August 10-16
China
Beijing E-Town (北京屹唐) Semiconductor Technologies sued the American company Applied Materials, accusing it of illegally obtaining its core technical trade secrets related to semiconductor equipment. Beijing E-Town is seeking nearly RMB 100 million (US $13.94 million) in damages. The Chinese company claims that Applied Materials used secrets that it obtained by hiring former employees of its subsidiary, Mattson Technology, to file a patent application in China. Applied Materials and Mattson have previously swapped accusations of hiring each other’s employees with the intention of stealing trade secrets.
The US and China extended their trade truce for another 90 days, until Nov. 10. Planned tariff hikes will remain paused as the two sides continue negotiating over trade imbalances, market access, and national security issues. Bilateral trade has fallen sharply year on year.
China filed a lawsuit against Canada at the WTO over Canada’s new import restrictions on steel and other products. Canada announced in July that it was imposing a 25 percent surtax on products containing Chinese steel to protect the domestic industry in the face of steep US tariffs. China’s Ministry of Commerce called the action discriminatory.
The Ministry of Commerce sanctioned two Lithuanian banks, UAB Urbo Bankas and Mano Bankas AB, in retaliation for EU measures against two Chinese banks that were accused of facilitating prohibited trade with Russia. The EU sanctions were announced in July but took effect on August 9. The two banks targeted by China do not operate in China, making the new sanctions largely symbolic. Lithuania angered China last year by allowing Taiwan to open an unofficial representative office in Vilnius under the name of Taiwan.
On the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender, a commentary in the official PLA Daily accused Japan of abandoning its pacifist constitution and pursuing military expansion. Meanwhile, in Japan, for the sixth straight year Japanese government ministers and dozens of lawmakers marked the anniversary by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead. China and other Asian neighbors view such visits as glorifying militarism.
Hong Kong
Closing arguments in the national security trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai were delayed again so the 77-year-old Lai could have a heart monitor installed. Lai has been detained since 2020 and could receive a life sentence if convicted of colluding with foreign forces and conspiring to publish seditious materials. His trial began in December 2023 but has been put on hold for lengthy periods. Lai was on the witness stand for 52 days before the most recent suspension, which began in March 2025.
The Hong Kong government rejected the US State Department’s newly issued 2024 human rights report, describing its contents about Hong Kong as unfounded, biased, and politically driven interference in China’s internal affairs. It defended the National Security Law and related measures as consistent with international standards.
Japan
Pop star Kenshin Kamimura was convicted of indecent assault by a Hong Kong court for harassing his interpreter during a dinner in March. The 26-year-old former member of boy band ONE N' ONLY was fined HK$15,000 ($1,900) but escaped a prison sentence. The conviction, which followed testimony that he repeatedly touched the woman despite her objections, sparked emotional reactions from fans who packed the courtroom.
Japan's largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sued AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement. The lawsuit filed in Tokyo District Court alleges that Perplexity scraped nearly 120,000 articles without permission. It seeks $15 million in damages and demands Perplexity stop reproducing its content. Japan’s copyright law allows AI training on copyrighted material but does not permit wholesale reproduction or distribution that harms copyright owners. Last fall, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post took similar legal action against Perplexity.
Authorities seized about a metric ton of dried cannabis smuggled into Japan by ship from Vietnam. They said the shipment is worth a market price of about ¥5.2 billion (US$35.2 million) and is the largest amount of any illegal drugs seized in Japan in a single operation.
Koreas
South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that viral videos of the children's song Baby Shark produced by South Korean company Pinkfong did not plagiarize a US artist's work, ending a six-year legal battle. The court determined that composer and performer Jonathan Wright's 2011 version lacked sufficient originality for separate copyright protection since both arrangements derived from the same public-domain folk song.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pardoned several controversial politicians, including former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was less than halfway into a two-year prison term for academic fraud and other crimes, and former Democratic Party Rep. Yoon Mi-hyang, who received a suspended sentence for embezzling donations to a group that supports the victims of wartime sex slavery. The pardons restore their right to run in elections. Lee said the pardons will promote political unity but opposition politicians and others said they could erode trust in the justice system. Lee pardoned a total of 2,188 persons to mark Liberation Day, the anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japanese rule.
More than 70 tattoo artists gathered outside South Korea’s National Assembly in Seoul and urged lawmakers to approve the Tattooist Act, which would allow tatooing by licensed non-medical professionals. Tattooing has been classified as a medical procedure since 1992.
A special counsel questioned former first lady Kim Keon Hee for the second time in two weeks as it investigates charges including accepting bribes and participating in a stock price manipulation scheme. Kim, the wife of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, exercised her right to remain silent for most of the questioning.
North Korea tightened controls on its restricted state intranet in North Pyongan Province after a trading official was caught trying to smuggle government documents to Chinese partners on a memory card. A Ministry of State Security review uncovered widespread violations, including unauthorized file access and use of external storage devices, prompting threats of legal and party discipline for negligent administrators. In response, officials are reducing intranet use and delivering reports by hand.
Taiwan
The Taiwan High Court rejected the appeal of former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je and Councilor Ying Hsiao-wei to end their pre-trial detention. Ko, founder of the Taiwan People’s Party and its former presidential candidate, and Ying have been detained for nearly a year on charges of corruption in the approval process for the Core Pacific City development project while Ko was mayor. They are among eleven persons indicted in the case. Ko’s party says the charges are politically motivated.
The Mainland Affairs Council said it would review regulations governing the entry of Chinese into Taiwan for lawsuits. It was responding to inquiries after a mainland Chinese lawyer petitioned the Taichung District Court to represent an Austrian company that had been sued by a Taiwanese company. The presiding judge denied his petition on the grounds that he is not licensed to practice law in Taiwan.
The High Court’s Kaohsiung branch upheld a lower court’s not guilty verdict in the trial of a Chinese immigrant charged with violating the Anti-Infiltration Act. Prosecutors accused Tsai Zhan-ping (蔡占萍) of organizing a group tour to China for 30 borough wardens in 2023 in exchange for their support for pro-China candidates in an election. The High Court agreed with the Kaohsiung District Court that there was insufficient evidence China paid for the trip or that there was any quid pro quo. The current Taiwan government has prioritized cracking down on Chinese influence in Taiwan’s politics.
The 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II became an occasion for highlighting the starkly different views of the rival Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Nationalist or Kuomintang Party (KMT) toward history as it relates to Taiwan’s identity. KMT leaders marked the occasion by helping to open a photo exhibition in Taipei that highlights the contributions of more than 50,000 Taiwanese who fought in the war and celebrated the return of Taiwan to China after the war’s end. Meanwhile in a Facebook post, President Lai Ching-te of the DPP called the war a catastrophe triggered by the ambitions of dictators and said: “No regime has the right to invade another land or deprive the people there of their freedom and happiness.”
Migrant worker advocacy groups called on the Ministry of Labor to clarify protections under the Labor Union Law after a broker allegedly intimidated workers at a Taoyuan manufacturer who were attempting to join a union. Some workers, mainly Indonesians, subsequently withdrew their union applications out of fear. The ministry affirmed that the law protects workers’ rights to unionize and that interference by brokers or employers could result in fines.