Human Rights Watch submission ahead of the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue

Human Rights Watch reiterates its regrets that the European Union continues to hold its human rights dialogue with China, given that no guarantees or improvements have been secured over its past 39 iterations. Once more, we call for the human rights dialogue to be suspended and replaced by more meaningful and impactful measures, as Chinese officials do not engage in the dialogue with a view to consider changing policies and adopting reforms as necessary to implement their human rights obligations.

The year 2025 is important in the EU-China relationship as it marks the 50th anniversary of their bilateral relationship. However, this is not a time for celebration as human rights abuses by the Chinese government within China and abroad continue unabated. Notably, Ilham Tohti, the winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2019, remains imprisoned for life on fabricated charges, in solitary confinement, without access to his family.

Over 10 years into President Xi Jinping’s rule, the Chinese government has deepened its repression across the country. Authorities have arbitrarily detained numerous human rights defenders, tightened control over civil society, the media, and the internet, and deployed invasive mass surveillance technology throughout its territory. The government imposes particularly heavy-handed control in Xinjiang and Tibet. The cultural persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang since late 2016 amount to crimes against humanity and hundreds of thousands remain in prison despite the Chinese government’s efforts to pretend that everything is “normal” in Xinjiang. In Hong Kong, the government imposed the draconian National Security Law in 2020 and Safeguarding National Security Ordinance in 2024 that systematically dismantled freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.

The Chinese government continues its efforts to silence activists and critics in other countries, including those in the EU, by various intimidation tactics, including harassment against their families in China, a form of collective punishment prohibited by international human rights law. Furthermore, Chinese diplomats and government-backed organizations promote Beijing’s narratives at multilateral institutions, including the United Nations human rights bodies, to whitewash its atrocities at home and to further marginalize human rights and prioritize state power.

In this context, we do not consider a human rights dialogue to be an appropriate tool to address Beijing’s severe and systematic repression. We note that the EU’s press releases following previous rounds of the dialogue included strong condemnation of rights violations by the Chinese government, and we encourage that the same follow the upcoming round, along with an indication of concerns over the lack of progress and the need to explore the use of other tools. We also encourage the European External Action Service (EEAS) to report back to member states on the lack of progress across time, recommend new and more adequate and meaningful mechanisms commensurate with the gravity of the human rights violations committed by the Chinese government and stress the need for the EU to strengthen its position towards China through a “whole of EU” approach that would weave human rights concerns in all aspects of its relations with China.

The EU should commit to the continued use of its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime against individuals and entities responsible for serious human rights violations, and flag consideration of additional targeted sanctions against government officials and entities responsible for devising and implementing abusive policies in China, especially in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, in coordination with like-minded partners. The EU should also seek unfettered and reciprocal access to Tibet, Xinjiang and across China for foreign diplomats, parliamentarians, UN experts, journalists, and nongovernmental organizations. EU member states should not leave the human rights file only to the EEAS but should proactively prioritize the issue in their own bilateral interactions and dealings with Chinese authorities, including in trade-related negotiations. The EU and its member states should continue to confront China publicly about its human rights abuses in bilateral and multilateral settings, including at the UN Human Rights Council.

This submission includes recommendations on what the EU should raise during all interactions with Chinese authorities, including at the highest level, followed by an overview of the main human rights trends in China over the past year and by specifics on the situation in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, transnational repression, freedom of religion, human rights defenders, freedom of expression, and women’s and girls’ rights, and labor rights.

Key recommendations

During the upcoming human rights dialogue with China, the European Union should:

1. Xinjiang

Urge Chinese authorities to end crimes against humanity and other abuses against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang and implement the recommendations of the August 2022 Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on Xinjiang, including:

• Immediately and unconditionally release everyone who remains arbitrarily detained and unjustly imprisoned.
  • Halt all state-imposed forced labor programs to which Uyghurs are subjected in Xinjiang or elsewhere through labor transfers.
  • Investigate and appropriately prosecute government officials implicated in serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
  • Grant unfettered access to Xinjiang to independent monitors, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Special Procedures.
  • Commit to following up the 2022 OHCHR report by establishing an independent investigation and taking all measures necessary to advance accountability.

