October 20-26
China
The State Council issued new export control regulations for dual-use goods, effective December1, 2024. The regulations introduce a unified control system, simplify the licensing process, and impose stricter monitoring of high-tech sectors. At a press conference, spokespersons for the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Justice said the measures will not create obstacles to normal international scientific, technological, economic, and trade cooperation.
A US federal district court in Missouri ruled that China's counter-espionage law is not a sufficient basis to deny production of relevant documents in discovery in the US. The ruling came in a patent lawsuit in which the plaintiff sought to compel the defendants to produce sales information relating to products alleged to infringe the plaintiff's patents. The defendants argued that producing the information could expose them to sanctions in China. The court said the defendants had failed to cite any case in which sanctions were issued for complying with US discovery rules. The court rejected similar arguments based on China's Data Security Law, Cybersecurity Law and Personal Information Protection Law, concluding that the threat of sanctions under these laws is speculative.
An international human rights group, the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said that imprisoned lawyer Xu Zhiyong’s life is in danger since he began a hunger strike October 4 to protest ill treatment and violations of his rights at Lunan Prison in Shandong Province. Xu, who promoted civic engagement through grassroots advocacy for civil and human rights, was convicted of subversion of state power and sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2023.
The Intermediate People’s Court in Guiyang handed down a death sentence to a woman convicted of abducting and trafficking 17 children. The woman, Yu Huaying, was previously convicted of trafficking children in Yunnan and served eight years in prison.
Authorities reportedly detained and deported a German employee of Volkswagen in China after he tested positive for drugs after returning from a vacation in Thailand. A Beijing police report said the man was given ten days of administrative detention for allegedly using cocaine and marijuana. Chinese authorities have warned that use of the drug overseas is equivalent to using it in China and subject to the same penalties.
Hong Kong
The High Court heard the first legal challenge to Hong Kong's Safeguarding National Security Ordinance over the eligibility of national security offenders for early release. Ma Chun-man, who is serving a five-year sentence for incitement to secession under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law, was denied early release under the local ordinance two days after it came into effect in March. The ordinance says that a national security prisoner may not be granted early release unless the commissioner is satisfied that early release will not endanger national security. Arguments in court centered on whether Ma was properly informed of the decision and the reasons for denying him early release.
The former acting chief editor of the now-defunct Stand News, Patrick Lam, appealed his sedition conviction. Lam and a second Stand News editor were convicted and sentenced last month for publishing 11 articles deemed seditious. Lam was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment but was released by a district judge after taking into account the 10 months that he spent in pre-trial detention and his poor health.
The Social Workers Registration Board, which was recently overhauled to give government appointees control, suspended eleven social workers for up to three years, in some cases citing their involvement in the 2019 protests. Social workers have long played a significant role in Hong Kong’s civil society.
The Environmental Protection Department reminded businesses that the six-month grace period for the single-use plastic utensil ban is nearing an end and urged them to get into compliance. The ban was introduced in 2023 and violators face fines. Paper straws and eco-friendly utensils have been greeted with public complaints, but the EPD said in a statement that the ban had already significantly reduced plastic consumption. In the next phase, all plastic containers, cups, tablecloths, and disposable gloves will be banned.
Japan
The local police chief visited and apologized to a man who was recently exonerated after 50 years on death row. Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest-serving death row inmate, was acquitted last month by the Shizuoka District Court, which found that police and prosecutors planted evidence against him and coerced him into confessing. His case sparked calls for more transparency in investigations, legal changes to lower the bar for a retrial, and a debate on the death penalty. Shizuoka Prefectural Police Chief Takayoshi Tsuda, who apologized, was not involved in the original investigation.
A court ordered a retrial for a man who already served seven years in prison for the 1986 murder of a junior high school girl. The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court said testimony on which the conviction rested may have been false and motivated by self interest. Shoshi Maekawa, now 59, has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 1987.
