This Week in Asian Law

May 15-21

China

  • China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) introduced its newly revised Regulations for the Implementation of the Private Education Promotion Law (in Chinese). With respect to private schools teaching kindergarten through ninth grade, the regulation bans the teaching of foreign curricula and foreign ownership or effective control. It also emphasizes the public welfare nature of education. Liu Changya, director of the MOE’s Development Planning Department, said the purpose of education is the public welfare, not profit for capital. The regulation takes effect September 1.

  • Starting May 19, a new arrangement governs the enforcement of arbitral awards between mainland China and Hong Kong. This supplemental arrangement signed last November amends the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and the HKSAR. Baker McKenzie explains.

  • China’s State Supervision Commission released the draft Regulations for the Implementation of the Supervision Law for public comment. Comments can be submitted to zjwfgs@ncs.gov.cn before June 15. (in Chinese)

  • The China Justice Observer discusses how Chinese courts treat cryptocurrency exchanges in China through the lens of a Shenzhen court’s review of an arbitral award, Gao Zheyu v. Shenzhen Yunsilu Innovation Development Fund Enterprise (L.P.) and Li Bin.

  • The general offices of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued guidelines (in Chinese) about cracking down on organized crimes and gangs on a regular basis. The guidelines create an accountability system in which local senior officials are required to take proactive measures against organized crime and support law enforcement operations.

Hong Kong

Japan

  • The government has withdrawn a bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law amid criticism over the alleged improper treatment of a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman who died in detention at an immigration facility. Critics of the country’s immigration system say the death reveals an opaque and capricious bureaucracy with nearly unchecked power over foreigners caught inside it. It is also reported that the government thought pursuing the bill would worsen Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's plunging approval ratings. Opponents feared the proposed amendment would worsen the conditions for asylum seekers in Japan. An editorial in Asahi Shimbun called for a complete overhaul of Japan’s immigration law, not just minor changes.

  • Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that the state and building material manufacturers are responsible for the health problems of construction workers who were exposed to asbestos. The court ordered the state and building material companies to pay damages for cancer or other illnesses that victims developed after years of exposure to asbestos at construction sites. The decision capped legal processes lasting more than a decade and involving 1,200 plaintiffs in 33 lawsuits across the country. The number of affected workers is estimated at about 10,000. According to terms agreed between the government and plaintiffs, the government will pay each victim from 5.5 million yen ($50,400) to 13 million yen, according to the severity of their condition.

  • The Osaka Bar Association is offering up to $365 to defense lawyers who challenge courts’ detention orders in criminal cases. Although Japan’s Code of Criminal Procedure provides that in principle investigations should be conducted without detaining suspects, courts nationwide rejected only 6.24% of detention requests from the prosecution in 2019. The system has been called “hostage justice” because bail is typically granted only to suspects who admit guilt. Attorneys often do not challenge detention because they believe it will be futile. The Aichi Bar Association introduced a similar reward system for three months in 2019.

Koreas

  • South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor is researching measures to legalize foreign nationals becoming domestic workers, part of its efforts to reduce employment costs and expand women’s economic activities. Under current laws, only Koreans, ethnic Koreans from China, permanent residents, and the foreign spouses of Koreans can be hired as domestic workers. Demand for domestic workers has increased more than 300% in the past year compared to the previous year.

  • The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs conducted a study of foreign employment and found that 20.7% of foreign workers work more than 60 hours per week, and female foreign workers face worse working conditions than their male counterparts. The Labor Standards Act stipulates that employers must ensure employees work no more than an average of 52 hours a week over a six-month period. The average work week of foreign workers in South Korea is 50 hours, the institute found.

  • A congressman from South Korea’s Democratic Party submitted a bill in parliament that would stop the organizers of esports tournaments from unilaterally terminating the games without first informing participants and other principles involved in the event. The bill is intended to protect esports players, mostly teenagers or young adults who building their careers, from suffering serious and long-lasting consequences from the sudden end of an esports ecosystem.

Taiwan

  • President Tsai Ing-wen issued a presidential pardon to Tama Talum, an indigenous Bunun man who was controversially sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for weapons and poaching offenses in a case that led to a constitutional review of the Wildlife Conservation Act by the Taiwan's Constitutional Court earlier this year. It is the first pardon of Tsai’s administration and only the seventh under Taiwan’s Constitution.

  • The Taiwan Legislature’s ad hoc Constitutional Amendment Committee held its first meeting since its establishment in September 2020. It selected five conveners to oversee the more than 50 proposals on the committee's agenda for review, including lowering the voting age to 18 and abolishing the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan. Proposed amendments approved by the committee must then be approved by the legislature and by a public referendum.

  • A proposal to boost government spending for industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to NT$630 billion (USD $22.55 billion) passed its second reading at Taiwan’s legislature. The proposal would amend the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens, which originally authorized NT$420 billion in spending when it was approved in early 2020. The draft revision also would give parents with children younger than age 12 pandemic-related leave subsidies potentially totaling up to US$357 million. A third and final reading is scheduled for May 31.

  • The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to the Long-Term Care Services Act that authorizes the Ministry of Health and Welfare to inspect long-term care facilities and fine them if they are found to have caused the death of a resident through negligence. Operators may not avoid, obstruct, or refuse inspection requests and must provide all information requested.