This Week in Asian Law

January 9 - 15

China

  • China’s ruling Communist Party published the Plan on Building the Rule of Law in China (2020-2025) on January 10 to serve as a blueprint to foster the rule of law during the 14th five-year-plan. This is the first time that the party Central Committee has released a comprehensive plan addressing all aspects of China’s legal reform. According to the document, a socialist law system with Chinese characteristics will be more comprehensive by 2025, and a socialist system of rule of law with Chinese characteristics will be largely established by 2035. Some Chinese law scholars shared their views. (in Chinese)

  • The Ministry of Commerce has issued Rules on Counteracting Unjustified Extra-Territorial Application of Foreign Laws and Other Measures in response to the growing frequency of foreign investment and trade sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals. The rules provide for the establishment of a committee to determine whether companies operating in China are permitted to comply with specific foreign legislation, based among other things on whether the extraterritorial application of such legislation would harm China's national sovereignty, security, and development interests, or the rights and interests of Chinese persons. Jones Day analyzes the rules here.

  • Zhou Chunmei, a female judge in Hunan Provincial High Court, was stabbed to death and authorities have apprehended a woman who allegedly sought Zhou’s assistance in a labor dispute. The suspect, who was Zhou’s high school classmate, felt she had been wrongly dismissed from her job and had asked the court to order payment of back wages. She allegedly asked Zhou, who had not been involved in the case, to use her influence to bring about a favorable ruling.

  • The China Justice Observer, an online platform sponsored by the China University of Political Science and Law, published a study of the recognition or enforcement of foreign judgments in China. It found that the average length of proceedings is 584 days; court costs are no more than 2.2% of the amount in controversy or 500 RMB; and attorneys’ fees are, on average, 7.6% of the amount in controversy.

  • The fifteenth National Procuratorate Work Conference was held on January 10 and 11. It released the most recent statistics about the prosecutorial implementation of a national campaign against organized crime, the plea for leniency system, and public interest litigation. (in Chinese)

  • The Ministry of Justice has released a new regulation on judicial forensic appraisal work. The document stresses professional training throughout judicial forensic appraisers’ careers with political study as a component of such trainings. (in Chinese)

  • Chinese lawyer Lu Siwei has been stripped of his license to practice law and a second lawyer, Ren Quanniu, faces a similar fate for attempting to represent two of the 12 Hong Kong activists recently convicted of border crossing charges in Shenzhen.

Hong Kong

  • Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, who was sworn in on January 11, said that judges must not be subject to improper outside pressure or influence when discharging their judicial functions. He stressed that “political pressure is just one form of pressure that judges face and have to deal with. So we all do our best to deal with these pressures.” He advised judges to focus on the evidence and facts and disregard everything else, and warned that Hong Kong courts need to show they are impartial or risk losing public trust.

  • In a speech at the ceremonial opening of the Legal Year 2021, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng talked about Hong Kong’s judicial independence and condemned doxxing judges and others in the justice system.

  • John Clancey, an American lawyer who is the first foreigner arrested under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, said in an interview that Hong Kong’s courts now have a choice between the new law and the city’s legally enshrined freedoms. Clancey, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1968, was among 55 people arrested for their involvement in an unofficial primary election last year that authorities say was part of a plan to paralyze the government and subvert state power. Clancey was released on bail and has not been formally charged.

  • Hong Kong Broadband Network, a Hong Kong internet service provider, confirmed on January 14 that it deliberately blocked access to the website HKChronicles in order to comply with the National Security Law. HKChronicles compiled information on so-called yellow shops that supported the city’s pro-democracy movement and released personal information and pictures of police and pro-Beijing supporters as part of a doxxing effort during anti-government protests in 2019.

Japan

  • The Japanese government is considering imposing criminal penalties on COVID-19 patients who refuse to be hospitalized or refuse to cooperate with public health officials tracking their movements to figure out infection routes. Under the proposed revision of the infectious disease law, persons who test positive but refuse to be hospitalized could face a maximum fine of $9,600 or prison sentence of up to one year; those who refuse to answer or give false information to contact tracers could be fined up to $4,800 or jailed up to six months. Opposition lawmakers have voiced concerns about infringing personal freedoms.