The Tokyo High Court rejected a claim by 32 plaintiffs that deaths and injuries in a 2014 volcanic eruption were due to the negligence of the Japan Meteorological Agency. A lower court ruled that agency officials breached their duty of care by failing to raise the alert level before the eruption but said this did not cause the deaths and injuries. The High Court also dismissed the damage claim but went further and said there was no official negligence.
The Fair Trade Commission conducted on-site investigations of six companies suspected of engaging in bid-rigging for railway maintenance work. The companies are suspected of conspiring to decide in advance which company would win contracts to inspect land bridges on ten of Central Japan Railway’s lines.
Koreas
A South Korean appellate court increased the jail term of an SK Hynix subcontractor executive convicted of leaking technology secrets to China. The Seoul Central District Court originally sentenced the executive to one year in prison. On appeal, the Seoul High Court increased his sentence by six months after finding him additionally guilty of leaking technology to a rival semiconductor company in China. The court also increased the sentences of others involved in the case.
The Seoul Central District Court held a hearing to determine whether to issue arrest warrants for the head of an obstetrics and gynecology hospital and an operating surgeon for performing an abortion on a 36-week fetus. South Korea does not currently have any legislation restricting abortion, but police suspect the fetus was mature enough to survive on its own, and are investigating the two surgeons and the mother for murder. The investigation began after the mother uploaded a YouTube video about her experience.
North Korea said said that sending its troops to assist Russia in its war in Ukraine would be in line with international law, but stopped short of confirming that it has deployed troops to Russia. Ukraine and its Western allies say they have evidence that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong Gyu said in a statement: “If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law.”
Taiwan
The Constitutional Court ruled that key parts of legislative reforms pushed through by the opposition Nationalist Party and Taiwan People’s Party in May are unconstitutional. The reforms would have given the legislature broad investigative powers and the authority to hold executive branch officials in contempt. The court said that creating the crime of contempt of parliament by government officials violated the constitution, as did requiring the president to give a state-of-the-nation report to lawmakers and answer their questions. The Nationalist Party accused the court of partisanship.
A lawmaker from the opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed amending the Constitutional Court Procedures Act to make it difficult for the court to function without a full complement of 15 judges. Weng Hsiao-ling also proposed raising the threshold for court decisions from a simple majority to a 2/3 majority. Seven judges will reach the end of their terms on October 31 and although the president has nominated their successors, the Legislative Yuan must approve the nominations and has been unable to agree on when to hold hearings. If the KMT amendments are adopted, the court would be short of a quorum and unable to decide cases.
Legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposed amending the penal code to more clearly define crimes of collusion with foreign powers. One such crime is endorsing a foreign power's claim to sovereignty over the ROC. A DPP lawmaker said that while artists who make pro-Beijing statements while working in the People’s Republic of China would not be targeted, professors or government officials who make such statements might face legal consequences.
Prosecutors indicted eight active-duty or retired military personnel on charges that they gave classified material to Chinese agents and other acts in violation of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法). A 31-year-old woman who is a gang member and chairwoman of Rueiyao Temple (瑞?宮) in New Taipei City is accused of playing a key role in their recruitment.
The Supreme Court found former legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) not guilty of attempting to recruit spies for China but ordered a partial retrial of retired Rear Admiral Hsia Fu-hsiang (夏復翔) in the same case. Prosecutors said that Lo recruited Hsia, then president of the Naval Academy’s Alumni Association, to help organize 13 group tours for retired military officers to China, where they met with high-ranking Chinese officials.
Prosecutors indicted five Taiwanese nationals on charges of attempting to smuggle firearms into Taiwan. The case came to light in May 2024, when US Customs and Border Protection seized four packages containing firearms components in Miami that were to be sent to an address in Taiwan. The US authorities notified their Taiwanese counterparts, who located a fifth package in Taiwan and arrested the persons who attempted to open it. It was the first time that Taiwanese officials collected evidence in the US under a 2002 Taiwan-US mutual legal assistance agreement.