June 2-8
China
The Supreme People’s Court released materials showcasing the courts’ work on environmental cases in 2023, including a yearbook, a judicial development report, ten typical cases involving environmental protection and carbon reduction, and three typical cases about dealing with fraudulent third-party environmental evaluations.
The SPC released five typical cases involving criminal punishment for exam cheating two days before the annual nationwide college entrance exam, known as the gaokao. Organizing cheating, unauthorized selling exam questions and answers, and taking exams on behalf of others were criminalized in 2015. The court said more than 11,000 persons have been punished for criminal exam cheating since then.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission released draft Basic Rules for Imposing Administrative Punishments (行政处罚裁量基本规则) for violation of securities regulations. The draft clarifies mitigating and aggravating factors to be considered when issuing administrative punishments, among other things. Public comments on the draft may be submitted through July 7, 2024..
Hong Kong
Two senior British judges resigned from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, where they had been serving as non-permanent overseas judges. Lord Lawrence Collins, who joined the city’s apex court in 2012, issued a statement saying he acted because of Hong Kong’s “political situation” but that he maintained “the fullest confidence” in the independence of the court’s judges. Lord Jonathan Sumption did not issue a statement. Two other British judges stepped down in 2022. Eight overseas judges from Australia, Canada, and the UK remain on the court, where they hear cases together with local judges.
Hong Kong police briefly detained performance artist Sanmu Chen when he mimed drawing the Chinese characters for “89-6-4” in the air on the eve of the 35th anniversary of China’s suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Police said they took Chen to a police station because he was causing chaos, then released him. Hong Kong civil society formerly organized annual vigils on the night of June 3 that drew tens of thousands of participants, but police have not allowed the vigils to proceed since 2020.
Hong Kong police arrested a 62-year-old man on sedition charges in connection with Facebook posts that memorialized the 1989 Tiananmen protests. Police made seven arrests in the case last week, including Chow Hang-tung, a lawyer who helped organize annual Tiananmen vigils but is now in jail awaiting trial on a subversion charge.
Two people have sued Hong Kong crypto exchange JPEX to recover more than Hong Kong $1.93 million (US$247,070). The plaintiffs filed a writ of summons against seven defendants, including JP-EX Crypto Assent Platform and Web 3.0 technical support, two companies that allegedly provided virtual asset services as JPEX since 2021. They said they could not withdraw funds from their JPEX wallet after the Securities and Futures Commission identified JPEX as an unlicensed platform last September. Police say they have arrested 73 persons in connection with alleged fraud by JPEX, which allegedly caused HK$1.6 billion (US$204,827,520) in losses to more than 2,600 victims.
Two US lawmakers urged Google and its subsidiary YouTube to restore access in Hong Kong to the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong.” YouTube cut access to the song in compliance with a Hong Kong court order. Representative Chris Smith and Senator Jeff Merkley, chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, wrote to the companies, asking whether the companies will appeal the injunction as it violates “international human rights principles.” They also argued that the injunction bans distribution of the song only if there is seditious intent.
Japan
The legislature passed a law that will expand monthly child allowances and parental leave as part of an effort to reverse the falling birthrate by sharing the burden of child rearing. The government will raise monthly health insurance premiums and reduce some other forms of social spending to create a new child support fund. The legislature also approved providing support for “young carers,” meaning children who routinely look after their family members,
The Osaka Prefecture Police asked financial institutions to freeze 1,300 bank accounts suspected of being used for money laundering. Police said they arrested one suspect alleged to be a key member of a criminal group. They said that about 70 billion yen ($450 million) in criminal proceeds was channeled into the accounts between January and July of 2023.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on June 21 whether a transgender woman can be recognized as the legal parent of a daughter who was born to her female partner after her transition, but using sperm frozen before her transition. The transgender woman and her female partner had two daughters who were conceived using her frozen sperm. The Tokyo High Court recognized a parental relationship to the daughter born before the transgender woman’s transition, but not with respect to the second daughter born after the transition. A lawyer for the younger daughter said that the child’s rights to be supported and to inheritance are at stake.
Koreas
South Korea said it is suspending an 2018 inter-Korean agreement on lowering front-line military tensions in response to North Korea’s recent use of balloons to drop manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, and waste paper on the South. The 2018 agreement requires both countries to cease hostile acts in border areas. North Korea has already said that it will not abide by the agreement any longer. The North began sending hundreds of balloons filled with trash across the border on May 28, a form of psychological warfare that it has deployed in the past.
South Korean UN Ambassador Joonkook Hwangplans said he will seek to convene a public meeting of the Security Council to discuss human rights abuses in North Korea. The 15-member council last met on this issue in August 2023. At that time, China opposed the discussion but did not try to block it. From 2014 to 2017, the Security Council hosted annual public meetings to discuss North Korea’s human rights abuses, and from 2020 to 2022 the council held such discussions in private.
Taiwan
The Constitutional Court ruled that the height requirement for police and firefighters is unconstitutional because it excludes women candidates from becoming first responders more often than it excludes men, contravening the equal protection principle in Article 8 of the Constitution. The court ordered the rule to be revised within a year. Currently male police and firefighters are required to be 1.65 meters tall and women are required to be 1.6 meters tall.
The Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s cabinet, announced that it is preparing to send controversial amendments to the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使) back to the legislature for reconsideration, pending approval from President Lai Ching-te. Minister without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin (林明昕) told a news conference that some of the provisions contradict past constitutional interpretations. According to the constitution, if the Executive Yuan finds a bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, it can, with the president’s approval, request the legislature’s reconsideration within 10 days of receiving the bill.