induce amnesia” about the pandemic.
Tiananmen’s Long Shadow Falls on Tributes to Hu Dehua and His Father, Hu Yaobang: Hu Dehua, the third son of former General Secretary Hu Yaobang, whose death anniversary in 1989 sparked the June 4 protests, died this year on March 30. Accordingly, many posts about him and his father have been censored due to heightened political sensitivity.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Yahoo will give millions to a settlement fund for Chinese dissidents, decades after exposing user data: A lawsuit against Yahoo for its mismanagement of a legal fund for Chinese dissidents has settled for over five million dollars, three million of which will be put towards a new fund for political prisoners.
Opinion: RFA Uyghur Service is a light that pierces the darkness of China’s rule: Despite the threat of retaliation against their families in China, Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur journalists published groundbreaking reports that fearlessly investigated and exposed Beijing’s surveillance.
Amnesty International launches Hong Kong office overseas: Relaunched “in exile” more than three years after Amnesty shut its operation in Hong Kong citing risks from sweeping national security legislation, the new office will be run by Hong Kong activists operating from various countries.
Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation: The Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/Fimi) hub was closed following an executive order on “countering censorship and restoring freedom of speech” that characterizes past efforts against misinformation as government infringement on constitutionally protected speech rights.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Chinese artist fined for filming Uyghur folk music in Xinjiang: Guo Zhenming, who is known for his work commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, told Radio Free Asia he was fined 75,000 yuan (US$10,300) and had all his equipment and materials confiscated over what he said was a personal project, not a film for distribution.
‘Why would he take such a risk?’ How a famous Chinese author befriended his censor: Some human censors, who have become bored and disillusioned, have helped publish posts critical of the Party.
BYD Workers Lead Mass Strikes to Challenge Wage Cuts and Broken Promises: Thousands of workers at BYD’s factories in Wuxi and Chengdu walked off the job in late March and early April 2025, protesting steep pay cuts and deteriorating working conditions.
Hong Kong court blocks activist jailed under nat. sec law from appealing for lighter sentence: Joseph John, also known as Wong Kin-chung, was the leader of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Independence Party. He had been sentenced to five years in jail last year after pleading guilty to conspiring to incite secession.
Hong Kong schools on ‘frontline’ of preventing ‘soft resistance,’ education minister says: Therefor, schools in Hong Kong should cultivate patriotism among students and step up training for teachers to prevent “hostile forces from infiltrating schools,” Secretary for Education Christine Choi said.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
China to retaliate with sanctions on US officials, NGO leaders over Hong Kong issues: This was seen as a tit-for-tat response to the U.S. which in March sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials whom it alleged were involved in transnational repression and acts threatening to further erode Hong Kong’s autonomy.
International Responses 国际反应
Uyghur rights group calls on hotel chains not to ‘sanitise’ China abuses in Xinjiang: According to a new report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, almost 200 international hotels operating or planning to operate in Xinjiang coincides with the Chinese government’s effort to push Xinjiang as a tourist destination.