April 17-23
China
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) released an ambitious updated 2021 legislative plan (in Chinese) including 54 draft laws or revised laws to review in 2021. The NPCSC’s annual legislative plans serve two primary purposes: listing bills that are scheduled for review or research each year, and laying down guiding principles for all facets of the committee’s annual legislative work. The NPC Observer analyzed the legislative agenda.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) has recruited 60 lawyers, 21 psychologists and 11 retired prosecutors to serve as expert consultants and assist the SPP in handling petitions and complaints. (in Chinese)
The SPP released 11 so-called typical cases involving personal data privacy infringement in administrative, civil and criminal cases. Prosecutors’ offices began last year to bring public interest litigation in cases involving illegal collection of personal information. (in Chinese)
The China Justice Observer published an article explaining the role of a new internal court body, the professional judges meeting. The Supreme People’s Court first suggested creating such meetings in 2015, and after several years of experimentation, issued guiding opinions in January. The meetings are intended to help judges if they are struggling with matters of law in complex cases, or if a collegial panel is unable to reach agreement; opinions expressed at the meetings are not binding.
The Beijing High Court issued guidance for handling evidence in civil cases involving intellectual property disputes. The guidelines address both traditional evidence and digital evidence. The full text is available here. (in Chinese)
British Columbia Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said she will provide written reasons for her decision to grant Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s request to delay the final phase of her extradition hearings. Meng was detained in Canada in 2018 at the behest of US authorities and has been fighting extradition to the US where she is charged with bank fraud and violating sanctions against Iran.
The SPP released statistics about cases that have been handled by prosecutors across the country from January through March. Compared with the same quarter of 2020, prosecutors’ rejections of police applications to arrest suspects increased 4.8%, the non-prosecution rate increased 2.5%, drunk driving as the most prosecuted crime increased 1.1%, and crimes related to the internet increased 1.1%. In plea-for-leniency cases, 95% of sentences proposed by prosecutors were adopted by the courts. The full report is available here.
Hong Kong
International press freedom watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) released its 2021 world press freedom index in which it ranked Hong Kong in 80th place, down seven notches from the previous year and dramatically below its 2002 rank of 18th. RSF said that 2020 National Security Law poses a “grave threat” to journalists in the city. The Hong Kong government retorted that the report “seemed to suggest that people with a particular profession should be immune to legal sanctions.” China was ranked 177th according to this report.
Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club published an open letter to Police Commissioner Chris Tang seeking “urgent clarity” on his recent comments that the force would prosecute so-called “fake news” and the recent discussions surrounding the possible introduction of a fake news law.
The West Kowloon Court found Bao Choy, a freelance documentary producer, guilty of two counts of knowingly making false statements when she searched the Transport Department database to identify the owner of cars connected with a gang attack on democracy advocates. On the same day, the police confirmed that a reporter from the pro-Beijing Chinese-language daily Ta Kung Pao was arrested and charged with the same offense after he allegedly searched car ownership details in a government database last August.
The Hong Kong judiciary released High Court Judge Esther Toh’s written reasons for denying bail to two of the 47 democrats facing national security charges but granting it to two others. The National Security Law reverses Hong Kong’s usual presumption in favor of granting bail, requiring the judge to be satisfied that there are sufficient grounds to believe that the defendant will not continue to commit acts endangering national security. t.
The chief inspector in the Hong Kong police’s family conflict and sexual violence policy unit said there was 5.5% decrease in reports of child abuse cases in 2020, possibly due to the social distancing put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The police said they welcome proposals to make it mandatory for care providers to report suspected child abuse. The issue has received attention since the recent conviction of a couple for the murder of their five-year-old daughter.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is in discussions with banks over “an alternative payment mechanism” so that funds meant for home purchases need not be routed through the accounts of law firms, and law firms may not handle such funds in the future.
Japan
The Tokyo District Court rejected an attempt by a couple who married in New York State in 1997 to enter their different surnames in a family register in Japan. However, Presiding Judge Yoshitaka Ichihara also rejected the government’s argument that their marriage was invalid because the couple used different family names. The couple’s lawyer said that despite the mixed results, the ruling will help accelerate an eventual shift to a dual-surname system in Japan.
The head of the Japanese ruling party's Headquarters for Promoting Administrative Reform has submitted a proposal to set up a database for the central management of records of indecent acts. His aim is to prevent people who have committed sex crimes from becoming teachers or cram school tutors.
Japan’s parliament approved a bill to make it easier for victims of anonymous online slander to identify their attackers. The bill will take effect by the end of 2022. Victims currently have to go through separate lengthy procedures with social media operators and telecommunications companies to obtain the information needed to identify online slanderers.
