China: Repression continues with new ‘ethnic unity’ law, targeting of activists and silencing of Tiananmen anniversary commemorations

Civic space in China is still rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. China’s authoritarian state, ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has systemically repressed fundamental freedoms. Human rights defenders and activists report harassment and intimidation; unfair trials; arbitrary, incommunicado and lengthy detentions; and torture and other ill-treatment for exercising their fundamental rights. Protests do occur but are quickly repressed, and critical civil society groups have been shut down. There are also increasing concerns about transnational repression against activists in exile.

In April 2026, Amnesty International reported that the Chinese authorities had intensified control over information and public discourse and continued to suppress dissent and peaceful assembly. Human rights defenders, writers, artists and other civil society actors continued to be detained and prosecuted under vague national security provisions, and censorship and online surveillance of these groups persisted. Ethnic groups including Uyghurs and Tibetans remained under strict political and cultural control.

In recent months, a new “ethnic unity” legislation was passed that could increase repression. Activists such as woman human rights defender Yang Li has been denied medical treatment while human rights lawyer Xie Yang was jailed. Activist Zhang Chao was arrested after posting a Tiananmen photo online while an academic was detained for espionage. There was a ban on the Tiananmen Mothers visiting a cemetery, fears over disappeared Uyghur returnees a year on, as well as transnational repression and malign influence. Artist Gao Zhen was detained over his political artworks while a proposed Cybercrime Bill entrenches censorship and surveillance.

Association

New “Ethnic Unity” law will increase repression

The Chinese government’s new “ethnic unity” legislation, which comes into effect on 1st July 2026, permits violations of human rights, particularly ethnic minorities’ rights to culture and way of life. According to the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), the new legislation, which was adopted by the National People’s Congress in March 2026, contravenes domestic law, including the Constitution, and international human rights law and standards.

While authorities assert that the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress is intended to enhance “social cohesion,” its provisions do the opposite - reinforcing restrictions on “freedoms of language, education, practice of religion, culture, expression and assembly, and penalising the peaceful exercise of minority rights,” as Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned on 15 June 2026 at the Human Rights Council. He has called for the law to be repealed.

In April 2026, eight UN human rights experts raised concerns that several provisions of the law are ambiguous, open to broad interpretation, and susceptible to misuse. They also identified specific human rights—including the rights to development, free speech, education, housing, and religion, among others—guaranteed under international law but jeopardised by the “ethnic unity” law.

On 24th June 2026, China said it has a right to target people outside of its borders who contravene its new law on ethnic unity, adding that this was in line with international practice, and was legal and ‌necessary.

Authorities block life-saving kidney treatment for woman activist

China blocked access to medical treatment for a land rights activist. According to Amnesty International, in March 2026, the condition of woman human rights defender Yang Li, who spent 15 months in detention for her advocacy on land rights, has deteriorated to end-stage kidney failure following prolonged inability to access medical care during and following her time in custody.

According to the family, since her release police repeatedly blocked her travel to Beijing to receive potentially life-saving dialysis treatment, restricting her freedom of movement to her home in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Yang Li, 46, is a land rights defender from Jintan, Jiangsu, who for years has pursued lawful channels to challenge land expropriation by local government and related human rights abuses. She was detained for her work between October 2024 and December 2025, during which time she allegedly faced torture and was denied medical treatment.

In April 2026, a communication from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts was published raising concerns on her case.

Prominent human rights lawyer sentenced to five years’ jail

A court in China sentenced prominent human rights lawyer Xie Yang to five years in prison in March 2026, on politically motivated charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), The Changsha Intermediate People’s Court cited several of Xie’s WeChat posts as the basis for the verdict.

HRW stated that the legal proceedings against Xie were marred by serious violations of due process protections. The authorities extended his pretrial detention 13 times for a period of over four years and barred his lawyers from participating in his hearings. Xie’s October 2025 trial was held in secret; police only told his family afterward. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has recognised Xie’s detention as arbitrary and called for his immediate release.

Xie, 54, from Changsha, Hunan province, began practising law in 2011. He has defended activists and victims of rights abuses in politically sensitive cases, including cases of religious persecution and land rights disputes. Xie has faced repeated retaliation for his work. In July 2015, during the nationwide arrests of human rights lawyers known as the “709 crackdown,” Xie was tortured and subjected to enforced disappearance, convicted of “inciting subversion,” and imprisoned until 2017.

Jailed for seeking justice for brother

On 22nd May 2026, Guo Hongying was sentenced to three years and three months in prison for the crime of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble.’ The law is consistently used to target activists and critics.

