October 15-21
China
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee convened to review these draft laws or draft revisions to laws: the Marine Environmental Protection Law (海洋环境保护法), the Patriotic Education Law (爱国主义教育法), the Law on Ensuring Food Security (粮食安全保障法), the Charity Law (慈善法), the State Council Organic Law (国务院组织法), the Law on Guarding State Secrets (保守国家秘密法), the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (传染病防治法), the Tariff Law (关税法), and the Cultural Relics Protection Law (文物保护法).
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC), which a week earlier released guidelines to improve the legal environment for private business, issued six typical cases to illustrate how courts should protect the rights of private businesses and their owners. SPC officials told a press conference that the cases involve infringing private firms’ reputational rights by posting false and defamatory statements online and maliciously using a business owner’s name as a trademark for funeral products.
Former Liaoning Province Vice Governor and Police Chief Wang Dawei (王大伟) pleaded guilty at his trial on charges of accepting RMB 555 million (US $75.85 million) in bribes. His two immediate predecessors as provincial police chief were also convicted of corruption. Media reports said the total amount of bribes accepted by the three successive police chiefs was RMB 1.2 billion (US $164 million) during the period 2002-2022. A verdict in Wang’s case was not immediately announced.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal upheld two High Court rulings that give same-sex couples married abroad the same rights to rent and own public housing as heterosexual couples. The government had appealed the rulings. Hong Kong has not legalized same-sex marriage or legal unions, but its courts have been gradually recognizing rights for same-sex couples in specific areas of life. In September, the Court of Final Appeal gave the government two years to establish a framework to legally recognize same-sex partnerships.
Former Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting and six co-defendants went on trial on rioting charges in connection with a violent clash at the Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019. In one of the most notorious incidents of the months-long 2019 protests, about 100 men wearing white shirts and armed with sticks and poles attacked commuters in the train station and injured nearly 50 persons, including Lam. Witnesses accused police of failing to failing to respond to calls for help and being in collusion with the attackers. Police and prosecutors contend that Lam and his co-defendants initiated the violence. Lam is also on trial on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion for participating in an unofficial primary election in 2020.
A protester who was shot by police during the 2019 protests was sentenced to 47 months in prison for rioting, perjury, and assaulting police. Tsang Chi-kin, now 22 but a secondary student at the time, was the first known victim of police gunfire during the protests. District Court Deputy Judge Ada Yim Shun-yee said the sentence reflected the court’s determination to safeguard public order.
Japan
The Japan branch of the Unification Church said the government’s effort to revoke its legal status was a threat to religious freedom. Last week, the education minister asked the Tokyo District Court to take the rare action after an official investigation concluded that the church manipulated its followers, forcing them to make donations and purchase goods.
The Supreme Court ruled that the disparity in the value of votes in the 2022 election for the Upper House of the national legislature was constitutional. Votes in the least populous constituencies were more than three times more valuable than in the most populous. In a concerted effort to invalidate the election, claims were filed in lower courts around the country. Only one found the gap in voting value to be unconstitutional, while seven said it was constitutional and eight said it was “in a state of constitutionality.” The Supreme Court said that reviewing electoral constituencies and narrowing the gap takes time, and noted that in some cases merging constituencies to equalize vote value had resulted in lower voter turnout.
Koreas
Prosecutors searched the Presidential Archives for two days in a row looking for proof that the previous administration of President Moon Jae-in manipulated economic data. The Board of Inspection and Audit said last month that Moon’s administration pressured government agencies to manipulate official data on income, employment, and housing prices to support its policies. The board asked prosecutors to investigate 22 former officials, including all four of Moon’s chiefs of staff for policy but not Moon himself. Earlier this month, prosecutors visited Statistical Korea, the Korea Real Estate Board, and the land, finance, and labor ministries and seized documents and computers.
Taiwan
The Ministry of Labor proposed amending the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) to increase fines for employers and agents who illegally recruit or refer foreign workers, in an effort to address an increase in the number of overstaying migrant workers. As of August, Taiwan had 745,000 migrant workers. The number of “missing workers” -- those staying past their visa end dates -- rose from 48,491 in 2019 to 84,339 in 2023.
The Ministry of Environment announced two new regulations overseeing how entities can produce carbon credits or offset their emissions as part of Taiwan’s bid to hit its net zero emissions target. One governs “voluntary reduction projects” by businesses and government entities that emit less than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The other governs emissions generated by businesses on development and construction projects that emit more than 25,000 metric tons per year. They will be required to partially offset their newly generated emissions, either by buying carbon credits from voluntary projects or by implementing other offsetting measures.