❗Police raided former NGO leader #ChengYuan 's home in Beihai on Dec 20, detaining him for 6hrs of questioning about #ZionChurch and donations. They seized books he borrowed from detained founding pastor #EzraJin. Cheng was released from prison in July 2024. 🎙️ x.com/WildKratts72...

A senior judge, Court of Appeal said:“Our roots are in #China & #HongKong . We don’t have an exit route as you do. We’re pressed by the West to uphold Western values as if we were a democracy, but what can the West offer HK except moral lectures & 2nd passports?” www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

Been watching China’s family planning policies for years. Sadly emblematic of an authoritarian political system that won’t listen to other views. This move only likely to impact poorest. Https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/18/china-to-raise-tax-condoms-boost-birth-rate?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

On 15 December 2025, we signed a joint letter, along with 32 other organisations, to Keir Starmer MP, Prime Minister of UK, to urge him to do everything in his power to secure the release of British citizen Jimmy Lai. tinyurl.com/mr2fcjnx @hongkongwatch.bsky.social @indexoncensorship.org @rsf.org

🚨 Following Jimmy Lai’s conviction for three national security charges today, Hong Kong Wach and 32 other civil society organisations have written to Keir Starmer, urging the 🇬🇧 government to press 🇨🇳 to #FreeJimmyLai – read the letter below👇 www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/20...

Strong statement from the Foreign Secretary and all sides of the House on the politically motivated prosecution of British citizen Jimmy Lai. But what action will be taken?

🚨 BREAKING: Lord Patten of Barnes, the last 🇬🇧 Governor of #HongKong and Patron of Hong Kong Watch, has issued a statement in response to today’s guilty verdict against #JimmyLai. Read below👇 www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/20...

Unfortunately wholly unsurprising verdict from Hong Kong in Jimmy Lai case. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites. He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him. www.wsj.com/world/china/...

A Hong Kong court will issue a verdict on Monday in the national security trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a case widely criticised as a sign of erosion of political freedoms in the Chinese city ➡️ u.afp.com/S7Xt

A landmark trial in Italy of Chinese crime gangs has suffered so many mishaps that a senior prosecutor suspects it’s being sabotaged to protect their grip on Europe’s fashion industry.

Crude and intimidating acts of transnational repression towards Hongkongers. “It is legitimate and reasonable to pursue wanted fugitives…” shocking response from Chinese embassy spokesperson in London. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

#China: Today — 7 years after RSF filed its initial submission on Gui Minhai — the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the regime is arbitrarily detaining the Swedish publisher. RSF welcomes this major decision & calls on the international community to pressure 🇨🇳 for his release.

The United Nations voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that Hong Kong's "draconian" national security laws were being used against people seeking a transparent inquiry into the Chinese city's worst fire in decades. In full: buff.ly/86nydG1

A rare EU statement in Chinese for International Human Rights Day "There's been no substantial improvement in China's overall human rights situation" Says systemic restrictions on minority groups' rights to enjoy their own culture and language... risk erasure of their cultures"

They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.

Tomorrow | @csishumanrights.bsky.social hosts a discussion about the impacts of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, including the future of UFLPA implementation and its effects on global forced labor legislation. Register: www.csis.org/events/three... 

British universities’ reliance on Chinese fees fuelling self-censorship, say academics on.ft.com/48YhMxh

The EU has quietly renewed its sanctions on four Chinese officials and one organisation for their role in human rights violations in Xinjiang - procedural move, done last week without fanfare along with other sanctions rollovers - via @engineroglu_fw

#HongKong: Jimmy Lai is spending his 78th birthday behind bars today for doing his job as a journalist. The publisher has been held for more than 1800 days in solitary confinement & his health is rapidly deteriorating. RSF once again urges democracies to mobilise to secure his release. #FreeJimmyLai

Hongkongers sit out first election since deadly fire on.ft.com/3XJbP0S

Written by Michael Mo, a former district councillor (elected to office in the 2019 District Council elections) now living exile in the UK who was born in the Tai Po area where Wang Fuk Court is located.

Journal’s editorial article, published on 2/12/25, claimed that the official response to the fire – which killed at least 159 people – showed “how this once free city is becoming more like mainland #China by the day.” It also said the authorities were “seeking to chill speech related to the fire.”

Hong Kong authorities summoned international news organizations to a rare meeting on Saturday to warn against “false information and smear campaigns” surrounding the city’s deadliest fire in nearly eight decades and upcoming legislative elections.

Have you been affected by the Wang Fuk Court fire, or witnessed malpractice? Contact HKFP in confidence, as we seek to investigate the causes of the blaze: buff.ly/Jk7iGHV

Hong Kong government places citizens in impossible position. Criticism of authorities for failures in fire prevention risks being described as sedition.

State-backed Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao has taken down an investigative report published on 28 Nov which cited industry sources saying building maintenance works effectively controlled by cartel, rife with corrupt practices in tender process, widespread cost and corner-cutting in materials.

Sigh. Deeply predictable from Beijing national security.

