China’s National People’s Congress has just approved an ambitious new Ecological and Environmental Code (生态环境法典) to unify and update the country’s previously fragmented ecological and environmental governance framework. USALI visiting scholar Feng Ge assesses the achievements of codification, but notes that the Code weakens the ability of civil society organizations to help enforce the law through environmental public interest litigation.
Japan’s overseas generosity in the form of aid has been a big part of its positive global image. It led the world in ODA for the entire 1990s in terms of total amount. But Hiroaki Shiga warns that Japan is increasingly using its aid program to counter China’s growing geopolitical influence, and in the process is adopting some negative features of Beijing’s approach.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development identifies ensuring equal access to justice for all as one of its specific goals, aligning with the rights proclaimed in multiple international human rights treaties. Taking “equal access to justice” as an entry point, Yizhi Huang’s article compares the 2030 Agenda and international human rights treaties across three dimensions: background, content framework, and monitoring mechanisms. It argues that it is necessary to integrate the human rights mechanisms with the 2030 Agenda and coordinate both approaches in order to enhance judicial protection for vulnerable groups and achieve judicial justice for all.
April 26– May 02
Chinese market regulators order Meta to unwind its $2 billion-plus acquisition of agentic AI startup Manus despite Manus’ reincorporation in Singapore; Hong Kong presses criminal charges against two men accused of posting social media calls to boycott last year’s Legislative Council elections; Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi convenes an expert panel to review Japan's defense policies and spending levels; former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, both receive longer prison terms from an appellate court; a Taiwan court sentences a former TSMC engineer to ten years in prison for passing chip secrets to an equipment supplier.
April 19– April 25
China threatens retaliatory measures if the European Union adopts a proposed cybersecurity law that could push Chinese firms out of the region’s telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure; Hong Kong's government proposes closer oversight of contractors with respect to fire safety; Japan lifts its own ban on selling lethal weapons to other countries; South Korean prosecutors seek a thirty-year prison term for ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol for allegedly trying to escalate tensions with North Korea in 2024 by sending drones over Pyongyang; Taiwan’s opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan announces plans to hold a roll-call vote May 19 on a motion to impeach President Lai Ching-te, the culmination of a partisan power struggle that began with Lai’s 2024 inauguration.
April 12– April 18
China issues new rules to punish foreign companies or persons who comply with other governments’ sanctions against China; Hong Kong's Security Bureau says 99 percent of young offenders convicted in the 2019 protests have participated in a government rehabilitation program; Japanese political parties are discussing proposals for increasing the number of male heirs in the imperial family; a South Korean court sentences an American YouTube provocateur to prison for offensive live-streamed stunts; Taiwan’s legislature approves a law to establish government oversight of home-based foster care.
Program on International Law & Relations in Asia
