June 26-July 2
China
Provisional guiding opinions on sentencing for 23 common crimes, jointly issued last month by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, took effect on July 1. The document replaces the court’s 2017 sentencing guidelines. It also requires provincial-level courts and procuratorates to draft and implement detailed measures to guide courts and procuratorates in their respective jurisdictions. (in Chinese)
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee is seeking public comments on the draft Physicians Law, Legal Aid Law, Vocational Education Law and Audit Law through July 9, according to the NPC Observer.
Users of China Judgments Online, the Supreme People’s Court database of judicial decisions, report that about 11 million court rulings have been removed in recent weeks. An official notice at the site says that the database is undergoing a data “migration” process that will soon be completed. Legal professionals and scholars expressed concern about a possible reduction in judicial transparency if the materials are not restored.
The Shanghai city government held the 2021 Annual Briefing Conference on Intellectual Property Development (in Chinese) with representatives from 27 foreign consulates in attendance. According to official data that was released, IP disputes accepted by courts in the city increased by 71% in 2020 compared with the previous year. The Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration Bureau also announced the launch of an English website.
China’s Cyberspace Administration said that it has launched an investigation into ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc. to protect the national security and public interest, but gave no further details. The announcement came just days after the company went public in New York and was followed by a 6% drop in the stock price, to $15.31. It was just the latest indication of heightened Chinese government concern about the influence of technology companies in the economy and the lives of millions of Chinese citizens.
French magistrates at the national anti-terror prosecutor’s office opened an inquiry into allegations that four fashion groups including Uniqlo and the owner of Zara profited from the forced labor of the Uyghur minority in China. The United States says “genocide” has been inflicted on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the region, while Beijing has denied all allegations of abuses and insists that its policies in Xinjiang are necessary to counter violent extremism.
Hong Kong
Lawyers for a Philippine domestic worker who was sexually abused by her Hong Kong employer have launched a judicial review against the commissioner of police and the secretary of justice over their decision not to classify her as a victim of human trafficking. A court convicted the employer of two counts of indecent assault. The lawyers say that if the victim, identified in court papers only as CB, had been classified as a victim of trafficking or forced labor, the employer would have faced more serious charges and a longer sentence. News of the legal challenge came as the US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2021 rated Hong Kong on a Tier-2 Watch List. The Hong Kong government issued a statement saying that “it vehemently objects to the biased and unreasonable assessment of the report.”
Fung Wai-kong, an editorial writer at the recently closed Apple Daily, was arrested on suspicion of foreign collusion to endanger national security. He is the seventh Apple Daily employee to be arrested in two weeks, and the second editorial writer. The Hong Kong Journalists Association accused police of targeting journalists.
On the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control in 1997, Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee defended the national security law imposed by Beijing to crush pro-democracy rallies and said it would be used further in the coming year to ensure stability. July 1 has been the occasion of annual anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong but police barred all gatherings this year, citing the pandemic, and arrested at least 19 persons for handing out leaflets, among other things. A man who has not been identified stabbed one police officer in the back before fatally stabbing himself; officials said the police officer is expected to recover.
Amnesty International said that Hong Kong’s National Security Law has created a “human rights emergency.” Amnesty released the report a week after democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to shut down following the arrests of its senior executives and lead editorial writer, and a freeze on its assets. It reported that “from politics to culture, education to media, the [National Security] law has infected every part of Hong Kong society and fomented a climate of fear that forces residents to think twice about what they say, what they tweet and how they live their lives.”
Japan
The trial of Americans Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor, accused of helping former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan, concluded with prosecutors seeking prison terms of more than two years for each of them. The Taylors, who were arrested in the United States and extradited to Japan, pleaded guilty. They spent 10 months in custody before their extradition in March, and have been detained since arriving in Japan. Their lawyers asked for suspended sentences.
The French government has named Mari Miura, a member of the Faculty of Law at Sophia University in Tokyo, a Knight of the French National Order of Merit for her work to promote gender parity in Japan. She attracted the French government's attention through her activism that included using the French concept of “loi parite” (parity law), which requires political parties to field equal numbers of male and female candidates for elections. Professor Miura was involved in developing a law, which passed in 2018, to promote gender parity among candidates that Japan's political parties field in elections.
Japan’s Supreme Court unanimously upheld the death sentence given to Chisako Kakehi, a 74-year old woman dubbed the “Black Widow” who was convicted of murdering three male partners with cyanide, along with one attempted murder and robbery. The ruling said there were no grounds for clemency because her motive for the murders was financial gain. It also said she made light of human life by committing four similar crimes over a period of about six years.
The Miyazaki District Court ordered the government to pay $1.1 million in damages to residents near an Air Self-Defense Force base in Miyazaki Prefecture on the grounds that aircraft noise constituted a nuisance.
Koreas
A massive reorganization of South Korea’s police force took effect nationwide in an effort to disperse power within the police after President Moon Jae-in's reform of the prosecution service led to the police gaining more investigative authority. Whereas in the past, the entire national police force of 120,000 was under the jurisdiction of the central government, now approximately 65,000 police are assigned to “autonomous” units in each of the country’s major cities and provinces, where their missions are being tailored to meet local needs.
Banks in South Korea asked the financial authorities not to hold them responsible for money laundering or other fraud involving digital coins, at a time when they are under pressure to screen the digital exchanges for authenticity amid high volatility. A recent amendment to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information requires the exchanges to find banks willing to partner with them to issue real-name accounts. The banks would be responsible for screening the exchanges to assess risks and transparency.
South Korea's former top prosecutor Yoon Suk Yeol announced that he will run in next year's presidential election as the candidate of the main opposition People Power Party. He resigned as the prosecutor general in March after opposing President Moon Jae In's administration over prosecution reform and other issues.
Taiwan
The legislative caucuses of opposition parties called for an absentee voting law after the Central Election Commission postponed a national referendum that was originally scheduled for August 28 to December 18 due to the COVID pandemic. Taiwan does not have an absentee voting system, meaning voters must cast their ballots in person in the place where their households are registered. This poses major challenges to persons who have moved to another part of the country or overseas without changing their household registrations.
Taiwan was listed for the 12th straight year in the top tier of the United States' annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which cited Taiwan’s efforts to investigate trafficking crimes and sentence offenders. The report said the Taiwan government had arrested 458 individuals on suspicion of trafficking crimes in 2020 and conducted 159 new criminal investigations, up from 143 the previous year. Hong Kong was rated on a Tier-2 Watch List by the same report.
The Executive Yuan proposed a number of amendments to existing parental benefits laws that will increase the number of paid leave days available for prenatal check-ups, while also allowing both parents to take parental leave at the same time. The Cabinet also proposed amending Article 19 of the Act of Gender Equality in Employment so that persons hired by employers with fewer than 30 employees can ask for more flexible working hours to take care of their children. The proposed measures also expand National Health Insurance coverage for infertility treatment, which is currently available only for low and middle-income married couples.
The Central Epidemic Command Center lifted the ban on migrant caregivers changing employers with immediate effect in view of the easing COVID-19 situation in Taiwan. On June 6, the the government banned migrant workers from changing employers or transferring between different work sites under the same employer to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.