NEW YORK (Dec. 1, 2025) – With support from the Human Rights Foundation, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a landmark research report detailing how the People’s Republic of China is leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) to transform its state control system.
The report, titled “The Party’s AI: How China’s new AI systems are reshaping human rights,” reveals that the rise of AI is turning China’s domestic political control into a highly sophisticated and scalable instrument for managing its population, suppressing dissent, and projecting influence overseas.
The Washington Post featured ASPI’s report in an article published on Dec. 1.
Key Findings
AI’s Unprecedented Role in Repression and Control
Multimodal AI Censorship
AI in the Criminal Justice Pipeline
LLMs and Surveillance of Minority Groups
Market-Driven Censorship Industrialization
The CCP’s extensive, state-backed integration of AI into social control and the judicial pipeline signals an overarching goal: ensuring that future global AI standards and norms benefit Chinese companies and perpetuate an authoritarian political system.
“The Party’s AI” is a resource for policymakers, technology companies, civil society, and media seeking to understand the rapid evolution of China’s AI-driven control apparatus and to develop effective strategies to counter its expansion and protect human rights worldwide.
This research was funded through HRF’s AI for Individual Rights program, the world’s first initiative to expose artificial intelligence used by autocrats as a tool of repression and support open-source AI tools in the hands of dissidents.
About the Australian Policy Institute:
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute was formed in 2001 as an independent, non‑partisan think tank. Its core aim is to provide the Australian Government with fresh ideas on Australia’s defence, security, and strategic policy choices. ASPI is responsible for informing the public on a range of strategic issues, generating new thinking for the government and harnessing strategic thinking internationally.
