December 18-22
China
The Henan Province High Court exonerated a man who was imprisoned for more than 29 years in a rape-murder case. Tan Xiuyi had been convicted of raping a neighbor and murdering her and her parents in 1993. At that time he was 39 years old; he is now 68. Persistent petitioning by his family eventually led to the Henan Procuratorate re-examining the case and seeking a new trial. Tan is now the longest-held prisoner known to have been exonerated in China.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee is scheduled to convene from December 27 to 30. The Hong Kong government’s request for the Standing Committee to interpret the Hong Kong National Security Law is not on the publicly released agenda. The tentative agenda includes fifteen bills, including further review of draft amendments to the Legislation Law, Wild Animals Protection Law and Company Law. The Supreme People’s Court has submitted separate bills to amend the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Litigation Law.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance acknowledged that four staffers improperly accessed data of a small number of US users, including two journalists, when trying to find the source of leaks of company information to the media. The CEOs of TikTok and ByteDance said in emails to employees that the four staff, two based in China and two in the US, had been fired. The targeted journalists worked for the Financial Times and BuzzFeed. Forbes reports that two additional journalists who formerly worked for BuzzFeed also were surveilled. US politicians have expressed concerns about whether Chinese authorities can surveil Americans through TikTok, and more than a dozen US states have recently banned state employees from accessing TikTok on government-issued devices.
Hong Kong
The government’s office of Financial Services and the Treasury is proposing to establish a Crowdfunding Affairs Office to monitor crowdfunding activities. The proposal, disclosed during a government public consultation on potential legislation, would require that any campaigns to raise funds from Hong Kong people apply to the office and declare that the campaign would not jeopardize national security or violate the law. Pro-democracy politicians and activists have used crowdfunding to pay their legal fees since the government crackdown on protests began in 2020.
A Hong Kong court ordered the government to pay HK$855,000 (US$110,000) in legal fees to jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai after the justice secretary lost a legal battle to block a British barrister from representing Lai at his national security trial. The court said it would require costs to be paid for two of Lai’s legal counsel.
Hong Kong commercial landlords have stepped up legal action against tenants for unpaid rent since a rent moratorium expired at the end of July. The moratorium, imposed during a severe Covid wave, barred landlords from taking action against tenants who defaulted on rents between January 1 and July 31.
Japan
The Osaka District Court rejected local residents’ lawsuit to halt an aging nuclear reactor in central Japan that started operations more than 40 years ago. The decision came as the government seeks to extend the maximum service period for existing nuclear reactors beyond 60 years. Some experts say extending the operational lifespan of reactors is not desirable because utility operators would need to invest in old equipment instead of in new technology or renewables.
A Japanese newspaper claimed that a recent police report on instances of national or racial bias by police officers glossed over the reality. The official report found that just six cases of “inappropriate and thoughtless” questioning by police officers based on national or racial stereotypes occurred in 2021. The Tokyo Bar Association surveyed foreigners and persons with “foreign roots” earlier this year, and found that 63% of 2,094 respondents said they had been subjected to questioning by police in the past five years. The majority of those questioned by police said they believed their foreignness was the only reason.
The government plans to establish a system next year for giving preferential treatment to businesses that take human rights into consideration when soliciting bids for public works projects, procurement of goods, and other services. According to Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains issued by an inter-ministerial committee on business and human rights, businesses should regularly check whether their suppliers commit human rights violations.
Political candidates with young children face special obstacles when running for office, as Japanese election law prohibits children younger than 18 to be involved in elections. But the law does not clearly define the meaning of involving a child in a campaign. Now the government has issued guidelines intended to provide clarity. Acts such as holding a child during a stump speech have to be examined “individually to determine whether they are being used (as props) to help the candidate win.”
Koreas
South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that a ban on rallies near the presidential residence is unconstitutional. The court was responding to a request for constitutionality review from a labor union representative accused of violating the Assembly and Demonstration Act, which bans assemblies and demonstrations within 100 meters of office buildings or residences, including the presidential residence. The court said that a blanket ban is unjustifiable.
Human Rights Watch and 30 other organizations submitted a letter to South Korea’s National Assembly urging it to pass a comprehensive antidiscrimination law. The letter says that existing frameworks fail to prevent discrimination and provide redress for marginalized groups. Among other problems, it cited deep gender inequity. Since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May, he has scrapped government gender quotas and is trying to abolish the Gender Equality Ministry.
Human Rights Watch also submitted a letter to the special rapporteur on rights of women and girls in North Korea in advance of the special rapporteur’s report to the 52nd Human Rights Council Session in March 2023. The letter said that North Korean women and girls are subject to intense and pervasive human rights abuses including sexual and gender-based violence, widespread discrimination, and enforcement of rigid gender stereotypes.
President Yoon Suk-yeol said that reforming practices in the labor market “in step with the the fast-changing industrial structure and changes in labor demand” should be a top priority for his administration. Speaking at a Finance Ministry briefing on next year's economic strategy, the president also said the education system and public pension service need reform.
A Seoul court ruled against persons seeking refunds of donations they made to two organizations that support victims of Japan’s World War II sexual slavery system. At issue was about 90 million won ($69,700) in donations made to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the House of Sharing. Rep. Yoon Mee-hyang, who had led the council for three decades until she won a parliamentary seat in April 2020, was also targeted by the lawsuits, which claimed the funds were misused.
The Human Trafficking Prevention Act, which provides a clearer definition of human trafficking and improved protection for victims, takes effect on Jan. 1, 2023. Under the new law, the crime of trafficking in persons refers to the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people by coercion, fraud, or other means for the purpose of exploitation including prostitution. South Korea has long been criticized for lacking a specific or consistent definition of human trafficking.
Taiwan
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said legal authorities are investigating whether Chinese social media platform TikTok is illegally operating a subsidiary on the island. TikTok’s owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, said it has not established any legal entities in Taiwan. The accusation originated in Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper. Local law bans Chinese social media platforms from commercial operations in Taiwan such as promotion and selling advertising, and government departments are banned from using Chinese apps.