July 13 - July 19
China
The People’s Daily newspaper published new Communist Party guidance for the judiciary, the CCP Central Committee Opinion on Strengthening Adjudication Work in the New Era 《中共中央关于加强新时代审判工作的意见》, approved by the Central Committee in February but not previously disclosed. The document, summarized by Tracking People’ s Daily and the South China Morning Post, does not contain anything strikingly new but highlights current party priorities, such as cracking down on online fraud and gang activity, using punitive damages to enforce food and drug safety and product safety rules, strengthening market competition and IP protection, and using law to protect China’s global interests.
The Ministry of Commerce said it will restrict exports of eight key technologies for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries. The new licensing requirement could make it harder for Chinese electric carmakers to set up factories overseas. Ford Motor Co. is building a $3 billion factory in Michigan to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries using Chinese technology,
A court convicted a Japanese businessman employed by Astellas Pharma Inc, a major Japanese pharmaceutical company, of espionage and sentenced him to three and a half years in prison, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing said. The businessman, whose name has not been released, has been in custody since March 2023. Since China enacted its Counter-Espionage Law in 2014, Chinese police have detained 17 Japanese citizens on espionage charges.
Foreign business groups, executives, and diplomats expressed renewed concern about travel to China after the Wall Street Journal reported that a Chinese-born, US-based Wells Fargo employee was being blocked from exiting China. The bank has suspended staff travel to China because of the plight of Chenyue Mao, who leads its international factoring division. Mao is reported to be a US citizen.
Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said the US government has agreed to resume issuing licenses to sell Chinese companies its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used to develop artificial intelligence. The White House had announced restrictions in April on selling Nvidia’s H20 GPUs and Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s MI308 chips to China.
Hong Kong
A three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals said it will rule within nine months on appeals from twelve pro-democracy activists convicted last year of conspiring to commit subversion by holding an unofficial primary election. Eleven are appealing both their convictions and sentences, while one who pleaded guilty appeals only her sentence. Defense lawyers argued that their clients did not receive a fair trial.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data opened a criminal investigation into allegations that a male law student at the University of Hong Kong used AI software to generate pornographic images with the faces of at least twenty female students and teachers. The student is not accused of disseminating the images. The university said in a statement that it had issued a warning to the accused man and demanded he formally apologize to his victims.
The government defended the detention arrangements for former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai after the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed saying Lai suffered from “appalling conditions” in custody. Lai, 77, has been held, mostly in solitary confinement, since December 2020. He was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on a controversial fraud charge, while his trial on national security charges has been drawn out over several years and is due to resume in August.
Prisons began implementing new rules that allow authorities to restrict visits on national security grounds, including visits by lawyers and religious personnel. The rule change may reduce outside contact with prisoners linked to the 2019 protests or accused of endangering national security. As of Dec. 31, 2024, nearly 600 people were in custody for such offenses.
Japan
The Nagoya High Court acquitted a 60-year-old man in a high-profile retrial over the 1986 murder of a 15-year-old junior high school girl. Exculpatory evidence newly disclosed by the prosecution played a decisive role in the latest ruling. The outcome may influence discussions about reforming the retrial system, including proposals to require police and prosecutors to disclose more evidence.
The Otsu District Court ordered the Shiga Prefectural Government to pay about ¥31 million (about $208,730) in damages to a former assistant nurse who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a patient and served twelve years in prison. The nurse was granted a retrial and acquitted in 2020 after serving her sentence.
The government established an administrative body aimed at easing citizens' concerns over the rapid rise in the number of foreigners living in Japan. The new body will be tasked with responding to issues such as crime and over-tourism involving foreigners. The rising number of foreign nationals, while still just three percent of the total population, has become a key issue in the July 20 election for the House of Councillors, the upper house of parliament.
Female candidates in Japan’s upcoming election for the upper house of Japan’s parliament are reporting stalking, harassment, and even death threats. Nearly 54 percent of female local assembly members said they have been harassed, compared to nearly 24 percent of their male counterparts, according to a Cabinet Office report released in June.
