July 9-15
China
The Cyberspace Administration of China published new rules for generative artificial intelligence, becoming one of the first countries in the world to regulate the technology that powers popular services such as ChatGPT. Among the key provisions is a requirement for generative AI service providers to conduct security reviews and register their algorithms with the government. The final rules relax some punitive provisions included in a previously released draft. They take effect on August 15, 2023.
The Shanghai municipal government released a plan to upgrade a local cell phone app that was used in Covid-19 monitoring into an omnibus app that closely tracks individuals and companies. The plan has triggered concerns about privacy and data safety.
The Supreme People’s Court launched a three-month pilot program to implement an adjudication quality management index system, which revises an index system released in 2011. Eleven high courts and intermediate courts are participating in the pilot program.
Hong Kong
The Legislative Council passed the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2023, which expands the Department of Justice’s powers to appeal not-guilty verdicts in non-jury national security trials. The government sought the amendment even though so far no one tried under the National Security Law has been acquitted. Additionally, the prosecution can now ask the court to hold the defendant in custody pending appeal and bar media from reporting on the legal proceedings that arise from the appeal. The amendment also allows the Department of Justice to appeal “no case to answer” decisions in jury trials at the High Court, in which judges have ruled there is insufficient evidence to justify a trial.
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeals ruled that four people accused of rioting in 2019 must face a retrial despite being acquitted by a lower court, saying the original judge was “plainly wrong.” The four were among 13 defendants in two cases who were acquitted by District Court Judge Sham Siu-man, who held that the defendants should not be treated as rioters simply because they wore black - a color worn by many rioters. Sham also accepted some defendants’ testimony that they were on the scene to witness a historic moment. Nine of the original 13 defendants have since left Hong Kong.
Japan
The Tokyo District Court sentenced the former president of major Japanese advertising agency to a suspended prison term for paying about ¥14 million ($100,000) in bribes to help companies win contracts as sponsors or marketing agents of the Tokyo Olympic Games. The defendant, Shinichi Ueno, admitted paying the money but said he did not think it was illegal. Nine of the 15 people indicted in the bribery scandal have been found guilty.
The Supreme Court said it was unlawful for the Ministry of Economy to restrict a transgender woman employee’s use of office bathrooms. The ministry required her to use women's toilets several floors away from her office instead of closer ones. Presiding Judge Yukihiko Imasaki said that the National Personnel Authority’s decision to uphold the ministry’s bathroom policy gave “excessive consideration” to the plaintiff’s co-workers and “unfairly neglected the plaintiff's disadvantage.” It is the first time the court issued a ruling involving bathroom usage by sexual minorities.
Koreas
The Seoul High Court ruled that the government was wrong when it denied an entry visa to Korean-American singer Steve Yoo. Yoo gave up his Korean citizenship in 2002, allegedly to evade mandatory military service. The court said that even if a man renounces his citizenship in order to dodge military service, it would be too much to deny him a visa after he turns 38 years old, when the military service requirement terminates. Military service is mandatory for all able-bodied young South Korean men.
The Supreme Court finalized two- and three-year prison sentences for the former CEO and two other executives of Toptec Co. for leaking Samsung Display's edge panel technology to Chinese companies in 2018. A district court initially found the executives not guilty on the grounds that the leaked technology was not a business secret. An appellate court overturned the ruling, reasoning that the technology belongs to what the trade ministry has classified as frontier technologies and is not in the public domain.
Taiwan
The Executive Yuan responded to a wave of #MeToo accusations by approving tougher penalties for persons who use their position or power to sexually harass others. It approved amendments to three laws, the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法), the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) and the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法). The Legislative Yuan will hold an extraordinary session next week to consider the amendments.
The Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s verdict on a 2019 vote-buying case as well as the sentence of three years and two months for the main defendant, Lin Huai (林懷). Lin was accused of receiving funds from the Chinese Communist Party to encourage others to vote for the Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), in 2020.
The Ministry of Justice called for the immediate amendment of the Open Prisons Statute (外役監條例) to make it harder for persons convicted of serious offenses to be transferred to minimum-security facilities. It was responding to the recent controversial transfer of a man convicted of murdering a police officer to a minimum-security facility.
A group of advocates, legal experts, and lawmakers urged reforms to speed up the criminal justice process, including by making police responsible for investigating minor crimes to relieve the burden on prosecutors. The group was led by United Microelectronics Corp founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠). Taiwan Jury Association director Chen Wei-shyang (陳為祥) said that about 65% of the indictments filed by prosecutors in 2022 were for crimes carrying minimum sentences of five years or less, and that these should have been investigated by police.