The EU should reiterate that crimes against humanity and other severe abuses in the region remain serious impediments to trade relationships between EU and China.

2. Hong Kong

Urge Chinese authorities to:

• Revoke the two draconian national security laws imposed in Hong Kong.
  • Release all detained and imprisoned pro-democracy leaders, activists and former legislators held for exercising their basic human rights.
  • Remove arrest warrants and bounties on the 19 Hong Kong activists in exile and stop harassing their families in Hong Kong.
  • Ensure that China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee reverses its November 2020 decision to disqualify elected Hong Kong legislators and allow the people of Hong Kong to select the candidates they wish for Chief Executive and for the Legislative Council.

3. Tibet

Call on the Chinese authorities to:

• Uphold the Tibetan people’s right to religious freedom, which includes their right to recognize their own religious leaders, and free the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was abducted and forcibly disappeared at the age of 6 in 1995.
  • Reaffirm the established rights of minorities to mother-tongue education in schools and ensure that all Tibetan children can learn and use Tibetan as a medium of instruction.
  • Cease coercing or otherwise improperly pressuring people to consent to government plans for relocation and appropriately penalize or prosecute any officials for doing so.
  • Act to protect rather than undermine the Tibetan way of life.
  • Recognize and uphold the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association to ensure that Tibetans and others can engage in peaceful activities to raise concerns and criticisms.

4. Use of surveillance technology

Urge Chinese authorities to:

• Respect privacy and freedom of expression of people in China and cease the use of mass surveillance of people throughout China, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet.
  • Halt persecution of Uyghurs and Tibetans for contacting people abroad through the use of politically motivated phone and internet-related offenses.

5. Transnational repression

   Urge Chinese authorities to:

• Stop harassing critics living abroad and threating their family members to silence them or keep family members as “hostages” to ensure that other travelling relatives are compelled to return to China.
• Allow unfettered access to UN and EU officials to all 40 Uyghurs forcibly repatriated from Thailand in February 2025.
• Publicly commit to ending reprisals against human rights defenders, including those who engage in UN processes and other international accountability mechanisms.

6. Women’s rights

Call on the Chinese authorities to:

• Cease all forms of harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary detention of women’s rights activists.

7. Human rights defenders and political prisoners

Press the Chinese authorities to free, among others:

• Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, Sakharov Prize laureate;
  • Uyghur ethnographer Rahile Dawut;
  • “Bridge Man” Peng Lifa;
  • Human rights lawyers Gao Zhisheng, who remains forcibly disappeared, and Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, who are both imprisoned;
  • Gui Minhai, Swedish bookseller;
  • Human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, arrested on April 14, 2024 on his way to meet the EU delegation in Beijing, with his wife, Xu Yan, also a human rights defender. Xu Yan was released in January 2025 after completing her sentence;
  • Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai and 45 pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong who were harshly sentenced on November 19, 2024 for baseless national security crimes.

Pending their release, all detainees and prisoners should have access to family, lawyers of their choice, and health care as needed.

Overview of 2024 Events

Over a decade into President Xi Jinping’s rule, efforts to centralize control has led to heightened repression throughout the country. There is no independent civil society, no freedom of expression, association, assembly or religion, and human rights defenders and other perceived critics of the government are persecuted. The government considers the culturally and ethnically distinct Tibetans and Uyghurs as threats and subjects them to particularly harsh repression. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs remain imprisoned as part of the government’s crimes against humanity in the region. It has also ended long-protected civil liberties in Hong Kong. While foreign governments recognize the Chinese government’s worsening rights record, they have not confronted Beijing.

Tibet

Authorities continue to severely control information in Tibetan areas and respond to public concerns over issues such as mass relocation, environmental degradation, or the marginalization of Tibetan language in primary education with repression.

Information is heavily restricted, but the majority of arbitrary detentions reported by exile media were for posting unapproved content online or having online contact with Tibetans outside China. Tibetans accused of such offenses have been sentenced to years in prison.

In February and March 2024, hundreds of monks and villagers in Derge county, Sichuan, were reportedly detained for protesting the construction of a hydroelectric dam that will submerge historic monasteries and numerous Tibetan villages.

