February 16-22
China
The National People's Congress Standing Committee will hold its next session on February 24-25. Its main task will be preparing for the annual NPC plenary session, which begins on March 5. In addition, the Standing Committee will review a draft law on promoting the private sector and a draft revision of the Civil Aviation Law.
Hundreds of Chinese citizens who worked in telecoms fraud operations in Myanmar were flown back to China via Thailand. In an operation coordinated by the Thai, Chinese, and Myanmar governments, a Myanmar militia group began bringing foreign nationals out of the walled complexes where they were working and handing them over to the Thai military for onward repatriation. Hundreds of thousands of persons have been trafficked by criminal gangs in recent years and forced to work in telecom fraud centers across Southeast Asia. Such centers received new attention after the kidnapping of Chinese actor Wang Xing from Thailand into Myanmar caused a fall off in Chinese tourism to Thailand.
The Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court said it concluded a six-day trial of 23 members of a crime family accused of running multiple fraud centers in Myanmar, protected by their own armed units. Verdicts were not yet announced. The Ming family defendants were variously accused of murder, fraud, intentional injury, illegal imprisonment, extortion, drug smuggling, prostitution and running illegal gambling dens. They were arrested in November 2023.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) held a conference to discuss stronger measures to address youth crime as well as crimes against youth.
Hong Kong
A court froze more than $300,000 in funds that exiled former lawmaker Ted Hui had transferred to his wife and mother for living expenses before he fled Hong Kong in 2020. The government said the funds were “obtained by committing crimes that endanger national security.” Hui, who now lives in Australia, faces numerous national security charges in Hong Kong.
The Democratic Party, Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy party, said it was creating a task force to study the procedures for dissolving itself. The chairman, Lo Kin-hei, said a final decision on dissolution needs the approval of 75% of members present at a general assembly. The party was founded in 1994 and was long viewed as a moderate opposition group; it once maintained friendly relations with Beijing officials. Its influence has been limited since authorities revised election rules to effectively bar pro-democracy candidates from running.
The lawyer for former Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho said Ho may plead guilty to subversion charges related to his leadership of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The group, now disbanded, held annual vigils to keep alive the memory of the 1989 student-led protests for democracy in China and their suppression. Ho, 73, has faced numerous criminal charges stemming from formerly permitted protest actions, and has been undergoing cancer treatments in between stints in jail.
Japan
A court convicted 25-year-old Ryuji Kimura of attempted murder for throwing an improvised explosive device at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023. The court found that Kimura was motivated by a desire to gain attention after his political posts on social media received little response. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The attack came less than a year after the assassination of a previous prime minister, Abe Shinzo.
A 16-year-old Japanese boy returned home after having been rescued from one of the telecom fraud compounds in Myanmar that are now being broken up (see the news item above). Aichi prefectural police said the boy reported having been forced to impersonate a police officer in a phone scam involving around eight other Japanese hostages. Their targets were elderly Japanese. The teen is believed to have traveled to Myanmar in December after being introduced to a job in Southeast Asia by someone with whom he communicated online.
Koreas
The Constitutional Court of South Korea began its first official hearing in the impeachment trial of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who briefly served as acting president in December after the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The National Assembly impeached Han when he refused to fill vacancies on the Constitutional Court; it also accused him of involvement in Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law declaration and other offenses.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared in two courts this week. At the Constitutional Court, he continued to contest impeachment for having declared martial law on Dec. 3. Final arguments are scheduled there for Feb. 25. At the Seoul Central District Court, Yoon attended the first hearing of his criminal trial over insurrection charges. Police meanwhile brought new charges against Yoon of obstructing the execution of a warrant to detain him in January.
A South Korean court ordered the local subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay pay 83 million won ($57,600) in compensation to the family of a deceased wartime forced labor victim. In March 2023, the South Korean government proposed to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor through a Seoul-backed public foundation, instead of direct payments from responsible Japanese firms. This court decision rejected that plan.
Taiwan
The Mainland Affairs Council reminded Taiwan citizens that obtaining certain types of ID from mainland Chinese authorities could cause them to lose their Taiwan household registration, their eligibility for military service or public office, and even their Taiwan citizenship. The MAC said it hoped to amend the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area to make this more clear.
Prosecutors searched the offices of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) as they pursued an investigation into allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Lin, who denied the charges, was taken into custody and released on NT$1 million (US$30,539) bail.
The Taiwan government praised the US Department of State for removing a statement on its web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence. A Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that “we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the US to “immediately correct its mistakes.”
Japan announced that beginning in May, persons from Taiwan will be allowed to identify their place of origin on family registration certificates as “Taiwan,” rather than “China,” as previously required. The current system of lumping everyone from China or Taiwan together under the name “China” began in 1964. Since 2012, foreigners have been allowed to write “Taiwan” on their residence certificates. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing said Japan “should be careful with its words and actions.”