Japan's House of Representatives approved a bill to revise the juvenile law so that 18- and 19-year-olds can be tried as adults in more kinds of criminal cases. The government hopes the revisions can take effect on April 1, 2022, to coincide with a Civil Code revision that will lower the age of adulthood to 18 from the current 20.
The Japanese government disclosed to a group of lawmakers that it is considering measures to prevent technical information from being leaked by Japanese researchers to “countries of concern” such as China. One option being considered is to have researchers report to the government when they are involved with a foreign country.
Koreas
Four UN special rapporteurs expressed concern that South Korea's anti-leafleting law could restrict freedom of expression. They sent a letter sent to the government asking for clarification. The law, which took effect last month, prohibits sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border into North Korea.
The Seoul Central District Court, citing the principle of sovereign immunity, rejected the request of 20 former “comfort women” for compensation from Japan. The decision was a surprise because a different panel of judges in the same court reached an opposite conclusion in January in an almost identical case bought by 12 former comfort women, to whom it granted 100 million won (US$89,600) each in damages to be paid by Tokyo. The court now said that Japan does not have to pay the legal fees of the plaintiffs in the January case. The latest decision was applauded in Japan, but Amnesty International in a statement called it a “major disappointment.”
The Ministry of Justice released a new policy allowing illegal migrant children who are born and have lived in South Korea for more than 15 years and graduated from elementary school before Feb. 28, 2021, to be given temporary stay permits. According to the policy, their parents will also be given temporary stay permits, and both the children and their parents should leave the country voluntarily when the children become adults. An estimated 100-500 children will be subject to the policy.
The jailed de facto head of the Samsung group, Lee Jae-yong, went on trial on charges of stock manipulation, breach of trust, and other offenses. Lee, grandson of the group’s founder, pleaded not guilty to all charges at the Seoul Central District Court. Samsung is the largest of the family-controlled business empires known as chaebols that dominate South Korea’s economy.
South Korea's financial authorities are moving to impose a 20% income tax on cryptocurrency transactions from 2022. Many questions remain unanswered, however. Daily cryptocurrency turnover recently surpassed 20 trillion won ($17.9 billion), but the South Korean government, like many around the world, has few regulations or investor protections in place.
The autobiography of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung has been republished in South Korea and bookstores are taking orders for it, in defiance of a de facto ban. The book, originally published in North Korea in 1992, has been translated into 20 languages and is available in many countries. But a local publisher who tried to publish the book in 1994 was arrested. Others have been punished for possessing the book or, in one case, assigning students to write book reports about it.
The Unification Ministry of South Korea proposed revising the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act to require its citizens to obtain government approval before exchanging digital files of films or books with North Koreans via the internet. Currently, all inter-Korean contact should be approved in advance or reported to the government afterward.
Taiwan
Taiwan's legislature passed the Occupational Accident Insurance and Protection Act, requiring employers to sign up all workers for occupational accident insurance on their first day at work, regardless of the size of the company. The act provides for two months of full salary payout for those suffering from an occupational injury or disease. It is touted as a gift for workers in Taiwan ahead of International Labor Day on May 1.
A legislator from the Democratic Progressive Party, with support from 29 other lawmakers, proposed amending the National Security Act to criminalize display of the five-star People’s Republic of China flag. However, national security officials said the National Security act should be reserved for more serious offenses, and recommended instead revising the Social Order Maintenance Act.
The Executive Yuan approved a draft amendment that would stiffen penalties for persons convicted of negligent homicide. The sentence for a serious offense of negligent homicide would be 1-7 years in prison. The approved amendment is to be sent to the Judicial Yuan, which is expected to co-sign it, and then to the Legislative Yuan. The action comes amid controversy that those accused of negligent homicide in the recent train derailment that killed 49 persons might face only a five-year prison term or a fine.
The Executive Yuan approved a draft anti-stalking bill that defines stalking broadly and includes a provision for protective orders. Local media reports said that Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), who is also a minister without portfolio, was largely responsible for hammering out the bill after a woman was murdered this month, allegedly by her stalker.
Food delivery workers serving Foodpanda Taiwan Co (富胖達) and Uber Eats Taiwan,Taiwan’s major food delivery platforms, pledged to form a union to demand fair pay and called for legislative action to protect drivers’ rights. The number of food deliverers in Taiwan had increased to 88,000 by the end of last year.
Judicial reform advocates, including the Taiwan Jury Association, called on the government to restore the Military Injustice Petitions Committee, a government body through which people could file complaints about military abuse and other injustices. The advocates said that bullying incidents in the military have continued, with up to 20 cases reported each year. The committee was set up by the Executive Yuan in 2013, but stopped operating after one year.
Hundreds of young people attended a cannabis legalization rally in front of the Legislative Yuan. They demanded destigmatization of cannabis usage, increasing the amount of legally allowed THC in hemp, and removing cannabis from the list of narcotics drugs.