Human Rights Watch, the world’s largest human rights organization, in its latest release of the “World Report 2026,” pointed out that the Chinese Communist government intensified nationwide crackdowns in 2025 and extended persecution overseas.
According to an announcement posted on Human Rights Watch’s official website on Wednesday, this 529-page report is the organization’s 36th annual report, reviewing human rights conditions in over 100 countries.
The report stated that under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the Chinese government implemented strict ideological control, demanding loyalty to him and the Communist Party of China. Tibetans, Uighurs, and other communities with unique identities, including unofficial church members, face severe rights suppression. Simultaneously, the crackdown on Hong Kong continues to escalate.
Maya Wang, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, stated: “Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has amassed an increasingly catastrophic human rights record, expanding and deepening the crackdown on basic freedoms. Foreign governments are essentially unwilling to counter the threat posed by the Chinese government to the international human rights system, let alone within China itself.”
The report highlighted Xi Jinping’s visits to Tibet in August and Xinjiang in September, primarily aimed at showcasing his government’s strong control.
Thousands of Uighurs remain unjustly detained. The government also prohibited the celebration of the 90th birthday of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in Tibet.
It is expected that the Chinese Communist government will defend the suppression of ethnic minorities through a draft law, promote and strengthen ideological control, and foster control overseas.
Since the implementation of the harsh National Security Law in Hong Kong five years ago, repression has rapidly escalated.
The last active pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong, the League of Social Democrats, has been disbanded. Authorities have also, for the first time, used the National Security Law to prosecute a critic and pro-democracy leader, Anna Kwok, who is overseas, targeting her family in Hong Kong.
Many pro-democracy leaders remain imprisoned, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-closed Apple Daily.
The Chinese government’s “Party Leadership in Religion” campaign – reshaping religion to spread the Party’s ideology – has intensified the crackdown on “house churches,” whose members refuse to join official churches.
In April, a court in Shanxi province sentenced over ten members of the Linfen Golden Lampstand Church for “fraud.” In October, authorities arrested nearly 30 members of the Zion Church, including pastors.
As overseas Chinese communities become more willing to speak out against the Chinese government’s abuses of power, Beijing has intensified its suppression actions against them, such as harassing their family and friends in China and imprisoning returnees. These actions are referred to as “transnational repression.”
Recent examples include the arrest of student activist Tara Zhang Yadi in France and threats to close the IndieChina film festival in New York by a Chinese filmmaker.
IndieChina is a small Chinese independent film festival in New York that was canceled two days before opening. Organizers revealed that directors and guests withdrew from the event due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party.
Philippe Bolopion, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, stated in the report’s preface that breaking the authoritarian wave sweeping the world is a generational challenge. Bolopion called on democratic countries and civil society to build strategic alliances to defend basic freedoms.
Human Rights Watch urged the Chinese government to immediately halt crimes against humanity and other abuses in Xinjiang, repeal the National Security Law in Hong Kong, allow independent observers into Tibet and Xinjiang, and release human rights defenders detained across China.