October 6-12
China
The Ministry of Justice and National Development and Reform Commission released for public comment the draft Private Economy Promotion Law (民营经济促进法). Although private enterprises generate more than half of China’s GDP and account for most urban employment, China has never had a law specifically focused on the sector. The official media said the goal is to create a law-based environment conducive to growth, but the draft restates the Communist Party’s consistent position that the state-owned sector should be dominant.
Former Justice Minister Tang Yijun (唐一军), whose most recent position was chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was expelled from the Communist Party and all official positions and is likely to be criminally charged. The party Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) accused Tang of taking bribes, helping family members secure business contracts, and interfering in market activities and judicial matters. Tang spent much of his career in Zhejiang Province, including during the five years that party General Secretary Xi Jinping worked there. Tang is the third former minister of justice to be investigated for crimes committed while in office. The CCDI also announced disciplinary measures against three other officials.
The Ministry of Commerce announced anti-dumping measures against brandies imported from the European Union days after the European Commission said it would raise tariffs on Chinese-made electronic vehicles. The ministry said preliminary results of an investigation showed that dumping of brandies from the EU threatened to cause substantial damage to the domestic industry. The ministry earlier announced an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into EU pork products and said it was considering raising tariffs on imports of heavy-duty vehicles.
A 60-year-old man wounded three persons, including two 9-year-olds, outside an elementary school in Guangzhou in the latest instance of a random knife attack in public by someone dissatisfied with society.
The Ministry of Justice reported that 292,000 cases of administrative reconsideration (行政复议) were filed in the first half of 2024, up 150 percent year on year. It said 24,000 cases of illegal or improper administrative actions were rectified in the same period.
Hong Kong
The Court of Final Appeal heard arguments over whether same-sex couples should be given the same inheritance rights as heterosexual married couples - specifically, inheritance of property even absent a will. The High Court and Court of Appeal have already ruled in favor of giving the same rights to same-sex couples who marry overseas but the government opposes it. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Hong Kong. However, the Court of Final Appeal ruled in 2023 that the government has a constitutional duty to provide an alternative legal framework for the recognition of same-sex partnerships within two years.
A court rejected jailed publisher Jimmy Lai’s request to have a jury trial for his libel case against the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao. Lai sued the newspaper in 2020, alleging that it maliciously suggested he was planning to illegally abscond from the city. A judge said the case requires a prolonged examination of documents and is not suitable for jury trial.
Automattic, the US company behind web content management system WordPress, said Hong Kong police asked it to take down the website of Flow HK, a media outlet co-founded by pro-democracy activists who have left the city. Sunny Cheung, one of the co-founders, said police suspect the outlet of violating the National Security Law and Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. On Oct. 7, the Flow HK website could not be accessed in Hong Kong using internet services provided by major telecommunication companies, suggesting they are blocking the site.
Japan
The legislature enacted a law that offers an apology and compensation to victims of forced sterilization under Japan’s former eugenics law. Some of the law’s estimated 25,000 victims have already obtained compensation through lawsuits and a 2019 compensation law. After the Supreme Court ruled in July that the old law was unconstitutional, lawmakers worked to provide reparations to all the victims. Attorneys said informing the surviving victims remains a major challenge.
Prosecutors said they would not appeal the exoneration of an 88-year old man who spent 48 years in prison after being convicted of killing four persons in 1966. After years of appeals, Shizuoka District Court ruled last month that there was insufficient evidence to convict Iwao Hakamata, and that investigators may have planted key evidence that was originally used against him.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Japan's push to have anti-whaling activist Paul Watson extradited from Greenland is a matter of law enforcement at sea. Japan accuses Watson of damaging a whaling ship and injuring a Japanese crew member in clashes off Antarctica in 2010. Watson is co-founder of Sea Shepherd, a conservation organization that tracks and impedes fishing vessels it believes are in the wrong. He was arrested in Greenland in July on a warrant issued by Japan and has been held in custody since then. Watson now leads a new organization.
Koreas
A 70-year-old South Korean woman sued the government, a leading adoption agency, and an orphanage for facilitating the adoption of her daughter, who was kidnapped at age 4 and sent to the US for adoption in 1976. The woman reported the kidnapping to police at the time and posted her daughter’s photo widely. She says the defendants could have easily found the girl’s parents if they had made any effort to do so. The woman found her daughter through a DNA match after 40 years of searching. The lawsuit is the first known case of a Korean birth parent seeking damages for wrongful adoption.
Concerns are growing that South Korea’s Constitutional Court will become unable to function from Oct. 17 when court President Lee Jong-seok and two other justices, Kim Ki-young and Lee Young-jin, end their six-year terms. The nine-member court requires at least seven judges in attendance to operate. The two leading parties in the National Assembly have been unable to agree on how to fill the seats.
The South Korean Supreme Court upheld a seven-year prison sentence for the second-ranking leader of the Jesus Morning Star, a religious organization, who was convicted of assisting the group’s leader in committing a sexual offense. The leader, Jeong Myeong-seok, was convicted of sexual assault and harassment and sentenced to 23 years in prison last December. Last week, the Dajeon High Court reduced Jeong’s sentence to 17 years in prison.
Taiwan
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the government revoked the Republic of China citizenship of fugitive tycoon Chen Yu-hao, who fled Taiwan in 2001 amid an investigation into alleged corporate embezzlement. The MAC said it had been learned that Chen obtained household registration in China. The MAC urged China to stop protecting Taiwan’s criminals and send them back to face trial. The Ministry of Justice plans to auction 317 plots of real estate owned by Chen to settle unpaid tax debts.
Four Taiwanese employees of Foxconn, a leading manufacturer of Apple iPhones, were detained by Chinese authorities in Zhengzhou. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Zhengzhou police accused them of an offense comparable to Taiwan's crime of breach of trust. China's Taiwan Affairs Office, in a statement to Reuters, said the Foxconn employees are suspected of taking bribes and embezzlement. Since January, 77 Taiwan have disappeared in mainland China, often involving allegations of fraud.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced plans to launch a trial for crypto custody services in the first quarter of 2025. The FSC also is requiring all crypto companies to register with the government by September 2025. Taiwan does not recognize crypto as legal tender, but the government does allow and regulate investment in digital assets.