September 28-October 4
China
A court in Wenzhou sentenced 39 members of the Ming family crime group after convicting them of running extensive telecom fraud, gambling and trafficking operations centered in Laukkaing, Myanmar. It sentenced eleven of the defendants to death and gave death sentences with two-year suspensions to five persons, life terms to eleven, and prison terms ranging from five to twenty-four years to the others. For years, the Ming and several other groups operated massive criminal syndicates with impunity inside a lawless border region of Myanmar.
China launched a new K visa for foreign STEM professionals, triggering criticism from tens of thousand of Chinese on social media. The visa, announced in August, allows graduates and researchers from recognized foreign universities to participate in exchanges, entrepreneurship, and business activities in China. Still unclear is whether K visa holders will be allowed to work in China. Domestic critics expressed concern about competition for jobs in a slow labor market.
The Communist Party quietly replaced Liu Jianchao as the head of its International Department, where he led the party’s foreign relations. The Wall Street Journal reported in September that Liu, 61, had been detained after returning to Beijing from a work trip overseas in late July. It said he is being investigated for corruption and violations of party discipline.
Tsinghua University said police put two members of its faculty and staff in administrative detention after they were discovered operating illegal campus tours for profit. In one case, a faculty member and their family solicited tourists online and used a personal vehicle licensed to enter campus to transport the tourists. Tsinghua, located in Beijing, is one of China’s top universities.
The Southwark Crown Court in London convicted Chinese national Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, of fraud and money-laundering. Police said that between 2014 and 2017, Qian led a large-scale scam in China that involved cheating more than 128,000 victims and storing the stolen funds in bitcoin assets. British police said they recovered 61,000 bitcoin worth over £5 billion ($6.7 billion). The court said it will sentence her on Nov. 10, 2025.
A new Amnesty International report accuses Chinese courts of weaponizing vague national security and public order laws to silence human rights defenders. The report analyses more than 100 judicial documents from sixty-eight cases involving sixty-four human rights defenders over the past decade. The report said that online posts were treated as proof of subversion, while giving interviews to foreign media, publishing articles on overseas websites, or attending NGO trainings abroad were presented as proof of “collusion with foreign forces.”
Hong Kong
Secretary for Security Chris Tang said the city plans to install tens of thousands of surveillance cameras that will make use of AI-powered facial recognition. Police already have installed almost 4,000 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. That number will increase to a total of 60,000 by 2028, according to documents submitted to the legislature.
The commissioner of the Foreign Ministry office in Hong Kong, Cui Jianchun, lodged “solemn representations” with US Consul General Julie Eadeh. Cui’s office said in a statement that he met with Eadeh and set out “four dont’s”: don’t meet the people whom she should not meet with; don’t collude with “anti-China forces”; don’t instigate, assist, abet or fund any activities that undermine stability in Hong Kong; and don’t interfere with national security cases in Hong Kong. Beijing-controlled media has criticized Eadeh for inviting former Hong Kong No. 2 Anson Chan and former Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau to consular events.
Singapore authorities denied entry to self-exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law (羅冠聰), who is wanted in Hong Kong on national security charges. Law, 32, was a leader of the 2014 Occupy movement. He received political asylum from Britain in 2021. He landed in Singapore from San Francisco on September 27, but Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said his presence was “not in Singapore’s national interests.”
Japan
Lawyers for victims of the Unification Church’s aggressive solicitation of donations said the church has agreed to pay more than 50 million yen (US$340,000) to three former believers in their 80s. The settlement - the first between the church and former supporters - was reached through mediation at the Tokyo District Court. More than 190 persons are seeking a total of roughly ¥5.9 billion in refunds. The man accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 said he was angry over the Liberal Democratic Party’s ties to the church, which he said defrauded his mother of her savings. The church lost its religious corporation status in Japan earlier this year.
The Tokyo High Court ordered the government to pay 200,000 yen (US$1,350) to a prison inmate who was forcibly stripped during a body search at Utsunomiya branch detention center in 2021. The court upheld a June 2024 Utsunomiya District Court ruling that found the search violated the inmate’s dignity. The government argued the search was necessary to prevent self-harm.
Toyoake City in Aichi Prefecture enacted a nonbinding ordinance limiting residents’ use of smartphones, tablets, and other devices to two hours per day outside work, study, and housework. The ordinance applies to all residents, including school-aged children, and recommends curfews of 9 p.m. for elementary students and 10 p.m. for junior high students and above. City officials said violators will not be penalized, and the aim is to encourage healthy digital habits.
Koreas
South Korea announced stricter international adoption rules as it joined the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The convention sets international standards to protect children and prevent trafficking. Under the new system, adoptions will proceed only if no domestic family is available and if approved by the Health Ministry’s adoption policy committee. Meanwhile, President Lee Jae Myung posted a heartfelt apology for the government’s poor management of adoptions. In March 2025, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirmed state responsibility for facilitating a foreign adoption program rife with fraud and abuse for decades.
Police barred the chairman and founder of K-pop powerhouse HYBE, Bang Si-hyuk, from leaving the country amid a police investigation into allegations of unfair stock trading, the Yonghap news agency reported. Police allege that Bang deceived investors in 2019 that he had no plans to hold an initial public offering for HYBE before inducing them to sell their shares.
The Seoul Central District Court upheld the detention of People Power Party lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong and Unification Church President Han Hak-ja for their alleged roles in a political influence-buying scheme. Kweon is accused of receiving 100 million Korean won (US$71,000) from a former Unification Church official in 2022, while Han allegedly delivered money and luxury gifts to former first lady Kim Keon-hee. Both denied the allegations, but the court said they might destroy evidence or flee if released.
Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo attended the first hearing of his trial on charges of abetting an attempted insurrection by former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Han allegedly knew about Yoon’s plans to declare martial law in advance and later revised the martial law proclamation in order to enhance its legitimacy. Yoon is being tried on several criminal charges for issuing the declaration on Dec. 3, 2024.
Taiwan
Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said Taiwan will not accept US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s proposal that half of the semiconductors Taiwan currently supplies to the US be made in the US. Cheng spoke upon returning from trade talks in Washington. He said the idea was not discussed during his meetings, which focused on lowering tariff rates and securing exemptions from tariff stacking. Taiwan has yet to reach a tariff settlement with the Trump administration, which imposed a 20 percent tax on its exports.
The High Court began hearing an appeal in the case of Taiwanese independence advocates accused of damaging the Republic of China flag in 2015. Five persons admitted to slashing dozens of flags and breaking flagpoles along a bridge in New Taipei City, and were convicted of the offense of insulting the flag. Three of the five contested their conviction on free speech grounds, and won. In 2017, the High Court referred the matter to the Constitutional Court for interpretation, but the case had stalled amid a backlog. After waiting eight years, the High Court convened a new panel of judges in August to reopen proceedings.
A Taipei District Court judge briefed the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) about China’s six major methods of infiltrating Taiwan and called for counterintelligence collaboration between Taiwan and the US. Hsu Kai-Chieh, who focuses on national security cases, told the China News Agency that he briefed the commission about China’s use of espionage, infiltrating organizations, dividing society, technology leaks, interfering with elections and “gray zone” tactics such as tampering with undersea communication cables. Hsu said that Taiwan prosecuted twenty-eight persons for infiltration activities in 2022, eighty-six in 2023 and 168 last year,