December 15-21
China
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies that the government operates secret police stations abroad; Hong Kong’s chief executive supports using ballot boxes that will scan voters’ ballots in next year’s legislative election; Japan’s lower house agrees to abolish controversial policy activity funds that lawmakers can spend without disclosure; South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol defies summons from investigators seeking to question him about his attempt to impose martial law; Taiwanese legislators scuffle in the legislative chamber as the ruling Democratic Progressive Party tries to block voting on controversial bills.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that China operates secret police stations abroad after a New York resident who US prosecutors say operated such a station pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent. Chen Jinping, 60, is one of two men accused of operating a local branch of China’s Ministry of Public Security in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood for less than a year starting in early 2022. US prosecutors say the office performed basic services for Chinese citizens in New York, such as helping them renew their Chinese driver’s licenses, but also identified pro-democracy activists living in the US.
The US Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments about the constitutionality of a US federal law that could ban TikTok in the United States if its Chinese parent company doesn't sell it.
The Ministry of Finance and eight other central government agencies released the Sustainability Disclosure Standards for Enterprises — Basic Standards (Provisional) (《企业可持续披露准则——基本准则（试行）》calling for sustainability disclosure by all companies, not only listed ones. The document did not specify when sustainability reports must be delivered for the first time, but according to the information provided at a press conference, the standards will be finalized by 2027 and a unified national system will be completed by 2030.
A court in southwestern Guizhou province upheld the death penalty for a woman convicted of abducting at least 17 children from and selling them to other families during the 1990s. Yu Huaying, 60, has no more appeals, but the sentence must still be reviewed by the Supreme People’s Court. Child trafficking is been a widespread but under-reported problem, fueled in part by decades of government restrictions on the number of children per family.
The National Immigration Administration announced an expansion of China’s visa-free transit policy, effective immediately. The stay duration for foreign nationals eligible for visa-free transit is extended from the previous 72 hours or 144 hours (depending on the country) to 240 hours or 10 days, and the number of participating ports of entry and exit are increased from 19 to 21. Travelers from 54 countries, including the United States, traveling from China to a third country (region), may be eligible.
Legal experts from China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States met in Shanghai and agreed to explore legal cooperation in emerging fields including the digital economy, technology innovation, artificial intelligence, and finance. Government officials and legal personnel from 18 countries attended the event, which was organized by the China Law Society.
A Shanghai court ruled that a man is not obliged to return 300,000 yuan (about US$41,100) that his then-girlfriend gave him in an attempt to salvage their relationship after he discovered she was having an affair with his nephew.
Hong Kong
Chief Executive John Lee expressed support for so-called “smart-ballot boxes,” ballot boxes that will scan voters’ ballots to ensure they are validly marked and not blank protest ballots. Mainland official said the scanners would “streamline and enhance” next year’s Legislative Council election. Some lawmakers expressed concern that voters might fear their ballot was not secret, and argued that voters have the right to cast a blank ballot.
Leung Kwok-hung, also known as Long Hair, one of 45 pro-democracy activists convicted of subversion and given prison terms for for their roles in an unofficial election primary, is the latest member of the group to appeal against his conviction and sentence. He was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison. Leung had sat on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council for 13 years. The Department of Justice recently said it would not seek to appeal for longer jail sentences for any of the 45.
Japan
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party and opposition parties agreed to abolish controversial policy activity funds that lawmakers can spend without disclosure. Debate over whether to ban corporate donations, which Ishiba opposes, was postponed until next year. The lower house of Parliament also voted to establish an organization to monitor the spending of all political funds and bar foreign nationals from purchasing tickets to political parties’ fundraisers.
The Hiroshima High Court rejected a claim for state compensation by 27 plaintiffs whose parents survived the 1945 US atomic bombing of the city. The plaintiffs argued that they were genetically affected by nuclear radiation and sought 100,000 yen ($653) under the atomic bomb survivors support law. The Nagasaki High Court rebuffed a similar claim in February and those plaintiffs have appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito agreed on a tax reform plan for 2025 but failed to secure support from a key opposition party needed to actually pass the plan.The LDP and Komeito agreed to raise the tax-free income threshold for the first time since 1995, but significantly less than the opposition Democratic Party for the People wants. The ruling coalition also wants to raise corporate and tobacco taxes from April 2026 to fund more defense spending.
The Justice Ministry is planning to begin discussing legislative revisions of the retrial system. Critics say the current system makes it extremely difficult for persons who have been wrongly convicted to get a retrial. Calls for system reform have grown since Hakamada Iwao was acquitted in a retrial this year; he had been on death row since 1968 for a set of 1966 murders.
A government panel has compiled a report on revising the subcontract law. The report calls for banning buyers from unilaterally setting transaction prices that are unfavorable to suppliers without negotiations between the two sides.
The CEO of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s banking arm, MUFG Bank, apologized for a managerial employee’s theft of valuables worth more than one billion yen ($6.5 million) from the safe deposit boxes of clients over more than four years. He said the bank would try to compensate the clients quickly.
Koreas
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol defied summons from investigators seeking to question him about his attempt to impose martial law. Yoon’s security service blocked investigators from searching his office and his office staff refused to accept written communications from investigators, including a request to appear in Seoul Central District Court.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court held its first meeting to determine whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment or reinstate him. But the makeup of the court itself became a cause of controversy, as there are currently three vacancies on the nine-member court. All six sitting judges would need to support impeachment for it to stand, including a justice appointed by Yoon. The opposition Democratic Party said it will speed up the process of filling the vacancies, but Yoon’s party has objected.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung asked that the judge in Suwon District Court hearing his bribery case recuse himself. Lee is charged with asking a company to transfer $8 million to North Korea during 2019-2020, when he was governor of Gyeonggi Province, to facilitate his planned visit to Pyongyang.
Taiwan
Legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Nationalist Party (KMT) scuffled in the legislative chamber after DPP members occupied and tried to barricade the chamber to block action on controversial legislation. The KMT, which together with the Taiwan People’s Party holds a majority in the body, had planned votes to amend the Public Officials Election and Recall Act today (公職人員選舉罷免法) (raising the threshold for recall elections), the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) (requiring a super-majority for decisions), and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) (giving more national tax revenue to local governments, and less to the national government).
The Legislative Yuan voted to reorganize the Council of Indigenous Peoples (原住民族委員會), a Cabinet-level government agency. The council’s organic law was revised to require the leadership of the council to rotate between the lowland and mountain indigenous groups, increase the number of council members, and stop paying them wages.
The Taipei District Court gave permission for Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to send a resignation letter to his party from detention. Ko has been held incommunicado at a detention center without charge for more than 100 days during an investigation into his alleged involvement in a real estate development corruption case during his second term as Taipei mayor.