April 28-May 4
China
The Supreme People's Court issued rules for determining whether to give prisoners a sentence reduction or parole release if they have failed to pay fines that were part of their sentence. The court said that ayment of fines should be treated as an indication of genuine repentance only if the prisoner has the capacity to pay.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee is seeking public comment on six bills through May 25, 2024, including amendments to the National Defense Education Law, Accounting Law, Statistics Law, and Anti-Money Laundering Law, as well as the draft Energy Law and draft Atomic Energy Law.
Hong Kong
After a seven-year legal battle, the government issued a new ID card to transgender activist Henry Tse that identifies him as a man. The Court of Final Appeal ruled in Tse’s favor in early 2023, declaring unconstitutional the government’s requirement for full sex-reassignment surgery in order to obtain an official ID reflecting a gender change. Tse applied in March for judicial review of the government’s yearlong delay in issuing him a new ID card after the court decision. Tse said he will continue that process.
The High Court ruled in favor of a teacher who was fired and stripped of retirement benefits after posting social media attacks on the police during the 2019 protests. The court rejected Toffee Lam’s free speech argument, saying that she had not contributed to the public discourse and that the public had high expectations of civil servants. But it concluded that dismissal without benefits after 25 years of service was a “harsh and oppressive” response and the Civil Service Bureau should have considered lesser punishments.
Two US congressman introduced a bill to rename the street in front of Hong Kong’s Economic Trade Office in Washington, D.C. as Jimmy Lai Way. Lai, the former publisher of Apple Daily, is on trial on charges of violating national security and sedition laws. The Hong Kong government denounced the move as malicious interference.
The Court of Appeal ruled that courts have no jurisdiction over the city’s National Security Committee and the committee's decisions are not subject to judicial review. The ruling effectively ends two years of efforts by former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai to be represented at his national security trial by British barrister Timothy Owen. Although Hong Kong courts originally agreed to allow Owen to defend Lai, in keeping with past practice, the Hong Kong government obtained a decision from the National People’s Congress in Beijing that said the matter should be decided by the National Security Committee.
Chief Executive John Lee said the single-use plastic ban introduced last week was going smoothly despite initial confusion. Restaurants are now prohibited from using plastic utensils unless the government deems there are few viable alternatives. Local media reported conflicting instructions about how the rules apply in non-restaurant premises that serve food, and the public raised questions about what counts as dining in and taking away, as different rules apply. The Environmental Protection Department issued statements to clarify the issues.
The High Court scheduled a November hearing for an appeal by the head of the city's largest journalists' association, Ronson Chan, of his conviction for obstructing a plainclothes police officer. The officer said that Chan, who was reporting on a homeowners’ committee meeting at the time, failed to present his identification despite multiple warnings. Chan was sentenced to five days in prison.
Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that 49 countries have joined the effort to craft voluntary international rules for artificial intelligence. The new Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group will extend the Hiroshima AI Process begun in May 2023 at the Group of 7 summit in Hiroshima. Since then, participating countries have developed a set of guiding principles and code of conduct to promote secure AI systems.
Koreas
The South Korean Supreme Court’s Sentencing Commission decided to include the crimes of voice phishing and insurance fraud in its sentencing guidelines. It said it was responding to changing crime patterns. The commission has not updated its sentencing guidelines for fraud crimes of all types since 2011. A recently revised law calls for tougher punishment of voice phishing scammers. The new guidelines have yet to be developed.
The Constitutional Court decided 5-4 to uphold the constitutionality of a ban on collective action by commissioned officers, such as signing petitions related to military service. A judge advocate had challenged the law as violating freedom of speech and association. The majority of the judges said the restrictions are justified by national defense concerns, while opponents said the ban is overbroad.
South Korea's anti-corruption watchdog questioned two former high-ranking officials suspected of interfering with the military's investigation into the death of a young marine in 2023. Yoo Jae-eun, a legal affairs official at the Defense Ministry, and Park Gyeong-hun, former deputy chief of the ministry's National Investigation Headquarters, are accused of exerting undue influence on an investigation into how the marine died while searching for civilian victims of heavy rains.
South Korea's legislature unanimously approved a special bill mandating an independent investigation into the 2022 crowd stampede that killed 159 people at a Halloween street party in Seoul. The bill will establish a nine-member fact-finding committee tasked with identifying the cause of the stampede and assessing the authorities’ handling of it.
Taiwan
The Taipei High Administrative Court heard final arguments in the case of a transgender man trying to legally change his gender without undergoing surgery. The plaintiff, who uses the pseudonym Nemo, has been seeking since 2022 to legally change his gender with the Ministry of the Interior’s Household Registration Office. A court ruled in 2021 that no existing law requires gender reassignment surgery, and applicants should only be required to show that their gender identity is long-standing and unlikely to change. However, the ministry has not changed its rules. The High Administrative Court previously ruled in favor of a transgender woman, Xiao E, in a claim similar to Nemo’s, making her the first transgender person to achieve an official ID change without surgery in Taiwan.
The Mainland Affairs Council warned Taiwan’s citizens against traveling to China since its revised Law on Guarding State Secrets (保守国家秘密法) took effect on May 1. The law creates a new category of protected information called “work secrets,” defined as information that will have adverse effects if leaked. The MAC criticized the law as “highly vague.”