February 23-March 1
China
Western governments and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees condemned Thailand’s deportation of 40 Uyghur asylum seekers to China on February 27 despite expectations that they face harsh treatment at home. The deportees had entered Thailand more than a decade ago, seeking to escape mass incarceration of their community at home in western China. Thailand only recently said it would not deport them. Chinese officials confirmed that Thailand deported 40 Chinese illegal migrants but did not confirm that they are Uyghurs. It said they were lured to Thailand by criminal organizations.
The National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee held its last regular meeting before the NPC’s annual plenary meeting beginning March 5. During the two-day meeting, the committee reviewed the second draft of the Private Economy Promotion Law (民营经济促进法) and released a draft revision to the Civil Aviation Law (民用航空法) for public comments through March 26, 2025.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) released recent statistics about cracking down on organized crime. It also released five “typical cases” (典型案例) involving drunken driving, organized crime, introducing invasive species into China, a death penalty conviction without any confession, and a convict who saved an elderly person from drowning. The SPP additionally released six typical cases related to environment protection and the rights of the disabled.
The SPP said that since it issued a new regulation more than a year ago governing the prosecution of drunken drivers, fewer such cases have been criminally prosecuted but the punishment for those prosecuted has become harsher. Instead of criminal prosecution, more cases are being dealt with through administrative punishments.
Hong Kong
District Judge Stanley Chan sentenced Lam Cheuk-ting, formerly a lawmaker for the Democratic Party, to 37 months in prison after convicting him and six others of rioting during an infamous incident at the Yuen Long MTR station in 2019 during widespread anti-government protests. On July 21, 2019, more than 100 rod-wielding men dressed in white stormed the station and attacked commuters and protesters returning from a pro-democracy demonstration. While noting that Lam had not engaged in violent acts, the judge said Lam’s presence as a prominent figure and his live streaming of the attack inflamed the situation. Lam was hospitalized with head and arm injuries.
The Legislative Council discussed the government’s proposed amendments to the Trade Unions Ordinance. The amendments would permanently bar those convicted of national security offenses from serving in labor unions and require foreign funding to be vetted by the authorities. As of the end of 2024, Hong Kong has 1,412 registered trade unions.
Hong Kong Unison, an NGO dedicated to serving the city’s ethnic minorities, announced it is disbanding after more than two decades of operation. Unison Chair Alice Chong said neither political pressure nor finances were issues; rather, Unison had completed its mission. She said Hong Kong now has more NGOs serving minorities and the government allocates more resources to them. However, several staff members said the decision was non-transparent and irresponsible. Ethnic minorities, led by South Asians, make up just over 4% of the city’s population.
Japan
The Tokyo District Court convicted a former Chinese employee of Japan’s state-run research body, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, of industrial espionage and gave him a suspended sentence of two years and six months in prison. It also fined him 2 million yen (USD$13,300) for providing the institute’s confidential data to a Chinese firm, where his wife was a major shareholder.
The Cabinet approved a bill to require companies that emit 100,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide annually to participate in a carbon emissions trading system. The bill now goes to the legislature. Under the system, the government will allocate emission allowances to each company every fiscal year. Those that emit less than their quotas can sell the surplus emission units to other companies, while those exceeding their limit must buy additional units from other firms.
Several dozen scam victims were planning to file lawsuits against Meta and its Japanese subsidiary for publishing fraudulent advertisements that used celebrity names and images to promote investment scams. The new lawsuits are expected to be filed at district courts in Saitama, Chiba, Yokohama, Osaka, and Nagoya with claimed damages totaling 400 million yen (USD$2.68 million). Similar lawsuits alleging that Meta failed to take measures to verify the advertisements have already been filed in other district courts.
The Personal Information Protection Commission is considering eliminating a prior consent requirement when obtaining sensitive personal information online in order to make it easier for AI-related businesses to utilize personal information. By law, race, social status, medical history, and any criminal record is classed as sensitive personal information,
Koreas
South Korea’s Constitutional Court wrapped up its hearings in the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol. During its third presidential impeachment trial in South Korea’s history, the court held a total of 11 hearings over 73 days to examine the legality of Yoon’s brief martial law declaration on December 3, 2024. Yoon defended his declaration as lawful and necessary to protect the country. The court is expected to announce its ruling in mid-March.
In a unanimous 8-0 ruling about an appointment to its own bench, the Constitutional Court held that Acting President Choi Sang-mok has a duty to name a ninth judge to the court, but that the National Assembly cannot mandate he do so immediately. The National Assembly has been pressing to fill the Constitutional Court’s remaining vacancy in hopes of increasing the chances of getting the necessary six votes to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol.
A security firm said that North Korean hackers have stolen $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency in a single heist, the largest crypto hack on record. The hack hit Bybit, which describes itself as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange. North Korea reportedly funds its nuclear and missile programs by hacking banks and cryptocurrency companies.
Taiwan
The High Court’s Kaohsiung branch acquitted a retired rear admiral and three other defendants of charges that they accepted money from China to develop spy networks in Taiwan. Prosecutors said they would appeal. They alleged that Admiral Sun Hai-tao (孫海濤), retired army Colonel Liu Wan-li (劉萬禮), writer Chu Kang-ming (祝康明) and Kuei Ya-ti (歸亞蒂) enticed active and retired military officers to join the networks by taking them on junket trips to China and the US.
Authorities detained a cargo ship crewed by Chinese nationals that investigators believe may have severed an undersea communications cable between Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, which Taiwan controls. The coast guard said it was still investigating but that the dilapidated ship named Hong Tai 58 was the only vessel in the area when the cable was severed early February 25.
The High Court’s Taichung branch sentenced a reporter and a professor to nine and six months in prison, respectively, and stripped them of their civil rights for two years for fabricating election polls during the 2024 presidential election. The court heard that the reporter, Lin Hsien-yuan (林獻元), accepted 130,000 yuan (US$17,936) from the Chinese Communist Party and worked with Taichung-based Tunghai University Professor Su Yuan-hwa (蘇雲華) to disseminate fake polls in an attempt to influence election results.