The December 2015 crackdown on labour activists was the culmination of a year of the Chinese Communist Party regime’s war on China’s civil society kicked off with the arrests of the “Feminist Five” in March, followed by the infamous crackdown on civil rights lawyers that began on 5th July and lasted till August. At around the same time, from mid-October to end of December 2015, five owners and staff members of Hong Kong’s Mighty Current publishing company and Causeway Bay bookshop which respectively publishes and sells politically dissident books banned by China disappeared under mysterious circumstances (including one while vacationing in Pattaya, Thailand, and another while inspecting warehouse in Hong Kong) and reemerged in mainland China under the custody of the Chinese authorities. While these volatile incidents were unfolding domestically, the year also witnessed the continued rise of China’s economic might in the global system. With specific focus on the latest events unfolding from year 2015 to the present, this paper attempts to interpret such developments especially in terms of government policies with respect to the State’s relations with the civil society since the leadership transition from Hu-Wen to Xi-Li administration, the implications of the global reach of China’s economic might and soft power in this regard, as well as the current nature of the governing regime of the Chinese Communist Party.