On 13th October 2024, she was taken away by police for seeking a second forensic identification for her deceased brother Guo Hongwei and detained the following day. Her brother, a human rights defender, was twice sentenced to a total of 18 years in prison for reporting official corruption. He was tortured in prison and died in Siping Prison in 2021.

Guo had previously been arrested in March 2018 while advocating for her brother‘s rights and was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison.

Activist Zhang Chao arrested after posting Tiananmen photo online

According to HRIC, Shandong activist Zhang Chao, has been arrested. He travelled alone to Tiananmen Square on 4th June 2026. Standing outside the barriers surrounding the square, he took photographs and posted a commemorative poem on the social media platform WeChat. The post was quickly removed.

In the early hours of 5th June, state security officers escorted Zhang from Beijing back to Zaozhuang, Shandong Province. He was subsequently placed under criminal detention and is currently being held at Zaozhuang No. 1 Detention Centre.

Born in 1970, Zhang became involved in rights advocacy while working in Beijing. In 2014, he was detained for 37 days after warning fellow activists of police operations. Later, after becoming a Buddhist monk and adopting the name Shi Daoguo, he continued to promote democratic values and assist fellow dissidents. In 2019, he was again criminally detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

Academic detained for espionage

According to HRW, on 3rd June 2026, Chinese authorities reportedly detained Min Zin, a US citizen from Myanmar and the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, as he flew into Yunnan province for meetings at the invitation of an academic institution. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the arrest, stating that Min Zin had engaged in “espionage activities that endanger China’s national security.”

Min Zin’s think tank documents the Myanmar political landscape, including China-Myanmar relations since the Myanmar military’s 2021 coup. China is the Myanmar junta’s primary source of financial, military, and diplomatic support. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing met with China’s President Xi Jinping on 16th June during a weeklong visit to China, Min Aung Hlaing’s first since he installed himself as president following sham elections.

Min Zin was a student activist in Myanmar’s 1988 pro-democracy uprising, after which he fled to Thailand to avoid the military government’s crackdown, and later moved to the United States, where he completed his PhD in political science. In 2016, after returning to Myanmar he founded the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar).  Following the 2021 military coup he later relocated from Myanmar to operate out of Thailand.

Ban on Tiananmen Mothers visiting cemetery

According to Amnesty International the Tiananmen Mothers group said on 2nd June 2026 that they had received notice from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau that they would not be permitted to travel to Beijing’s Wan’an Cemetery to mourn their loved ones or hold their customary commemorative activities on 4th June this year, the 37th anniversary of the atrocity. The group said it was the first time authorities had barred them from visiting their loved ones’ graves in more than 30 years.

The Tiananmen Mothers group is comprised of relatives of protesters killed during the 1989 crackdown. Every 4th June for more than three decades, the group has travelled to Wan’an Cemetery under police escort to mourn and to read memorial texts and eulogies in remembrance of their loved ones.

The group has repeatedly called on the Chinese government to reveal the truth about the Tiananmen crackdown and demanded that those responsible are held accountable. Members have frequently been subjected to surveillance and other restrictions, particularly ahead of the 4th June anniversary date.

On 4th June 1989, Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully protesting for political reforms in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed. Tens of thousands more were arrested across China in the suppression that followed.

According to HRW, the Chinese government is intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. The mainland authorities strictly censor anything related to Tiananmen Square, notably the famous “tank man” image.

Despite this, diaspora groups and anonymous social media accounts around the world have in recent years held public discussions, exhibitions, and gatherings, and published essays to commemorate the crackdown. In 2026, commemorations were planned in more than 30 cities in seven countries.

Fears over disappeared Uyghur returnees a year on

UN experts on 27th February 2026 expressed grave concern about 40 Uyghur Muslim men forcibly returned to China by Thai authorities a year ago, whose fate, state of health and whereabouts remain unknown.

The experts noted that, on 27th February 2025, Thailand forcibly returned 40 men to China, reportedly under intense pressure from the Chinese Government, and without applying the safeguards required to uphold the customary international law principle of non-refoulement. The deportations exposed them to the risk of being subjected to gross human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, torture and arbitrary deprivation of life. Prior to their forced return, these men had been detained incommunicado for more than a decade in Bangkok’s Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre, in substandard conditions and without contact with their families, legal representatives or the outside world.

The experts deplored China’s continued denial of confidential, timely access to legal counsel, noting that many detainees in the country had been refused legal visits for months or even years under broad “national security” claims. Families receive inconsistent or misleading information, making it impossible for them to verify the condition or whereabouts of their loved ones.

