HRIC Weekly Brief
January 6, 2026
Top News 头条
China’s crackdown on religious expression continues: Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church reports that at least eight pastors and church members were detained by the Chengdu authorities today. Their families were also harassed and the Early Rain Academy was raided and ordered to shut down their teaching space. Last week, in Guangxi, a small folk-religion shrine that had been rebuilt by villagers in 2024-2025 without objection from the government was suddenly forcibly demolished, and villagers who resisted the authorities’ demolitions team were met with police batons and gas.
Meanwhile, the authorities’ approach to online censorship has become both more nuanced and more intense. Within China, the state of censorship on the Chinese internet in 2025 was no longer targeted solely at “dissenting voices,” but has broadened to include any and all content that might lead to uncontrolled online discourse. However, efforts to infiltrate overseas communities online conversely encourage limited criticism of the Party while sticking to major “red lines.” After HRIC reported on Guan Heng’s asylum case last month, an investigation into the smear campaign that followed revealed the CCP-affiliated identity of the ringleader and a new “external propaganda” strategy that emphasizes subtlety and “neutrality” to avoid detection.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
NPC Calendar: January 2026: Seven laws take effect on January 1, 2026, including a revised Public Security Administration Punishments Law (adopted on June 27, 2025) and an amendment to the Cybersecurity Law (adopted on October 28, 2025).
Related: 维权网：中国政策法律法规解读（2025年12月）（第十六期）[Weiquanwang: Interpretation of Chinese Policies, Laws and Regulations (December 2025) (Issue 16)]: Two provisions in the revised Public Security Administration Punishments Law have attracted attention and heated discussion: first, privately chatting about pornographic content may result in administrative penalties; second, records of such penalties will be sealed, generating worry that the former will become another tool to target sensitive groups and increase non-tax revenue, while the latter will serve the children of the powerful and privileged.
Year in Review: The NPC and This Observer in 2025: Last year, the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee enacted 6 new laws, approved major changes to 13, adopted 3 quasi-statutory decisions, and issued 1 legislative interpretation, with an additional 15 bills still pending.
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
HRIC on Twitter/X: A China-based cybersecurity firm, PanguStone operating under cybersecurity giant QiAnXin, has claimed it can bypass iOS 26.1 protections on iPhones and extract data from apps including Telegram, using physical jailbreaking tools.
HRIC on Twitter/X: On December 29, Chinese actress Yuan Li’s lawyer, Zhang Kai, sent a letter to Sina Weibo accusing the company of illegally suspending Yuan Li’s 14.69M follower Weibo account in March 2020, disrupting her ability to carry out her pneumoconiosis (“black lung”) relief project for migrant workers and their children.
HRIC on Twitter/X: On the Chinese internet, responses to the U.S. strike on Venezuela split from the Party media line, taking a satirical approach that compared China to the Venezuelan dictatorship and mocked Maduro’s relationship with Beijing.
Beyond DeepSeek: China’s Diverse Open-Weight AI Ecosystem and Its Policy Implications: After years of lagging behind, Chinese AI models seem to have caught up or even pulled ahead of their global counterparts. China’s ecosystem of open-weight LLMs is driven by a wide range of actors who are prioritizing the development of computationally efficient models optimized for flexible downstream deployment.
HRIC on Twitter/X: When the hyper-nationalist news outlet Guancha cited pro-government Iranian media to report that an Iranian police station had been attacked by “rioters,” this narrative sparked rare backlash, as many commenters supported the protestors and even sarcastically referenced the Chinese government’s willingness to support an authoritarian ally.
Meta buys China-founded, Singapore-based AI agent Manus: Exceeding the capabilities of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, AI agents like Manus can autonomously perform complex tasks for users and are seen as having huge potential. Bloomberg analysts said the deal “could draw regulatory scrutiny given that Singapore-based Manus was founded in China.”
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
HRIC on Twitter/X: On January 4, several protestors gathered outside the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles to hold a protest against Xi Jinping. According to on-site video footage and witness accounts, a uniformed security guard attacked peaceful protesters at close range using pepper spray. The guard was subsequently arrested and charged. The victim, Jie Lijian, stated that this was an act of transnational repression and indicated his intent to press charges.
