Human Rights Watch Report Details Intensified Repression in China Under Xi Jinping in 2025

HRW World Report 2026 Highlights Deepening Crackdown

The Chinese government intensified its repression across the country in 2025, according to the Human Rights Watch's World Report 2026, released today. The report indicates that President Xi Jinping mobilized the government to impose strict ideological conformity and loyalty to himself and the Chinese Communist Party.

Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, stated that 'The Chinese government under Xi Jinping has amassed an increasingly disastrous human rights record, expanding and deepening its crackdown on fundamental freedoms.' The report also noted a general unwillingness of foreign governments to challenge these actions.

Escalating Control and Ideological Conformity

In 2025, Chinese authorities systematically denied fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, while actively persecuting government critics. The state maintained one of the world's most stringent surveillance and censorship regimes, utilizing the Party-controlled legal system to punish, forcibly disappear, and imprison those deemed critical of the government.

President Xi Jinping's focus on ideological control was evident as the government sought to ensure unwavering loyalty to the Party. This push for conformity extended to various aspects of society, impacting individuals and communities across China.

Targeted Repression in Xinjiang and Tibet

The report detailed ongoing severe human rights abuses in regions with distinct ethnic and religious identities. In Xinjiang, the Chinese government continued to commit crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. These violations included mass arbitrary detention, torture, mass surveillance, forced labor, cultural and religious persecution, and family separation. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs reportedly remain unjustly imprisoned. The UN Human Rights Office in 2026 described China's policies toward Uyghurs as potentially amounting to 'forcible transfer and/or enslavement as a crime against humanity.'

In Tibet, communities faced severe suppression of rights, including the banning of celebrations for the Dalai Lama's 90th birthday.

Erosion of Freedoms in Hong Kong

Repression in Hong Kong also escalated significantly in 2025. Since the implementation of the National Security Law, freedoms of expression, association, and assembly have been largely dismantled, alongside challenges to free and fair elections, fair trial rights, and judicial independence. The report highlighted the politicization of education and the creation of impunity for police abuses.

Key developments in Hong Kong during 2025 included:

• The conviction of 14 activists and former lawmakers for 'conspiracy to commit subversion' in the city's largest national security trial.
• Amendments to labor union laws permanently barring individuals convicted of national security offenses from serving in unions and requiring unions to reject 'external forces' funding.

Persecution of Critics and Dissidents

The report cited several notable cases of persecution against individuals in 2025:

• Filmmaker Chen Pinlin was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' after making a film about the 2022 White Paper protests.
• Taiwanese editor Fu Cha received a three-year sentence for 'inciting secession' during a visit to China.
• Mei Shilin was forcibly disappeared after hanging anti-government banners in Chengdu.
• 'Bridge Man' Peng Lifa was reportedly sentenced to nine years in prison for hanging pro-democracy banners in Beijing in 2022.

Despite these findings, China consistently denies human rights abuses, asserting that religious freedom is respected in Xinjiang. In February 2025, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that promoting and protecting human rights is a common cause for all humanity, and China is prepared to work with other nations to reform and improve global human rights governance.