Transnational repression and malign influence

A report by Freedom House on transnational repression in April 2026, found that in 2025, the total number of direct, physical incidents of Beijing’s repression rose to 319. Incidents recorded included the detention and suspicious death of a Tibetan lama in Vietnam; the detention of a Thailand-based pro-democracy activist; and the mass deportation of 40 Uyghur men from Thailand who had fled repression in China more than a decade ago.

In addition to direct threats, China carries out mass surveillance, online harassment, and coercion by proxy, including threats to friends and family. Those cases are harder to track and validate. Freedom House also found that Beijing continues to leverage geopolitical and economic power to influence other governments.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (Commission) - a US governmental organisation mandated to monitor human rights and the rule of law in China - reported in June 2026 that the PRC's transnational repression and malign influence operations pose significant threats to human rights around the world. It targets Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, former Chinese government officials, and others through a global coercive toolkit that includes physical attacks, AI-enabled sexual harassment, threats to family members in China, pressure to return to China, censorship, and lawfare.

The transnational repression aims to silence criticism, isolate victims, shape public narratives, and/or deter others from challenging its authority, even outside of China. Its malign influence operations use covert and coercive tactics to skew public debate and influence decision-making in the U.S. and allied democracies, undermining democratic governance and institutional integrity.

Expression

Artist Gao Zhen detained over political artworks

In May 2026, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership between the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) called for the immediate and unconditional release of Gao Zhen.

Gao Zhen’s 70th birthday was on 10th May 2026, and he spent it in a Chinese prison. On 26th August 2024, Gao was arrested for “slandering heroes and martyrs.” He stood trial for a single day in March 2026, and remains detained almost two years after his arrest, all for making art.

Gao Zhen and his brother, Gao Qiang — known internationally as the Gao Brothers — are celebrated for their bold works critiquing authoritarianism, censorship, and the Chinese government’s manipulation of history. Their art confronts the repressive power of a system in which political authority extends into culture itself, determining what may be publicly remembered, depicted, or expressed.

The Chinese government claims that his works, “defame” national heroes. When Gao was arrested, officials confiscated more than 100 of his artworks, many of which had never been publicly exhibited in China.

The law under which Gao has been prosecuted was enacted in 2018, approximately 10 years after the cited works were created. Since its passage, this law has been weaponised to silence dissent and intimidate artists, writers, and critics.

Cybercrime bill entrenches censorship and surveillance

According to HRW, the Chinese government’s proposed law to combat cybercrime extends far beyond addressing legitimate legal concerns and contains sweeping provisions that pose a significant threat to human rights

In January 2026, China’s Ministry of Public Security published a 68-article Draft Law on Cybercrime Prevention and Control. If enacted, the bill would bring together rules that govern China’s telecommunication, internet, and banking systems under a single framework, strengthening authorities’ ability to trace user activity across platforms.

The bill also expands police and other authorities’ ability to suspend access to financial accounts and communication services and bar people from leaving the country in cybercrime-related cases without meaningful oversight or redress provisions. Notably, the draft law has problematic extraterritorial reach.

The vague and overbroad nature of many of the offences—such as “disrupting online order,” harming “national security” and “public interest,” “disrupting the real-name management system,” and “disseminating false information”—allows the government to punish legitimate speech and activities. Although such vague terminology is not new under Chinese law, its use in the draft cybercrimes law poses a significant threat to basic freedoms.

The draft law consolidates and reinforces existing mandatory real‑name registration across telecommunication, internet, and banking systems services (articles 11 to 13). This allows the authorities to identify online commentators or tie mobile use to specific individuals, limiting anonymous expression, infringing on privacy rights, and chilling free speech.

Articles 19 to 33 contain undue restrictions on legitimate cybersecurity research (articles 24 and 25). Such provisions risk criminalising legitimate activities, such as those carried out by journalists, human rights defenders, and security researchers. Article 51 also requires service providers to provide technical assistance and decryption to the police for broad purposes to “safeguard national security” and “investigate terrorist activities.”

The draft law also prohibits tools and services that enable people to obtain or spread such information. While China already blocks foreign information through practice, such as with the “Great Firewall,” and bans the unapproved provision of virtual private networks to circumvent such restrictions, the bill embeds such prohibitions into the cybercrime law framework.

The draft law not only extends this abusive cybercrime regime to citizens abroad (article 2) but also to “overseas individuals and organisations providing internet service … to users in the PRC” (article 53).