August 25-31
China
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged China to review its national security and counter-terrorism laws and policies in Xinjiang from a human rights perspective, strengthen protection of minorities, and fully investigate alleged human rights violations. It said that “many problematic laws and policies remain in place” two years after the office’s 2022 report that said crimes against humanity may have occurred in Xinjiang. OHCHR reported that it sent a team to China in June that discussed counter-terrorism and criminal justice with the government. China responded by denying the allegations and urging OHCHR to respect national sovereignty.
The National People's Congress Standing Committee is scheduled to review five returning bills and four new bills when it meets Sept. 10-13. Among these, the Supervision Law is expected to undergo its first major amendment since it was enacted in 2018. The recent Communist Party Third Plenum resolution called for the law to be revised to advance the fight against corruption. The committee also will consider a proposal to confer state honors on 14 individuals to celebrate the upcoming 75th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
Hong Kong
A district court convicted two former Stand News editors of sedition for publishing 11 articles critical of the government “with sedition intent” during the city’s massive 2019 anti-government protests. The court also convicted Stand New’s owner, Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd., of the same charge. Judge Kwok Wai-kin wrote in his decision that Stand News became a tool for smearing the Beijing and Hong Kong governments. The trial began in October 2022 and was repeatedly delayed. It was the first sedition case involving the media since Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule in 1997.
A judge began giving jury instructions in the trial of seven persons accused of conspiring to plant bombs along the route of a protest march on Dec. 8, 2019, with the intent of killing police officers. The prosecution case relied heavily on testimony from two accused leaders of radical protest groups who pleaded guilty and gave evidence. The defendants are being tried under Hong Kong’s UN Anti-Terrorism Measures Ordinance, which implements UN Security Council Resolution 1373 and other international conventions to prevent acts of terrorism.
Chan Po-ying, leader of the League of Social Democrats, one of Hong Kong’s few remaining opposition parties, lost a bid to overturn her conviction on a charge of collecting money in public without a permit. She was found guilty last year of displaying a QR code at a street booth and appealing to people to donate. Her lawyer argued that sharing information about donations was protected free speech, and that any donation transactions took place online afterwards, not in a public space. However, the High Court's Court of First Instance affirmed that displaying the QR code constituted fundraising.
The Court of Appeal overturned one man’s conviction and ordered a new trial for a second in connection with the 2019 attack by more than 100 rod-wielding men dressed in white on anti-government protesters at the Yuen Long MTR station. Dozens were injured in the melee that followed. Eight persons were convicted of rioting and conspiracy to wound with intent, including these two. The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions of three others who also appealed.
Japan
Tokyo prosecutors indicted a former House of Representatives lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Manabu Horii, on charges of violating the public offices election law and political funds control law by mishandling political funds in two separate instances. The charges are part of a larger investigation into widespread violations of financial rules by the LDP faction to which Horii belonged, which was led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Horii quit the LDP in July and resigned as a legislator the day before being indicted.
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling ordering the Unification Church’s head in Japan to pay a fine for refusing to answer some questions posed by the culture ministry. The ministry has put more than 500 questions about donations and litigation to the church, which has refused to answer more than 100 of them.
Koreas
South Korea's Constitutional Court ordered the government and National Assembly to rewrite the country’s climate laws to set carbon emission reduction targets for the years from 2031 through 2049. A total of 255 plaintiffs had brought four lawsuits to the court alleging that the inadequacy of existing laws for reducing carbon emissions violated their constitutional rights to be safe from climate change. The court did not give the plaintiffs everything they wanted, but it was the first climate litigation victory in Asia.
The South Korean legislature approved a bill that allows nurses to perform some medical procedures normally conducted by doctors, responding to pressures on the healthcare system caused by a seven-month strike by junior doctors. The Korean Nurses Association applauded the measure. The Korean Medical Association, the largest grouping of doctors, said it would harm patients.
The Constitutional Court threw out the National Assembly’s attempt to impeach a prosecutor for alleged misconduct, including looking up criminal records of others without authority, covering up the drug investigations of his brother-in-law, and falsely registering his home address. The court rejected the legislature’s attempt to impeach another prosecutor in May.
Another Korean court ordered a Japanese company to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor. The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Mitsubishi Materials must compensate five South Koreans forced into wartime labor in Japan. Courts nationwide have issued similar rulings in favor of forced labor victims and their families since the Supreme Court upheld two relevant rulings in 2018.
Taiwan
Prosecutors and the Agency Against Corruption raided the home and office of the chairman of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) and former presidential candidate, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in a mall development project during Ko's tenure as Taipei mayor from 2014 to 2022. The TPP questioned the need for the raid, but pledged to cooperate. A day earlier, Ko announced a three-month leave of absence from his party leadership role in response to several other allegations, including misreporting campaign finances during the presidential election in January and spending campaign funds to buy an office unit.
The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled that a transgender woman should be allowed to change her gender on her official ID without undergoing gender-affirming surgery as required by a 2008 Ministry of Interior directive. The plaintiff, surnamed Wu, a dual citizen of Taiwan and the United States whose US passport identifies her as female, applied for a legal gender change in 2020. The court said the surgery requirement violates the constitution’s proportionality doctrine. Wu is now the fifth Taiwanese citizen allowed by a court to change their legal gender without surgery.
Authorities canceled a planned concert in Taipei by Chinese rapper Wang Yitai after he referred to “Taipei, China” in promotional materials. The Taiwan government dislikes this label for the self-ruled island, which it calls either the Republic of China or simply Taiwan. China regularly bans Taiwanese artists if they indicate support for the island's separate status. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said its decision reflected the principles of reciprocity and mutual respect.
Control Yuan member Lin Weng-cheng urged the Cabinet to provide more information and assistance to Taiwanese citizens traveling to or living in mainland China. Lin said Taiwanese accustomed to a higher level of freedom in Taiwan are at risk when they go to mainland China, especially in light of a document issued in Beijing in June that prescribes prison terms and even the death penalty for Taiwan separatists.