Human Rights Watch: China continues to detain Uyghurs

The 2024 Human Rights Watch report shows that, although there were some positive developments in Asia, the human rights situation in China has deteriorated further, and Uyghurs have been detained.
The 2025 World Human Rights Report, released by Human Rights Watch on January 16, said that 2024 was a year of uneven democracy and human rights around the world, with some encouraging developments in the Asia-Pacific region.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch report said that Myanmar's military government, nearly four years after seizing power, continued to arrest and bomb opponents. In China, the crackdown led by Xi Jinping has intensified.
The report said that China under Xi Jinping was heading in the opposite direction in 2024, and the economic downturn has led to increased repression across China. The imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and the crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong are typical examples.
“Independent civil society, freedom of speech, association, assembly, and religion are restricted, and human rights defenders and government critics are persecuted,” the report said.
As China’s economy has weakened, Xi Jinping has stepped up his crackdown on dissent, with arbitrary arrests of economists, artists, and community leaders continuing.
Human Rights Watch said China has tightened its grip on Hong Kong’s specially selected judicial institutions. In 2020, 14 activists and former lawmakers were convicted of “conspiracy” and sentenced to between four and 10 years in prison.
The report also noted that foreign governments have acknowledged China’s deteriorating human rights record but have refrained from directly confronting China.