August 4-10
China
A 36-year-old unmarried woman in Beijing lost a five-year legal fight to freeze her eggs. The Beijing No. 3 Intermediate Court ruled on appeal that the hospital that refused to freeze Xu Zaozhao’s eggs had complied with existing rules. Xu, a freelance writer who also uses the name Teresa Xu, brought her lawsuit in 2019 and lost at the Chaoyang District Court in 2022. Although the government has switched in recent years from restricting births to encouraging them, regulations still limit egg freezing and other fertility treatments to married women.
Chinese social media censored online discussion of a proposed new national internet ID program under which users would log into applications using a single, government-created internet ID instead of registering separate accounts at various sites. The government presented the proposal as offering convenience, as Chinese apps all require presentation of real ID. Critiques by three well-known university professors - Tsinghua University’s Huang Yusheng and Lao Dongyan and Peking University’s Shen Kui - were deleted, and Huang’s Weibo account was permanently banned. The critics noted that the proposed system would facilitate government online surveillance.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate released statistics about the work of prosecutors across the country in the first half of 2024. The arrest approval rate and the indictment rate were up 18.5% and 6.8%, respectively, compared with the same period of 2023. More than 85% of the cases brought to prosecutors for indictment ended up either not being prosecuted or resulted in convictions with sentences of less than three-year in prison, reflecting a continuing uptick in minor crimes.
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns criticized China’s limited release of information about a stabbing attack on four American academics at a park in Jilin City. Police said that a 55-year-old man who had just collided on a crowded path with one of the Americans stabbed two of them in the back and slashed the arms of the other two. He also stabbed in the abdomen a Chinese bystander who attempted to intervene. Burns said the US is seeking information about the assailant’s motives.
A jury in the US federal court for the Eastern District of New York convicted a Chinese-American man of providing information to China’s Ministry of State Security about US-based Chinese pro-democracy activists. Wang Shujun, a former scholar and founder of the Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation in Queens, NY, was found guilty of acting as an agent of a foreign government without registering as required by law.
Hong Kong
The convenor of the Save Lantau Alliance, Eddie Tse, asked the courts to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of the proposed 600-hectare San Tin Technople tech hub, arguing that the development plan does not meet legal standards. The development is controversial because it would damage 248 hectares of wetland conservation area and buffer zones.
The lawyer for a man charged with sedition for wearing a T-shirt bearing protest slogans said his client plans to plead guilty. Chu Kai-pong, 27, was the first person arrested for allegedly violating the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which took effect in March.
Tong Ying-kit, who became famous in 2020 as the first person arrested under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law, completed an applied education program for prison inmates and took part in a formal graduation ceremony. Tong was among 75 inmates who completed the program and took an oath on stage to contribute to fostering harmony and improving society. Tong was sentenced to nine years in prison for driving a motorcycle with a flag reading: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” into a group of police officers.
Japan
The Kagoshima District Court convicted a local police officer of breaching confidentiality by leaking information about investigations to a journalist. The officer was found to have provided an online media outlet with confidential information from more than 100 cases. The judge gave him a suspended sentence because he admitted guilt and expressed remorse.
Koreas
South Korean authorities indicted Kim Boem Su, founder of the tech giant Kakao, on charges of manipulating SM Entertainment’s stock price during a 2023 bidding war between Kakao and HYPE to take over SM. SM is the talent and production agency that manages many K-pop stars. Prosecutors suspect Kakao of purchasing 240 billion won worth of SM shares at prices above HYBE's tender offer price on 553 occasions in order to undermine HYBE's takeover bid. Other Kakao executives and former executives and the company itself also have been indicted.
Taiwan
The Constitutional Court heard oral arguments in a high-stakes challenge to the legality of legal amendments approved by the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan in May. The amendments give the Legislative Yuan new investigatory powers, make “contempt of the legislature” a crime, and require the president to give an annual speech to the legislature and answer lawmakers’ questions. The amendments were tabled and passed by lawmakers from the Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party over the objections of the Democratic People’s Party, which holds the presidency. During the court hearing, expert witnesses from the two sides disagreed about whether the legislative process was so flawed that the court should declare the amendments void.