An online group chat that teachers allegedly used to share illicit images of elementary school girls sparked national outrage last month and reignited debate about whether Japan systemically fails to protect children from predatory educators. Male teachers in elementary and junior high schools in Nagoya and Yokohama secretly photographed the underwear of female students at their schools, generating sexual deepfakes, and shared the images and videos in the group chat. Experts say that similar abuses occur in other countries but what sets Japan apart is its sluggish policy response.
Koreas
The Seoul High Court opened the retrial of a man who was hanged in 1980 for the 1979 assassination of then-President Park Chung-hee, a former army general who ruled South Korea from 1961 until his death. Relatives of Park’s killer, Kim Jae-gyu, who was head of the Central Intelligence Agency of Korea at the time, want to clear him of the original charge of insurrection. They argue that Kim killed Park not to seize power for himself but to end Park’s strongman rule and establish democracy.
President Lee Jae Myung urged the National Assembly to begin steps to amend the constitution. In a social media post marking the 77th anniversary of Constitution Day, Lee said the constitution should reflect the spirit of South Korea’s 1980 pro-democracy movement, strengthen basic rights, expand local autonomy and decentralization, and reform law-enforcement institutions. During his campaign, he also proposed replacing the president’s single five-year term with two four-year terms.
A special counsel added a new charge, abuse of authority, to those already faced by former President Yoon Suk Yeol as a result of his Dec. 3, 2024 declaration of martial law. Yoon is already on trial on a charge of insurrection. The special counsel recently formally accused him of five additional criminal charges, including obstructing official duties, abuse of power and falsifying and destroying documents.
The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong on charges of fraud and conducting an illicit merger in 2015 for the purposes of consolidating his power over the business. The court said it could not recognize evidence presented by the prosecution. Samsung has been falling behind in its smartphone and chip businesses.
Young South Korean farmers rallied near the presidential office to protest reports that the government may lower barriers to importing US agricultural goods. The US government has demanded that South Korea lift its ban on American beef from cattle over 30 months old and ease quarantine restrictions on apples and pears. South Korea, like neighbors Japan and Taiwan, is trying to negotiate a reduction in unilateral US tariffs.
The Korean Medical Association said that thousands of medical students who have been boycotting class since February 2024 will end their protest. The strike was triggered by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s plan to increase enrollment at medical schools to about 5,000 students from approximately 3,000. Trainee doctors are also striking and have yet to announce a return.
Police in South Korea arrested a high school teacher and a student's father who allegedly broke into a school late at night to steal exam papers. Authorities say the teacher had privately tutored the child of the arrested father, against school regulations. South Korea is known for its hyper-competitive education system.
Taiwan
Taiwan’s deeply divided political parties prepared for an unprecedented wave of 29 recall elections of Nationalist Party (KMT) national legislators and two county-level legislators on July 26 and Aug. 23. This follows election authorities’ approval of five more recall petitions. The Democratic Progressive Party has spent months collecting signatures on recall petitions in hopes of taking control of the Legislative Yuan from the KMT, which together with its partner, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has stymied the agenda of President Lai Ching-de of the DPP. The DPP needs to unseat at least 12 KMT national-level legislators and then win at least six seats in subsequent by-elections in order to gain control of the 113-seat Legislative Yuan. The KMT currently holds 52 seats, the DPP 51, the TPP eight, and independents two.
Vice President Bi-khim Hsiao says the Taiwan government will not provoke a confrontation with China and only asks to be treated “with parity and respect.” In remarks at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Taipei, Hsiao said China has dramatically stepped up its efforts to “infiltrate, sabotage and divide” Taiwan society. She also said that Taiwan’s trade negotiators are working “around the clock” to reach a deal with the US and prevent threatened tariffs of 32 percent on all Taiwanese goods from taking effect on Aug. 1.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Agency denied allegations of a “pattern of abuse” of Indonesian migrant workers on Taiwanese operated distant-water fishing boats. CNN recently reported charges by Indonesian workers they were denied medical care, overworked, and sometimes not paid for months at a time.
The Legislative Yuan amended the Criminal Code to allow the death penalty in cases of child abuse resulting in the death of a child who is seven years old or younger. The amendments also mandate a fifty percent sentence increase for murdering a child who is seven or younger. The changes were in response to the 2023 death of a one-year-old boy, allegedly at the hands of a licensed caregiver.