HRIC on Twitter/X: A projection protest was organized by China Action in Berlin on January 1, 2026. Images such as Liu Xiaobo’s portrait and satirical cartoons mocking Xi Jinping’s “ping-pong diplomacy” were projected onto the walls of the Chinese Embassy in Germany.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Amnesty International on Twitter/X: Amnesty reports that Kamile Wayit, a Uyghur college student who was sentenced to three years in prison for making social media posts about the White Paper protests, was released on December 28, 2025, following the end of her sentence.
HRIC on Twitter/X: Ekpar Asat, founder of one of the most influential Uyghur websites, Baghdad (Baghdax), just spent his 9th birthday in prison. HRIC calls for Ekpar’s immediate and unconditional release and urges the Chinese government to end its arbitrary detention and mistreatment of prisoners of conscience.
Xi steps up crackdown on press freedom in China: ‘Even moderate voices are being silenced’: Dong Yuyu’s arrest and conviction sets a dangerous precedent. Dong’s son says that “Chinese citizens could now come under scrutiny for simply maintaining international ties” in their work and personal lives.
Related: 维权网：中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告（2025年12月31日）第123期（共1719人）[Weiquanwang: Monthly Report on Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience Detained in Mainland China (December 31, 2025) Issue 123 (Total 1719 People)]: Weiquanwang offers updates on the situation of 17 political prisoners, including Wang Yuping, Wu Qiang, Gao Xin, He Fangmei, Yin Dengzhen, Xiao Shujun, Guo Hongying, Li Zhiying, Yin Xu’an, Xu Lin, Ji Xiaolong, Xing Wangli, Guo Feixiong, Feng Junying, Jiang Weidong, He Junren, and Wang Bingzhang.
‘Not about condoms’: Chinese shrug off new contraceptive tax: The Chinese government has sought to boost China’s flagging birth rate through a series of positive and negative financial incentives, but young people say that taxing contraceptives will not address the root issues stopping people from having children.
LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham urges return of same-sex rights bill after lawmaker floats ‘contractual partner’ plan: After the Hong Kong government failed to pass a bill creating a same-sex partnership system as required by a 2023 Court of Final Appeal ruling, re-elected lawmaker Reverend Peter Koon suggested a “recognition” system that would also cover other partnerships beyond marriage, such as two people living together. While some are skeptical, activist Jimmy Sham commented that “the LGBTQ community had never insisted that wording such as ‘same-sex marriage’ or ‘partner’ be included in the framework.”
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
China’s Xi hails nation’s technological progress and renews pledge to take back Taiwan: “We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship,” Xi Jinping said. “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.”
Related: Xi reiterates reunification of Taiwan, Yarlung Tsangpo dam project in New Year address. Xi’s remarks come amid heightened cross-strait tensions. Analysts note that Xi’s use of emphatic language such as “unstoppable” signals Beijing’s intent to keep Taiwan firmly at the of its national agenda, even as resistance within Taiwan remains strong and geopolitical concerns intensify in the Indo-Pacific region.
Related: What does the US raid in Venezuela mean for China’s designs on Taiwan? While some worry that the United States’ recent moves could trigger a shift in the world order that empowers China’s designs on Taiwan, several experts told the Guardian that this is unlikely to be the case: not only does Beijing consider Taiwan an “internal issue,” it may think twice after seeing that “Venezuela’s China-sourced weapons failed to defend against the US attack.”
China’s Russian Town Has Log Cabins and Cyrillic Signs, but No Russians: In Enhe, an “ethnic Russian township” in Northern China, Russian culture is all but extinct—another example of the central government’s assimilation policies that have been used to repress non-Han groups, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, while using their culture for tourism. When asked about the removal of an Orthodox Christian cross from a building, “officials deny it was ever there, despite the cross being clearly visible in old pictures.”
Is the Chinese presence in Congo Brazzaville a threat to ‘first occupants’ or a relief to them?: Local NGOs in the Congo say that Chinese companies, drawn there through the Belt and Road Initiative, largely do not respect the local environment and Indigenous peoples’ rights.
International Responses 国际反应
Taiwan’s president pledges to defend island’s sovereignty after Chinese military drills: Lai’s comments came days after China wrapped up live-fire drills around Taiwan featuring rocket launches, aircraft and warships.
Related: Australia says ‘deeply concerning, destabilising’ Chinese exercises near Taiwan risk inflaming regional tension. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement that the large-scale simulations risked destabilizing the region and could result in an accident or escalation.