April 10-April 16
China
The spokesman for the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress said the committee will review the draft revision of the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests when it convenes next week. Among many proposed changes, the draft would require authorities down to the village committee level to report suspected cases of abduction and trafficking of women to the police in a timely manner. Last February, a video of a woman chained in a hut in rural Jiangsu who was later confirmed to have been trafficked caused public outrage; 17 local officials were investigated or punished in connection with the case.
New Zealand’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government may extradite to China a Korean-born permanent resident accused of murdering a young woman in Shanghai in 2009. New Zealand does not have an extradition treaty with China and has never sent a resident to face trial there. China made the extradition request in 2011 and it has been alternately allowed and blocked by lower courts ever since. The Supreme Court concluded that the government could trust assurances from China that the suspect, Kyung Yup Kim, was not at risk of being tortured or receiving an unfair trial.
Hong Kong
Lawyers for the former publisher of the Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, appealed to the UN special rapporteurs for freedom of opinion and expression, counter-terrorism and human rights, the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and human rights defenders to investigate Lai’s imprisonment on multiple criminal charges as “legal harassment” intended to punish him for speaking out. Lai is serving 20 months in prison after being convicted of participating in several unlawful assemblies in 2019. He also has been charged with violating the National Security Law. UN special rapporteurs assess and verify complaints from alleged victims of human rights violations.
Hong Kong veteran journalist Allan Au was arrested by national security police under colonial-era anti-sedition legislation for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious materials. Mr. Au was a senior producer, a radio host, and a columnist of Hong Kong local news media, as well as a consultant for Chinese University in Hong Kong.
Japan
Japan’s House of Councilors passed a bill to allow the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to conduct rescue missions when Japanese citizens are not involved. Before the revision, the SDF could only rescue non-Japanese individuals if they were accompanying Japanese citizens. As a result, Japan failed to evacuate many of its local embassy staff in Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power last August. The bill also broadened the possible uses for SDF transport planes.
Koreas
Legislators of South Korea’s Democratic Party submitted a bill to revise the Criminal Procedure Act and the Prosecutors’ Office Act that, if passed, would significantly reduce prosecutors’ investigative powers. The bill must be reviewed by parliamentary committees before a final vote at the general session of the National Assembly. The Democratic Party said it is crucial for the prosecutorial reforms that began under President Moon Jae-in to be finalized before President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol takes office in early May.
Taiwan
Two Taipei city councilors said that recordings of the calls of about 1,400 residents to a city helpline had been handed over to a private artificial intelligence software developer without the callers’ permission. Councilors Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) said the city’s action violated the callers’ rights because the recordings were the callers’ voice prints. Taiwan’s National Development Council said that under Article 28 of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), public agencies that illegally collect, process, or use people’s personal information are liable to pay compensation. Further investigation is needed to determine whether the city violated the law.