HRIC Executive Director @ZhouFengSuo has given an in-depth interview to Investigative Journalism Reportika, speaking on Tiananmen, AI-powered surveillance, transnational repression, and China's democratic future. As a student leader in 1989 who was imprisoned after the June Fourth crackdown, Zhou explains why historical memory remains one of the Party's deepest anxieties. The movement showed that millions of Chinese citizens openly demanded democracy and constitutional government, shattering the myth that the Chinese people neither want nor are ready for it. Memory is dangerous to dictators because it reminds people that change is possible. He also warns that the convergence of dictatorship and artificial intelligence may be the defining question of this century. AI is already reinforcing censorship, surveillance and social control inside China, and those capabilities are being exported. Whether AI empowers individuals or concentrates power in the hands of regimes will depend on the safeguards democracies build now. On transnational repression, Zhou notes that Chinese dissidents have long been the first targets, and that protecting them is inseparable from defending the sovereignty of democratic societies themselves. Read the full interview:

HR: we’re a people first organization. Also HR: your insurance deductible is $6,500. Also HR: we don’t offer paid maternity leave beyond 6 weeks. Also HR: your raise this year is 2.4%. Also HR: we’re freezing hiring but your workload will be redistributed. Also HR: please fill out this engagement survey so we know how to better support you. Also HR: your mental health benefit is 3 free therapy sessions a year. Also HR: we’ve planned a pizza party for Friday to celebrate Q3. HR is not your friend. HR is the company’s lawyer who learned your name.

HRIC has published a new report documenting the difficulties faced by Chinese lawyers from January-April, 2026, including administrative suppression, obstruction of client meetings, denial of the right to observe court proceedings, and more. Read here:

HR directors will have to take responsibility for managing AI agents alongside human staff in future, according to the UK head of Accenture, who said businesses would be forced to rethink leadership models for the AI era.

Hrishi Olickel argues that AI agents are breaking on the data underneath them, not on the reasoning above. @hrishioa's company Southbridge AI is being built to overcome that bottleneck. Learn more at SuperAI Singapore on 10-11 June.