Hong Kong

In March 2024, the Hong Kong government introduced another national security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO), after the draconian 2020 National Security Law. The SNSO criminalizes peaceful activities, expands police powers, and replaces the colonial-era sedition law, raising the maximum sentence for “sedition” from two to seven years of imprisonment.

After the SNSO came into effect, police arrested six people in May 2024, including prominent activist Chow Hang-tung who is already imprisoned, for allegedly publishing “seditious” posts online to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Three people were sentenced to between 10 and 14 months in prison for “sedition” for wearing a T-shirt, making online posts, and drawing pro-democracy graffiti on buses. The Hong Kong government used the new powers under the SNSO to revoke the Hong Kong passports of six exiled activists and to deny political prisoners early release for good behavior.

In May 2024, three judges handpicked for national security cases convicted 14 activists and ex-Hong Kong lawmakers of “conspiracy to commit subversion” in the city’s largest national security trial to date, with 31 other defendants having earlier pleaded guilty. In November, the court sentenced all 45 to prison terms ranging from 4 years and 2 months to 10 years.

At least 304 people have been arrested for allegedly violating the National Security Law, the SNSO, and the now-revoked “sedition” law since 2020. Among the 176 individuals charged, 161 have been convicted. According to police figures, 10,279 people have been arrested in connection with the 2019 pro-democracy protests, among whom 2,328 “faced legal consequences” including conviction, many for non-violent crimes like “unlawful assembly.”

Press freedom declined further. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s national security trial, which began in December 2023, is ongoing. The 76-year-old Lai has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020. In September, two journalists of the now-defunct Stand News were sentenced to 21 and 11 months respectively for “sedition.” That month, the government denied work visa and entry into the city to an Associated Press photojournalist who took photos of Jimmy Lai in prison.

The Hong Kong government has repeatedly harassed the Hong Kong Journalist Association, including making a claim for HK$400,000 (US$51,000) in back taxes. US-funded Radio Free Asia closed its Hong Kong office in May 2024.

Authorities curtailed freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. On June 4, 2024, police arrested at least nine people for holding placards, lighting candles, or turning on their phone flashlights near Victoria Park, where the Tiananmen Massacre commemorations took place before 2020.

The government also curbed freedom of expression. In May, the High Court ruled that the government’s injunction to block use of the popular 2019 protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” was lawful. Scottish and US distributors repeatedly removed the song from streaming platforms even though the order had no extraterritorial effect. In October, Hong Kong authorities appeared to block some Hong Kong internet users’ access to Flow HK, an online magazine hosted in the US.

In January, the government-funded Hong Kong Arts Development Council withdrew its funding for the Hong Kong Drama Awards, while the Leisure and Cultural Services Department refused to provide the awards ceremony a venue.

Xinjiang

The Chinese government has committed crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims as part of its abusive “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism.” Human rights violations in Xinjiang include mass arbitrary detention torture, mass surveillance, forced labor, cultural and religious persecution, and family separation.

The Chinese government has repeatedly denied these abuses. Responding to a number of relevant recommendations made during the Universal Periodic Review of its rights record by the UN Human Rights Council in January 2024, the Chinese government dismissed the August 2022 UN report documenting these abuses, including alleged crimes against humanity, as “illegal and void.” In August, the OHCHR reported that “many problematic laws and policies” underlying the 2022 UN report remain in place and noted the challenges in monitoring the situation due to “limited access to information and the fear of reprisals against individuals who engage with the United Nations.” In September, the US delivered a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of the “core group of countries” that previously sought a dedicated discussion of the situation by the UN rights body, calling on the Chinese government to “engage meaningfully” with the UN to implement the report’s recommendations.

Official Chinese statements continue to affirm its abusive campaign, which conflates Uyghurs’ everyday peaceful behavior with terrorism and extremism. In May, a top central government official responsible for political and legal affairs, Chen Wenqing, said the government will “persist in cracking down on violent terrorist crimes” and “promote legalization and normalization of counterterrorism and stability maintenance” in the Uyghur region.

