April 20-26
China
The State Council issued Provisions on the Implementation of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law that provide greater detail about the range of countermeasures available to enforce the 2021 law. The new regulations, which took effect March 24, also encourage private litigation against foreign companies that stop transacting with Chinese companies in order to comply with US or European Union sanctions.
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) jointly issued an interpretation on handling intellectual property criminal cases (关于办理侵犯知识产权刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释). The interpretation, which took effect on April 26, clarifies the threshold between civil and criminal infringement of IP holders’ rights. The SPC and the SPP also released nine typical cases to illustrate the relevant principles.
The SPC issued a regulation clarifying military courts’ jurisdiction over civil matters (军事法院管辖民事案件若干问题的规定) and promoting internal consultation between military courts and local civil courts when there is a jurisdictional dispute. It takes effect May 1.
The Foreign Ministry said that US President Trump’s executive order to expedite deep-sea mining violates international law and will harm the interests of the international community. China has refrained from mining in international waters while awaiting the development of rules by the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority. The US is not a member of the authority. Scientists and environmental groups in the United States also criticized Trump’s order.
The Foreign Ministry said it was imposing retaliatory sanctions on members of US Congress, US government officials, and heads of American NGOs who have “acted egregiously” with respect to Hong Kong. It did not disclose the names of those being sanctioned. The move comes weeks after the US sanctioned six senior officials, including Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, outgoing Police Commissioner Raymond Siu, and Dong Jingwei, a Beijing official overseeing the city’s national security affairs, for their alleged roles in transnational repression and implementing the National Security Law in Hong Kong.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said Zhong Changchun, the man convicted of fatally stabbing a Japanese school boy in Shenzhen last September, has been executed. The embassy said it was notified by China’s Foreign Ministry. Zhong stabbed the 10-year-old with a knife while the boy was walking to school. Authorities have not revealed any information about Zhong’s motivation.
Hong Kong
The government proposed a series of anti-smoking measures, including banning the possession of e-cigarettes and other alternative smoking products, banning flavored conventional smoking products, expanding non-smoking areas, and increasing taxes on cigarettes. The government published the Tobacco Control Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2025 and said the bill will be introduced in the Legislative Council on April 30. The government said it hopes to reduce the smoking rate to 7.8 percent this year, compared to 9.1 percent in 2023.
Cardinal Joseph Zen was allowed to leave the city to attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome. Authorities confiscated Zen’s passport after his arrest in 2022 on suspicion of collusion with foreign forces under the National Security Law, and it has not been returned to him even though he does not currently face charges under the legislation. The cardinal was convicted in 2022 of failing to register a humanitarian fund that supported persons injured or arrested while protesting against the proposed 2019 extradition bill; his punishment was a fine.
A 2019 protester agreed to pay a police officer $280,000 (USD$36,097) as compensation for having bitten off part of the officer’s finger during a protest. The protester, To Kai-wa, was convicted of assaulting police, inflicting grievous bodily harm, wounding with intent, and disorderly behaviour and given a 5 1/2-year prison sentence, which he has completed.
Japan
The Tokyo District Court ordered Amazon to pay $244,167.02 to a Japanese pulse oximeter distributor for failing to remove Chinese counterfeit products from the platform. The Japanese company, Excel Plan, said Amazon’s “shared listings” feature put Chinese counterfeit pulse oximeters selling for roughly one-tenth the price side-by-side with real products, hindering the sale of genuine products. Excel Plan’s attorney said the ruling was a landmark in terms of acknowledging the obligation to build an appropriate authentication system.
The Tokyo District Court ordered the budget airline Jetstar Japan Co. to pay 110,000 yen (USD$780) to each of 35 cabin crew members as compensation for failing to provide them with legally required rest breaks. The cabin crew members said they worked over 10 to 12 hours a day without any designated break time.
Koreas
South Korea’s Supreme Court said that it will seat a “grand bench” to hear the election law violation case against Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the opposition Democratic Party. Lee is the favorite to win the June 3 election to fill the presidency vacated when President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached. Lee was convicted by a district court last year of making false statements during an interview in the last presidential campaign, which he lost to Yoon; a high court reversed the conviction on appeal, and the prosecution has appealed to the Supreme Court. If convicted, Lee could lose his eligibility for elected office.
South Korean prosecutors indicted former President Moon Jae-in on bribery charges, alleging that a budget airline gave his son-in-law a lucrative, largely no-show job during Moon’s term in office. Prosecutors alleged that a total of 217 million won (about $151,705) provided by Thai Eastar Jet in the form of wages, housing expenses, and other financial assistance to Moon’s then-son-in-law from 2018-2020 constituted a bribe to Moon. Moon, who was president from 2017-2022, said the indictment was politically motivated.
South Korea’s Cheongju District Court ordered the Japanese government to pay 200 million won (US$139,000) to the son of a late “comfort woman” as compensation for her treatment in military brothels during World War II. This marks the third time a Korean court has recognized the Japanese government's liability for the harms suffered by wartime comfort women and their families. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said the ruling violates international law and a 1965 bilateral agreement between the two countries.
Taiwan
The Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌), who was convicted of murdering a Malaysian university student in 2020, and ordered a new trial. It is the first case to reconsider a death sentence since the Constitutional Court ruled in September 2024 that capital punishment is constitutional only for a relatively narrow set of cases.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that a 2019 flight attendant strike against EVA Airways Corp (長榮航.) was legal. The airline had deemed the strike by unionized employees to be illegal and sought compensation from the Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union for daily financial losses of NT$34 million (US$1.04 million).