Resilience Innovation Lab (RIL) is pleased to launch its inaugural research report, titled An Unbreakable Wall? Challenges and Opportunities of Defending Freedom of Information in China. The full report is now available online.
Over the past decade, China’s information environment has deteriorated markedly due to increasing state control over digital communications. Notable escalations in censorship and surveillance have coincided with key events, including the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the White Paper Movement in 2022. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically tightened its grip on cyberspace, driven by concerns over foreign ideological influence and the safeguarding of domestic regime security.
Businesses—particularly multinational corporations—face growing risks as China’s digital environment becomes ever more restrictive. Due diligence operations have been significantly hindered, with organisations subjected to raids, exit bans, informal government warnings, and limited access to essential corporate information databases. Civil society organisations, journalists, and academics face similar constraints, including routine surveillance, censorship, and major operational disruptions. Academic freedom, journalistic independence, and civic activism continue to be challenged by ambiguous legal frameworks, intensified surveillance, and direct threats from state authorities.
This report provides a comprehensive account of China’s information environment under the rule of the CCP, with a particular focus on developments since President Xi Jinping’s ascent to power. It offers a critical analysis of how systematic, state-led efforts to control and manipulate information are affecting various sectors of society—including the information supply chain, public access to information, and the operating conditions of businesses (especially within the due diligence sector), civil society groups, journalists, and academics engaged with China. Drawing on evidence-based insights from multiple perspectives, the report seeks to inform a broad range of stakeholders—from policymakers and international businesses to civil society organisations and academic institutions—and encourages collaborative efforts to address the challenges posed by China’s information landscape and its impact on global information networks.
Resilience Innovation Lab gratefully acknowledges the invaluable contributions of several anonymous individuals and interviewees who chose not to reveal their identities for safety and security reasons. Their courage and insight have greatly enriched the depth and authenticity of this report. We sincerely hope that, in the near future, contributors and researchers will no longer feel compelled to hide their identities, but will instead be free to participate openly in the pursuit of a free, transparent, and open society in China.
Download the full report here.
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