An estimated half-million people have been sentenced to long prison sentences without due process during the Strike Hard Campaign, and many remain imprisoned, including Rahile Dawut, Gulshan Abbas, Perhat Tursun, Adil Tuniyaz, Yalqun Rozi, Ekpar Asat. Prominent Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti has spent 10 years in prison as part of his unjust life sentence for “separatism.”

In February, China revised regulations in Xinjiang to further tighten control over religious practices, which includes controlling the appearance, number, location, and size of religious venues, and requiring them to become training grounds that promote the values of the Chinese Communist Party to the people.

A Human Rights Watch report found that global car brands have increasing risk of exposure to Uyghur forced labor in their aluminum supply chain, adding to a growing body of research that shows that Uyghur forced labor taints industries globally, including solar panels, cars, apparel, seafood, and critical minerals. Since the US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2022 entered into force, the US government has denied entry to $750 million worth of goods linked to forced labor in Xinjiang. The EU approved a law in December prohibiting the import and export of goods linked to forced labor.

Freedom of Expression

The Chinese government controls all major channels of information, such as television, radio, and print publications. Its “Great Firewall” blocks people in China from accessing information commonly available on the internet. It also imposes ideological control over the education system.

While most people in China habitually self-censor, some stories—those that do not challenge the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy—occasionally reach the broader public. A Chinese media outlet’s investigative report on cooking oil contamination in July and Chinese lawyer Yi Shenghua’s post in August exposing an illegal human remains trade attracted widespread public attention. They were followed swiftly by official censorship and punishments.

There were numerous instances of censorship throughout 2024. In January 2024, Shanghai police arrested filmmaker Chen Pinlin (“Plato”) for a documentary about the 2022 White Paper protests.

Authorities continued to update the country’s censorship and surveillance regime to tighten control. In February, the State Secrets Law was revised and implementing regulations were published in July, expanding the law’s already overly broad scope. In July, the government proposed a new national digital ID card system. The cards, which are ostensibly voluntary, would give state agencies even more ability to track people online and offline.

Previously tolerated topics have become off limits. With the Chinese economy faltering, the government has prohibited discussions of its economic policies and penalized those critical of them. In September, a top Chinese Academy of Social Sciences economist went missing after he disparaged President Xi’s economic policies in a private WeChat group. Also in September, Beijing police detained US-based artist Gao Zhen, acclaimed for his work critiquing the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, for “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs” while he was visiting the country. Both topics – China’s economic policies and Mao’s disastrous legacy – were topics that could be openly discussed in China until recently.

The Chinese government’s strengthened information control has international implications, as it has targeted critics of China who have gone into exile and foreign nationals abroad. “Teacher Li,” who collects news and videos from around China and broadcasts them on X, revealed that he had been harassed in Italy, where he is based. Chinese police had also interrogated his followers in China. In August, investigative reports exposed how people affiliated with the Chinese government had intimidated and assaulted Chinese, Hong Kong, and Tibetan protesters during Xi’s visit to San Francisco earlier.

The Chinese government’s nine-year-sentence of Taiwanese political activist Yang Chih-yuan for “separatism,” and the suspended death sentence of naturalized Australian writer Yang Hengjun for “espionage” generated widespread attention in these countries. In February, the prominent Hugo Award for science fiction was found to have self-censored and excluded some authors for consideration for its 2023 award before holding its ceremony in China.

Freedom of Religion

The Chinese government allows people to practice only five officially recognized religions in approved premises, and maintains control over personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications.

Since 2016, when President Xi called for “Sinicization” of religions, authorities have sought to reshape religions to promote allegiance to the Party and to Xi. They have stepped up ideological education of religious leaders. They have removed “unauthorized” religious materials online, including by taking down religious apps and videos, and by harassing those who make and share such materials.

Police routinely arrest, detain, and harass leaders and members of various “illegal” religious groups, including those Catholic and Protestant congregations (or “house churches”) that refuse to join official churches, and disrupt their peaceful activities. Throughout 2024, these individuals were charged with and convicted of fabricated crimes. In July, Zhang Chunlei, leader of a house church called Ren’ai Reformed Church, was sentenced to five years in prison for “inciting subversion” and “fraud.” The government continues to classify some religious groups, notably the Falun Gong, as “evil cults,” and subjects their members to harassment, arbitrary imprisonment, and torture.

