The deep partisan divisions rending Taiwan's government are no secret. Legislative push-back to President Lai Ching-te’s budgets has received international attention. Yinn-Ching Lu writes that much less attention has been paid both abroad and within Taiwan to a different manifestation of the power struggle between the branches: near-paralysis of the government appointment process. Critical institutions’ leadership ranks are being decapitated by the legislature’s refusal to approve presidential nominees, a phenomenon that Lu says may ultimately be more damaging to Taiwan’s democracy.
The chairwoman of Taiwan’s Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party, Cheng Li-wun, has a message for Americans: Taiwan should not be the next Ukraine. Rather, Taiwan should reconcile with China and seek to carve out some kind of autonomy within “the great Chinese nation.” Katherine Wilhelm writes that most of Taiwan’s 23 million people do not identify as Chinese, but they are deeply divided over whether the best way to preserve their way of life is befriending China or arming against China.
Few people outside of China’s legal elites have heard of the “foreign-related rule of law” policy. Yet this awkwardly named policy was a big reason that Chinese President Xi Jinping was able to stage his recent summit with US President Donald Trump in a posture of apparent parity. Katherine Wilhelm writes that “foreign-related rule of law” produced the critical minerals export control regime that enabled Xi to force Trump into a tariff truce.
July 05 – July 11
China is reported to be discussing restricting overseas access to its most advanced artificial intelligence models; Hong Kong proposes to give platform delivery workers work-injury compensation comparable to what employees receive; Japan's Diet revises the personal information law to allow businesses to use personal data for AI development without individuals' consent; South Korea enacts controversial anti-disinformation legislation with critics saying it will chill legitimate speech; Taiwan's legislature amends the Criminal Code to pause the statute of limitations for child sexual assault until the victim turns 20.
June 28 – July 04
China imposes new export controls on forty Japanese entities; Hong Kong consults the public about far-reaching changes to its sexual offense laws, including making them gender-neutral; Japan's lower house passes a flag-desecration bill over objections about curbing free expression; two South Korean government ministries agree to recommend lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 13 from 14 for serious crimes; in its first law regulating virtual assets, Taiwan's legislature requires cryptocurrency firms to obtain licenses.
June 21 – June 27
China's Justice Ministry defends the extra-territorial jurisdiction clause in the new ethnic unity law; Hong Kong's national security police arrest a former pro-democracy councilor for allegedly selling seditious books at her bookstore; Japan's House of Representatives approves a bill that would require social media platforms to counter misinformation during election campaigns; a South Korean court sentences a former justice minister to prison for taking steps to detain political figures during the brief 2024 declaration of martial law; a deputy commissioner of Taiwan’s National Human Rights Commission urges the legislature to separate the body from the Control Yuan because the Control Yuan may soon become inoperative.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