The HK authorities arrested a student on sedition charges because he made a petition asking the government to 1) ensure accommodation for displaced residents; 2) setup independent investigation; 3) review construction supervision system 4) probe regulatory neglect. hongkongfp.com/2025/11/30/h...

The demands being distributed by the flyer & petition were not in anyway unreasonable. 1. Continue to support residents affected by the fire 2. Establish an independent commission 3. Re-evaluate construction safety guidelines 4. Hold the elected officials who are accountable for this disaster

HK Police Nat-Sec Department arrest 1 man & 1 woman for allegedly posting seditious messages on social media. Arrested identified as owner of pro-democracy eatery "HK9Cake" owner & girlfriend.

Uyghur student #KamileWayit, Uyghur songwriter #YasharShohret and filmmaker #ChenPinlin remain imprisoned today simply for exercising their basic rights to freedom and expression. #BlankPaper 🔗 www.nchrd.org/2024/11/beij...

There's been no execution in Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 for a week. In a year when the Saudi authorities have executed 322 people – more than one a day. When the world is watching, they pause their killing spree. 1/3 - 🧵

#China: Today, the Beijing High Court upheld a 7 year prison sentence against prominent journalist Dong Yuyu on trumped-up spying charges. His only "crime" was maintaining contact with foreign diplomats. RSF is appalled by this decision and calls for his immediate release. #FreeDongYuyu

For those in London next Fri, please join us for this fantastic event, organised by the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, in partnership with PEN International May be of interest to your networks: @ppoon.bsky.social, @nicolamacbean.bsky.social, @taniabranigan.bsky.social, @pm-thornton.bsky.social

This is one of the more egregious examples of Chinese threats to academic freedom to research that I have come across. Universities need - collectively - to bring these issues into the open. China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show www.bbc.com/news/article...

This will probably sound like an arcane UK academia story, but a lot of what we know about forced labor in China has been brought to light specifically by Laura and her collaborators. The purpose is to shut down this information.

今天是吾甫尔·阿皮孜（ shahit.biz/cmn/2111/ ）去世七周年纪念日。他于2016年被强迫失踪，据称被判处十年徒刑。 2020年，中国政府确认他死于“严重肺炎和结核病”。他当时63岁。(1/2)

#EnforcedDisappearance Since #China govt intercepted activist #YinXuan in #Beijing on August 11 and forcibly sent him back to Hubei, he has remained disappeared. His family and lawyer have visited multiple local authorities—no one will say where he is. Via wqw2010.blogspot.com/2025/10/blog...

You may have heard about UK ministers' plan to double to 10 years the time needed to reached settled status in the UK. But did you realise that it threatened access to pensions for the 180,000 people who came from Hong Kong on the UK government's visa scheme? My dispatch: www.ft.com/content/8b91...

'There was a constructive discussion about the reasons for the recent dropping of charges against two individuals under the Official Secrets Act. Committees will now be considering what further action to take.' committees.parliament.uk/committee/11...

NEW What the Chinese spying case witness statements reveal The Crown Prosecution Service appears to have made at least one serious error, while the government's position now makes sense By me emptycity.substack.com/p/what-the-c...

Today, a coalition of 90 NGOs including The Rights Practice is calling for the release of Swedish publisher Gui Minhai on the 10th anniversary of his kidnapping by Chinese agents in Thailand. Gui has been disappeared by China, with no updates about his whereabouts for past 5 yrs tinyurl.com/5n7mj6hd

The interview with Lu Pin is a welcome reminder of a more open and questioning China. Showing my age, I remember the NGO forum at the Women’s Conference. In 1994 we also ran an amazing summer school in Beijing for young Chinese women. I wonder what those women are doing now.

🚨 October 17 marks the tenth anniversary of Swedish publisher #GuiMinhai ’s initial #EnforcedDisappearance by #China authorities in Thailand. His current whereabouts and wellbeing remain unknown. 👉 www.nchrd.org/2025/10/chin...

1/ Today, 10 October, marks World Day Against the Death Penalty. This year, World Day is dedicated to challenging the misconception that the death penalty can make people and communities safer. #NoDeathPenalty

On World Day Against the Death Penalty I was pleased to introduce a webinar organised by prisonersrights.org/english/ on the death penalty in Asia and contribution of www.klguidelines.com @rightspractice.bsky.social was pleased to have helped facilitate drafting of the KL Guidelines.

1/ On 3 October 2025, UN experts expressed alarm that lawyer Kevin Yam (Yam Kin Fung) was disbarred and financially penalised on 16 July 2025 in direct connection with public statements he made about the independence of judges and prosecutors in Hong Kong www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Here's a genuine risk to free speech in UK universities – from overseas states – that the government is doing little to prevent. @indexoncensorship.org have highlited the case of Roshaan Khattak, a Pakistani human rights defender and film maker: www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/10/inde...

#Malaysia #Thailand: We join PEN Malaysia in expressing concern over the arrest of writer & journalist #MurrayHunter by the Thai police, reportedly at the behest of the Malaysian authorities. As ASEAN chair, Malaysia must reflect on the signal this sends. abcnews.go.com/Internationa...