February 4-10
China
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released six “typical cases” to clarify the liabilities of dog owners and caregivers. The cases, which apply the Civil Code, the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, and the Animal Disease Control Law, impose strict liability on dog owners and caregivers when another persons’ rights are infringed.
The SPC released the details of eight cross-border telecoms fraud cases involving Chinese criminal gangs based in neighboring countries. Six of the cases involved gangs based in northern Myanmar. The head of one such gang was sentenced to 15.5 years in prison. The New York Times published an expose last year of a Chinese telecom fraud operation that allegedly kidnapped at least some of its workers from China and used them as slave labor to send fraudulent social media messages to Chinese cell phone users. China passed a Law on Countering Telecommunications and Internet Fraud (反电信网络诈骗法) in 2022 giving its enforcement agencies the power to pursue suspects abroad.
Hong Kong
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said journalists who interview political activists, including persons who are wanted by police but have fled overseas, may risk being charged with abetting the activists. Lam told a television program that “giving them a platform, allowing them to have that platform, essentially conveying the same message – could there be an element of abetting? I believe one should be cautious about this matter.”
The Hong Kong High Court declared former legislator Ted Hui bankrupt because he failed to pay the costs of legal proceedings against him after he left the city in 2020. Hui was convicted in absentia of contempt of court. Since his departure, he has been charged with secession, collusion with foreign forces, and inciting others to boycott the 2021 legislative election. Hui now lives in Australia.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink met in Washington, D.C. with four Hong Kong activists who are wanted by Hong Kong police on charges of violating the National Security Law. The four are Elmer Yuen, Anna Kwok, Frances Hui and Joey Siu. Pro-Beijing groups later gathered outside the US consulate in Hong Kong to protest the meeting.
A court convicted a 53-year-old security guard of inciting others to wound the city’s police chief when he posted on Facebook that people should “charge the police headquarters” and “use violence against violence” after Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai was arrested. Chau Kin-kwok said he wrote the posts in anger and deleted them within 36 hours. He was sentenced to five months in prison.
Japan
The Okayama Family Court approved a transgender man’s request to officially record his change of gender without requiring him to undergo sterilization surgery. It is the first known ruling of its kind since the Supreme Court last year struck down the surgery requirement to change one’s gender in an official family registry.
The Japanese government approved plans to scrap its current foreign trainee program and replace it with a new program that teaches the trainees skills and protect their rights. The old program, introduced in 1993, was criticized as a scheme for importing cheap labor under abusive conditions. The new program, which has yet to be approved by the legislature, would allow qualified trainees to upgrade their visa status, stay longer, and even obtain permanent residency.
Koreas
The Seoul Central District Court acquitted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of financial crimes during the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates. Lee had been accused of stock price rigging and accounting fraud. The merger was regarded as key to strengthening his control over the Samsung business empire. Prosecutors said they would appeal.
The Seoul High Court said the government bears some liability to compensate persons who suffered lung damage from humidifier disinfectants more than a decade ago in one of the country’s worst consumer products disasters. A district court in 2016 held the manufacturers liable but not the state. However, the High Court said it found evidence of negligence by public officials in screening and publicizing the toxicity of the disinfectants.
The Seoul High Court ordered the state to compensate survivors of a deadly 2014 ferry sinking and victims’ families. The court increased the amount of compensation due to six survivors in view of their post-accident trauma. More than 300 people died when the ferry Sewol sank, making it one of the country’s worst maritime disasters.
The South Korean Supreme Court upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a man who sought to avoid his military service obligation by claiming conscientious objector status, but enjoyed playing violent video games. Korean men between the ages of 18 and 35 must serve in the military for 18 months.
Police said they referred a Kyunghee University philosophy professor to prosecutors for investigation after he said in a lecture last year that Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japan during the war were actually voluntary prostitutes.
Taiwan
The Supreme Court finalized a 28-month prison sentence for the owner of an English school convicted of repeatedly abusing a student in the kindergarten and daycare center in 2014. The court found that the owner and two employees plunged the boy’s head in a bucket of water, hit him with a paddle, barred him from using the bathroom after drinking water, and inflicted other punishments.
Taiwan travel agents threatened to stage protests at the presidential inauguration in May if the government does not offer a legal basis for renewing a ban on tours to China. The Tourism Administration had announced that it would reopen tours to China on March 1 following a suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, after Beijing failed to reciprocate, the government said it would reinstall the ban from June 1. According to the Travel Agent Association of Taiwan, tours to China contribute significantly to the domestic tour industry’s income.