September 21-27
China
Communist Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping visited Urumqi to mark the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the first president ever to attend Xinjiang anniversary celebrations. Xi said Communist Party policies in the region are “scientific and effective” and called for continued cultural and religious integration with broader Chinese society. The government released guidelines emphasizing unified national identity, and the legislature is reviewing a draft Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (民族团结进步促进法) that emphasizes shared cultural identity, social integration,
A Shanghai court sentenced citizen journalist Zhang Zhan (张展) to a second four-year prison sentence for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事). She was imprisoned on the same charge from 2020-2024 for unauthorized reporting on social media about the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. Reporters Without Borders said the new charges were based on her human rights reporting and foreign social media activity.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court held a four-day public trial for twenty-one defendants accused of running a criminal syndicate from Myanmar’s Kokang region that often targeted Chinese citizens. The defendants, including several members of a family surnamed Bai that is accused of running the syndicate, face numerous charges including fraud, intentional homicide, intentional injury, kidnapping, extortion, operating a casino, organizing and forcing prostitution, illegal detention, organizing others to illegally cross national borders, illegal border crossing, smuggling, trafficking, transporting and manufacturing drugs. Other alleged members of the group are being tried separately.
The Commerce Ministry said that starting January 1, 2026, domestic automakers will be required to obtain export permits to export electric vehicles. China is the world’s largest car exporter, selling about 5.5 million vehicles abroad in 2024, of which nearly forty percent were EVs.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving a TikTok divestiture plan that calls for TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to reduce its ownership below 20 percent and transfer control to US investors, including Oracle. The plan aims to protect national security while keeping TikTok in the US market. It requires China's approval.
A US federal judge in Washington rejected a challenge from Shenzhen-based drone manufacturer DJI to its inclusion on a Pentagon list of Chinese military-linked companies. DJI argued that it is neither owned nor controlled by China's military, but District Judge Paul Friedman said the Defense Department had substantial evidence that DJI contributes to China's defense industrial base.
Hong Kong
Secretary for Security Chris Tang (鄧炳強) said the Law Reform Commission will study options for expanding sexual offense laws to include AI-generated deepfake pornography. In July, a University of Hong Kong law student was accused of creating pornographic images of classmates and other women using AI tools. The university issued a warning but declined further action, citing legal advice that no disciplinary offense had occurred.
Lawmakers passed a bill that requires each living unit in subdivided apartments to be at least eight square meters large (eighty-six square feet, smaller than a standard parking space), have its own toilet, and have at least one window that can open. About 220,000 people live in subdivided units, thirty percent of which will need major renovations to comply. The national government in Beijing wants Hong Kong to phase out subdivided apartments by 2049, viewing housing problems as a driver of the 2019 protests.
Japan
The Sapporo Family Court ruled unconstitutional a legal requirement that persons seeking to legally change their gender must undergo gender reassignment surgery. The decision was made with respect to two separate lawsuits from individuals who want to change their gender in the official family registry but have not undergone surgery or received hormone therapy due to concerns about side effects. In 2023, the Supreme Court held that another requirement for legal gender change — surgery to render the person infertile — was unconstitutional and invalid.
The Justice Ministry has begun requiring all prison officers to display newly assigned six-digit identification numbers on their uniforms in order to prevent the mistreatment of inmates. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki issued a directive revising rules on clothing in March and new uniforms with the ID numbers have been gradually introduced since April.
Two former Canadian students at Yamanashi Gakuin University filed a lawsuit seeking ¥30 million (US$200,000) in damages for alleged sexual abuse, in one case by a non-Japanese professor and in the other case by a Japanese fellow student. The plaintiffs, both women, claim the university dismissed their reports as “cultural differences between foreigners.”
Nippon Steel announced its first detailed US investment plan since acquiring U.S. Steel, pledging $200 million for Indiana plant improvements and $100 million for a Pennsylvania slag recycling facility as part of an $11 billion commitment.
Koreas
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol denied all charges at the beginning of the second trial related to his short-lived December 2024 declaration of martial law. It was Yoon’s first public appearance since his arrest in July, and local media reported that he appeared visibly thinner. He declined a jury trial. He is already being tried on charges of leading an insurrection. This trial will hear additional charges of violating the rights of Cabinet members, revising the martial law proclamation, obstructing his detention by investigators in January, ordering the deletion of call records, and distributing false statements.
Authorities arrested the head of the Unification Church as part of a widening corruption probe linked to former first lady Kim Keon Hee. Prosecutors allege that 82-year-old Han Hak-ja conspired with a former church official to deliver 100 million won ($72,400) to a People Power Party lawmaker in 2022. In return, the lawmaker was expected to help secure favors for the church if Yoon Suk Yeol won the presidential election, which he did later that year. Han also allegedly ordered church officials to provide luxury gifts to Kim in an effort to win preferential treatment for the church in business deals. Han is the widow of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon.
The Seoul Administrative Court ordered the government to compensate the family of a man who died from brain hemorrhage one week after receiving a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in December 2021. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency had refused the family’s request for compensation, saying there was no evidence that the vaccine caused his death. Doctors diagnosed him as having a rare blood vessel disorder. But the court ruled that side effects from the vaccine, such as fever, could have worsened the man’s condition.
A Seoul appellate court upheld a eighteen-month prison sentence for a 42-year-old man who attempted to break into the Chinese Embassy in February dressed as Captain America. The man, identified only by his family name, Ahn, unsuccessfully argued that his attempted break-in was intended to deliver a political message and not to cause damage or harm anyone.
Taiwan
The Taipei District Court gave prison terms ranging from four to ten years to four former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) personnel who were convicted of leaking sensitive information to Chinese military intelligence officials. The longest sentence went to former councilor assistant Huang Chu-jung (黃取榮), who allegedly was recruited first and later brought in Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), then an assistant to Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗); and Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元), then deputy director of the DPP’s Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Chiu recruited Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨), a Presidential Office consultant.
The Mainland Affairs Council said 188 Taiwanese went missing, were detained and interrogated, or had their personal freedom restricted between January 1, 2024 and August 31, 2025. Fifty persons were “disappeared” after entering China, nineteen were detained and 119 had their movement restricted in some form. Those detained include nine I-Kuan Tao (一貫道) followers.
US Customs and Border Protection barred imports of bicycles, bicycle parts, and accessories made in Taiwan by Giant Bicycles over evidence of forced labor. The agency issued a withhold release order after an investigation of Giant, the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, found forced labor indicators including abusive working and living conditions, debt bondage, withholding of wages, and excessive overtime. Giant employs Vietnamese and Thai migrant workers.
The New Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted Luxshare Precision CEO Grace Wang (王來春) and three other persons on charges of illegally funneling mainland Chinese capital into Taiwan through a Hong Kong subsidiary. Wang, co-founder of the Chinese-based electronics manufacturer, is the seventh richest self-made woman in the world. She lives in Shenzhen, China.