November 2 - November 8
China
The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security reportedly issued secret new regulations on June 30, 2025, to tighten oversight of “residential surveillance at a designated location.” This form of coercion allows police to hold suspects in selected cases outside detention centers in hotels and other non-standard facilities for up to six months, and is associated with torture and other abuses. Caixin magazine reported that the new rules require senior police officials to sign off on this type of detention, mandate lawyer-client meetings within 48 hours except in national security and terrorism cases, and prohibit interrogations inside surveillance facilities, while requiring full audio and video recordings of all interrogations and 24/7 video surveillance of the residences.
The draft 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026-2030 proposes measures to curb illegal seizure, impoundment, and freezing of private assets by law enforcement agencies. A supplementary guide to the plan said local authorities have repeatedly exceeded their jurisdiction and other legal limits to seize assets in what it called “profit-driven enforcement” and wrongful use of criminal measures in economic disputes. The guide recommends making asset investigations an independent part of court trials, and strengthening external checks and balances.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court sentenced twenty-one members of the Bai family crime group after convicting them of telecom fraud, gambling, and trafficking operations in Laukkaing, Myanmar. It sentenced five members of the group to death, including the family head, Bai Suocheng, and his son, Bai Yingcang. The court gave suspended death sentences to two persons, life terms to five, and prison terms ranging from three to twenty years to the rest.
The Ministry of State Security accused unidentified foreign intelligence agencies of violating national security and export control laws by stealing genetic data from key crops including soybeans, corn, and rice. A Chinese person surnamed Zhu was convicted of concealing prohibited parent seeds in export containers and sentenced to one and a half years in prison, while seventeen others faced administrative penalties for assisting the operation. The ministry said it also discovered foreign consulate personnel conducting unauthorized intelligence gathering in major grain-producing areas.
Hong Kong
Police froze HK$2.75 billion (about US$352 million) in assets connected to a suspected fraud syndicate with ties to the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based real estate and casino conglomerate accused of operating a transnational criminal network. Police said they are investigating alleged telecommunications fraud and money laundering but have not made any arrests. The action follows enforcement efforts in Taiwan, Singapore, and the United States, where a federal court has charged Prince Group founder Chen Zhi with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
A court granted bail to influencer Joseph Lam and thirteen others charged in connection with cryptocurrency platform JPEX. Prosecutors said Lam falsely claimed between July and September 2023 that JPEX had obtained licenses in multiple jurisdictions and that he had exclusive information to induce investments. More than 2,700 people reported losses exceeding HK$1.6 billion ($205,000) after the Securities and Futures Commission declared JPEX unregulated in September 2023.
The UN Environment Programme gave an “impact” award to Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department for its role in the capture of a man convicted of smuggling live coral. A court in September sentenced the man to three years and four months in prison for smuggling coral worth HK$1.5 million and laundering HK$6.7 million in proceeds from the crime, in the city's first money laundering conviction in a wildlife trafficking case.
Japan
The government plans to revise its foreign investment screening law in 2026 after an earlier amendment lowering the prior review threshold for foreign stock purchases, to one percent from the prior ten percent of designated businesses, caused a fourfold increase in annual filings. Vice Finance Minister Atsushi Mimura said the revision will try to ensure the law is well-targeted. So far his ministry has proposed narrowing the scope of IT businesses subject to prior review to those considered critical. The ministry also wants to close loopholes, such as extending screening to domestic investors who operate under the control or influence of foreign governments.
A fourth court ruled that the House of Councilors election in July was held in a “state of unconstitutionality” due to large disparities in the values of votes across different election districts. However, the Matsue branch of the Hiroshima High Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ request to nullify the election. Two groups of lawyers have filed a total of sixteen lawsuits in fourteen high courts or high court branches nationwide. Four courts have found the election to be constitutional.
Koreas
Thirty-three Seoul Metropolitan Council members from the People Power Party proposed an ordinance to limit city-funded welfare, education, housing, and transportation benefits for foreign residents based on whether their home countries provide comparable support to South Koreans. The ordinance would exempt refugees, individuals covered by international agreements, business owners, and skilled workers. The small Basic Income Party decried the proposal as a human rights violation.
The Seoul Central District Court gave eight year prison terms to two key figures in a development corruption scandal linked to President Lee Jae Myung. The two men were convicted of breach of duty. The scandal centers on allegations that a small number of private asset management companies were allowed to reap astronomical investment profits from development project in the city of Seongnam in 2015, when Lee was the city's mayor. Lee’s trial in the matter was indefinitely postponed after he won the presidency in June.
South Korea's flagship universities, including Seoul National University, have begun rejecting applicants with school violence records, marking a shift from decades of treating bullying as a private matter. Six of the country's ten national universities turned away forty-five applicants in the 2025 admissions cycle due to disciplinary records. All universities in the country will be required to consider school violence records in admissions starting in 2026.
South Korea's Ministry of Interior and Safety announced plans to establish a new bureau to incorporate artificial intelligence technology into government functions. Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said the bureau will replace the existing Digital Government Innovation Bureau and use AI to improve recovery systems and advance digital public services. The existing bureau played a central role in responding to a massive government network outage in September caused by a fire at a state data center. About five percent of government online services have still not been restored. President Lee Jae Myung has pledged to allocate 10.1 trillion won (nearly $7 billion) in the 2026 budget to help South Korea transition into an AI-based society.
Taiwan
Authorities conducted raids and arrested twenty-five suspects in a probe into companies allegedly linked to the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based real estate company. The US Treasury Department announced sanctions last month against a long list of companies and individuals alleged to be members of a “Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization,” accused of operating forced-labor scam compounds in Cambodia. Prosecutors in Taiwan said the group had nine subsidiaries in Taipei that had links with major local crime syndicates involved in financial and investment fraud schemes.
The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan voted down all four of the Cabinet’s nominees to the National Communications Commission, leaving the media regulator with only three commissioners and unable to implement regulatory policies. Four members are needed to comprise a quorum.
Representatives of the Taiwan Railway Union began a hunger strike to protest a Supreme Administrative Court ruling that upheld disciplinary action against 337 workers who took leave during the 2017 Lunar New Year holidays to protest forced overtime. The October 8 court ruling found the union acted in bad faith by notifying management only four days before the leave period. It overturned a lower court decision favoring the workers.
The Executive Yuan secretary-general said the government is reviewing twenty-one laws to counter Chinese disinformation, infiltration, and sovereignty threats under President Lai Ching-te’s national security strategy. The legislature completed an initial review of legislation classifying undersea cables as critical infrastructure and imposing criminal liability for damaging them, and is reviewing four military justice bills and the National Security Act.
Environmental groups called on the government to seek more public input before amending the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, after the Taiwan People's Party proposed in August to place solar panel environmental impact assessment criteria, currently in subordinate regulations, into the parent law. The groups said placing criteria in the act would reduce flexibility to assess projects based on scale, location, and environmental sensitivity.