May 8-14
China
China’s cyberspace administration published draft provisions on the management of automobile data security (in Chinese) for public comment through June 11. The draft provisions would ban the unauthorized collection of personal data or transfer of data overseas, and laid out five principles that car operators must adhere to when they handle personal data (in Chinese). Last month, alleged brake failures in several Tesla cars and the public sharing of Tesla vehicle data logs triggered debate about the security of smart car data.
China’s cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, launched yet another internet cleanup campaign (in Chinese) with the aim of protecting juveniles from a toxic internet environment. Officials said special attention will be paid to apps, platforms, and online forums that are heavily used by juveniles.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) released its 28th batch of guiding cases, focusing this time on prosecutorial supervision of the enforcement of judgments in civil cases. The SPP also released five typical cases involving supervision of administrative litigation in occupational injury cases (see the SPP explanations here). At a separate press conference held together with the China Disabled Persons' Federation, the SPP published ten cases of prosecutor-brought public interest administrative lawsuits involving creating a barrier-free environment for disabled people. (in Chinese)
The Belt and Road International Lawyers Association (BRILA) opened a Guangzhou office. The BRILA was established in 2019 at the Global Lawyers Forum with the aim of providing a platform for lawyers and legal organizations in countries and regions along the Belt and Road. The government target has set a target of 300 law firms in Guangzhou carrying out foreign-related business by 2025, with more than 2,500 lawyers able to handle foreign-related cases.
In the first action taken under the National Biosecurity Law, which took effect April 15, Shanghai Customs authorities said they have intercepted over 200 human cell samples imported from overseas that were disguised as other liquid cultures.
The Finance Ministry and other regulatory agencies held a meeting to discuss property tax pilot programs and solicit opinions from local officials, experts, and scholars. The 2021-2025 economic development plan includes implementing a property tax. This is the fourth time this year that the Ministry of Finance has brought up the proposed tax (in Chinese).
The Shanghai People’s Procuratorate published the 2020 Shanghai Prosecutorial White Paper on Handling of Financial Crimes, which analyzes various features of the financial crimes handled by prosecutorial organs in Shanghai. The protectorate also released a set of typical cases of financial crimes handled by the city’s prosecutors. (in Chinese)
In 2019 and 2020 prosecutorial organs nationwide corrected the improper release of more than 86,000 persons from prison via sentence commutation, parole, or temporary release, according to a disciplinary inspection team at the SPP. It said it sanctioned 29 prosecutors. (in Chinese) The phenomenon of prisoners bribing their way out of prison has recently been in the news. A man convicted of murder in Inner Mongolia in 1993, Batu Menghe, managed to avoid serving his sentence by obtaining medical parole based on a falsified diagnosis.
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong government introduced a series of amendments to criminalize doxxing and empower the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to enforce the law. According to the proposed amendments, anyone engaged in doxxing with the intent to threaten, intimidate, harass, or cause psychological harm could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to HK$1 million (US$128,765). Legal experts criticized the proposal as too vague and said a public interest defense should be made available to safeguard free speech.
Hong Kong police are investigating one of their own. A police raid of an unlicensed massage parlor caught the head of the national security department that was set up in Hong Kong’s police force last year under the new National Security Law.
The Hong Kong judiciary is proposing to revamp its complaints mechanism with input from the public. A two-tier complaint mechanism is proposed to be rolled out in the third quarter of this year to enhance accountability and transparency. Members of the public will be invited to join a new committee to advise the judiciary on how to handle complaints against judges. Esther Leung Yuet-yin, head of the judiciary's administrative wing, said the mechanism will not be politicized; she did not reveal how many lay members would be appointed.
Japan
The discovery of numerous forged signatures in a petition calling for the resignation of Governor Hideaki Omura of Aichi Prefecture has raised concerns about personal information protection in the context of political petitioning. A police investigation found that 83% of the signatures on a petition for Omura’s resignation were invalid, of which about 90% may have been written by the same people. An executive of the group spearheading the recall petition admitted to forging finger stamps and signatures.
A Japanese man has been arrested for posting female athletes’ pictures taken from a sports TV program onto his porn website without permission. In November 2020, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) and six other sporting bodies set up call centers to collect information about the distribution of sexually suggestive images of athletes. Police said this is their first arrest based on a JOC report.
The Lower House of Japan’s Diet passed a bill that would make it easier to hold a national referendum to amend the constitution. The bill goes next to the Upper House where it is expected to be approved and become law by next month. The revisions include increasing the number of polling stations, allowing people to cast their ballots at railway stations and commercial facilities. It also includes a mandate for enacting legislative restrictions within three years on the amount of money that can be spent on referendum-related advertising. But any revisions eventually presented in a referendum would first have to be approved by the Commission on the Constitution, a powerful Diet group tasked with debating constitutional issues.
The Tokyo High Court found an Oita man liable for racial discrimination by posting vicious racist comments about Koreans living in Japan on his blog, and ordered him to pay ¥1.3 million in damages. The plaintiff’s lawyer said the ruling is expected to have a deterrent effect on hate speech.
Koreas
According to an analysis of Google’s 2020 Transparency Report, Google removed 54,330 pieces of content at the request of the South Korean government last year, nearly six times as much as it removed in the United States and over 50 times as much as in Japan, raising concerns about excessive state meddling in online expression. Experts said that requests for content deletion are rising in Korea because of the country’s system allowing pursuit of private relief through administrative agencies (in Korean).
A survey found that migrant laborers in South Korea work an average of 50 hours a week, and receive lower monthly pay than they did last year. Women migrant workers are among the most disadvantaged in terms of working hours, wages, and working conditions, and 2.3% reported being sexually harassed or assaulted at work. The Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs surveyed close to 1,500 people who were selected based on nationality, gender, and line of work.
South Korea's oceans ministry rolled out tougher regulations of whale sales in line with its efforts to curb illegal whaling activities in local waters. Under the new rules, all whales captured illegally will be destroyed; whales found ashore will be banned from being sold and can only be used for education and research purposes. South Korea has been trying to curb commercial whaling activities as a member of the International Whaling Commission.
Taiwan
Taiwan’s Control Yuan called on the Cabinet and several government agencies to address the issue of human rights violations on Taiwanese fishing vessels flying a flag of convenience (FOC). Control Yuan member Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) cited cases of human rights violations last year against migrant crew members on two Taiwanese FOC fishing boats as a result of Covid-19 pandemic-related measures. Migrant crew members were subject to long-term confinement due to a lack of proper quarantine guidelines for FOC vessels. FOC is a business practice whereby merchant ship owners register their vessels in a country other than their own to reduce operating costs, avoid higher taxes, and bypass laws that protect the wages and working conditions of the crew.
Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan passed legal amendments expanding the role of students in school management. Senior high school students now must make up at least 8% of the participants at school management meetings. The amendments expand a system through which students can appeal policies that they believe harm their interests. The changes follow the “spirit” of the Constitutional Court's Interpretation No. 784 (in Chinese), which affirmed students' right to file legal or administrative appeals against school decisions that affect their rights and interests.