  • Former Nissan Motor Co. Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga gave long-awaited testimony in Tokyo District Court on January 12 at the trial of former Nissan Executive Vice President Greg Kelly, who is accused of falsifying securities reports and under-reporting former Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s compensation by about $90 million. Shiga outlined the pains that Nissan officials took to hide Ghosn’s pay, and their concern that Ghosn might jump to a rival company. Shiga, the highest-ranking Nissan executive to testify at the trial, said he deeply regretted not insisting that Ghosn fully disclose his pay. Both Kelly and Ghosn were arrested in November 2018, but Ghosn fled the country in late 2019 while released on bail.

  • Japan is seeing an increase in social media scams that pretend to offer cash giveaways from celebrities but actually cheat people out of digital money. An expert told the Japan Times that there is no law to crack down on social media “catfishing.” Twitter verification badges and accounts with several hundred thousand followers, which make it easier to win potential victims’ trust, are sold online for tens of thousands of yen. Twitter has started reviewing its verification badge screening process.

Koreas

  • South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year prison term for former President Park Geun-hye for bribery and other crimes, bringing an end to a historic corruption case that brought down the country’s first female leader and a conservative icon. But the finalizing of her prison term also makes Park eligible for a special presidential pardon. A pardon is seen as a possibility as her liberal successor, President Moon Jae-in, approaches the 2022 election.

  • A public petition filed on the South Korean presidential office's website demands that the government investigate and punish producers and distributors of deepfake porn photos and videos. Many victims are female celebrities and and K-pop singers. The petition garnered over 330,000 signatures in a single day.

  • The Sentencing Commission of the South Korea Supreme Court revised the guidelines on workplace disaster cases. The updated guidelines allow up to three years longer in jail for the owners of businesses where workplace disasters occur.

  • The government of Seoul has taken down an online manual for pregnant women after its suggestions were criticized as out of date and sexist. The manual suggested that women should prepare food, clothes, and daily necessities for their husband and family before going to the hospital to give birth. It also suggested that after giving birth, women should motivate themselves to lose weight by hanging up smaller size clothing.

  • The North Korean Workers’ Party, holding its first party congress since 2016, has given Kim Jong Un the title of general secretary, a title last held by his father, Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un was already party chairman and the top leader of the party and country. He may have been given the additional title in an effort to bolster his authority amid growing economic challenges. During the congress, Kim Jong Un labeled the United States as the “principal enemy” and vowed to strengthen North Korea’s nuclear deterrent.

Taiwan

  • Chiang Wan-an, the great-grandson of former President Chiang Kai-shek and a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, is proposing to amend the Act Governing the Recovery of Damage of Individual Rights During the Period of Martial Law. His amendment would expand the scope of persons eligible to claim state compensation for harm suffered during Taiwan’s martial law period from 1949-1987.

  • The Ministry of Justice has prepared a report about corruption allegations involving former Supreme Court Judge Shih Mu-chin and businessman Weng Mao-chung, and plans to submit the report to the Executive Yuan on January 18. The Control Yuan began impeachment proceedings against Shih last August over alleged breaches of the Judges Act and conflicts of interest. Numerous other judges, prosecutors, judicial investigators, high-ranking bureaucrats and police officials have been accused of misconduct, illegal profits, conflicts of interest and insider trading based on relationships with Weng.

  • The New Power Party (NPP) is calling on the government to draft a special law and hold a public hearing before requiring citizens to replace their paper ID cards with electronic ID cards. Concerns about the coming eIDs include possible security breaches. The government has not issued specific regulations for the eIDs, which it says fall within the scope of the existing Household Registration Act (户籍法). NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua told a press conference that the mandate to switch to eIDs might violate the Constitution.

  • According to a self-assessment published January 12 by the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee, Taiwan ranks first in Asia and sixth in the world for gender equality. The committee said it based the rankings on the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index, which measures gender equality in reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market.

  • The Judicial Yuan has launched an online platform where the public can access judicial decisions and other data, including budget information.

  • The president of the Judicial Yuan, Hsu Tzong-li, spoke at an academic seminar on January 12 about the Constitutional Court Procedure Act, which will take effect on January 4, 2022. Hsu stressed that the act would not turn the Constitutional Court into a fourth-instance trial court, or act as a catalyst to redress wrongful convictions. (in Chinese)

Vietnam