In October, the Vatican renewed for the third time the 2018 China-Vatican agreement, which gives the Chinese authorities the power to name Catholic bishops even as they continue to persecute Catholic house churches and leaders, notably Bishop Cui Tai.

In September, the government freed Chinese-American pastor David Lin, after he had served nearly 20 years in prison.

Human Rights Defenders

Human rights defenders in China are frequently harassed, tortured, and imprisoned. The police also harass their families, including children. Some, such as lawyer Gao Zhisheng and Peng Lifa, known as “Bridge Man” for his public display of anti-government signs, remain forcibly disappeared.

In February, women’s rights activist Li Qiaochu was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for speaking out on detention conditions faced by her partner and fellow activist Xu Zhiyong. She was released in August after completing her sentence, having been detained since 2021. In October, Xu Zhiyong went on a hunger strike to protest his inhumane treatment in prison.

Chinese authorities released citizen journalist Zhang Zhan in May after she served a four-year prison sentence for reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic. They detained her again in late August and in November arrested her for “creating disturbances.”

In June, feminist journalist Huang Xueqin and labor rights activist Wang Jianbing were sentenced, respectively, to five years and three years and six months in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” for their leading involvement in the #MeToo Movement.

In October, human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, rights activist Xu Yan, were convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” Yu was sentenced to three years in prison and Xu to 21 months. They were taken into custody while on their way to meet the European Union delegation to China in April 2023.

Transnational repression

The Chinese government often harassed Chinese human rights defenders and activists living abroad. In February 2025, Human Rights Watch documented that China’s government only permitted restricted visits to Uyghurs from the diaspora to Xinjiang only after stringent vetting processes and with the apparent aim of presenting a public image of normalcy. Once back in Xinjiang, some were questioned, required to stay at hotels or to join officially organized tours through which the authorities exert continued control over the diaspora.

Human Rights Watch documented that Chinese authorities intimidate people from China, including from Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia, living in Japan who take part in activities critical of the Chinese government. Tactics, which include intimidation of family members back home, appear aimed at deterring members of the diaspora from protesting or engaging in events deemed politically sensitive. Cases of threats or harassment against people from China have also been documented in the US, France, and Germany. There are increasing reports of pressure attributed to China on students abroad as well as aimed at deterring foreign research to critically comment on China’s policies.

Most recently, the Hong Kong authorities took an unprecedented action by charging the family member of exiled activist Anna Kwok with a national security crime to try to silence her. This constitutes an escalation of the Chinese government’s use of cross-border repression, as called out by 87 international and diaspora rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, in two joint statements.

Women’s and Girls’ Rights

Gender discrimination in employment remains widespread while alarming cases of violence against women and sexual harassment have received public attention in recent years.

China’s declining fertility rate has led the government to pivot from restricting births to exhorting women to get married and return to “traditional virtues” in ways that undermine gender equality.

The government’s push for higher birth rates is limited to heterosexual, married couples. In a landmark case, a Beijing court rejected Xu Zaozao’s final appeal to freeze her eggs, in a blow to the reproductive rights of single women.

In August, the Chinese government proposed a revised draft law to simplify marriage registration while adding an abusive “30-day cooling off” period to make it harder to divorce.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

While there is growing public acceptance of equal rights for LGBT people in China, increasing repression has also led to greater censorship and closure of LGBT spaces and advocacy groups.

In January, Weibo censored viral photos and videos of transgender celebrity Jin Xing, who was holding a rainbow flag with the slogan “love is love, love and gender are unrelated.” One of China’s few remaining lesbian bars, Roxie, closed in June, alluding to official pressure.

In August, a custody ruling handed down by a Beijing court became the first legal recognition in China that a child can have two mothers. However, the petitioner, Didi, was denied contact with her son on the grounds that she did not give birth to him and is not genetically related to him.

Climate Change Policy and Impacts

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largest producer and consumer of coal, and the largest importer of oil and gas. Its banks are among the largest financiers of fossil-fuel operations in the world.

Despite improved targets, the Climate Action Tracker rates China’s domestic emission reduction target as “highly insufficient” to meet the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Extreme weather events driven by global warming have become more common across China and are projected to increase in frequency and severity.