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:

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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: