November 9 - November 15
China
The National Development and Reform Commission set tighter criteria for regional-level state-owned enterprises to obtain new offshore debt quotas, requiring them to prove profitability and operate a clear core business such as manufacturing or mining. The move expands Beijing's campaign to control local government debt risks, which previously focused mainly on local government financing vehicles. The enterprises can still refinance existing debt but face stricter scrutiny for new fundraising.
The State Council issued measures to encourage private investment in infrastructure projects including rail, nuclear power, hydropower, and pipelines. Projects expected to generate positive returns must evaluate the feasibility of attracting private capital when seeking central government approval, with private investors potentially holding 10 percent or more. The policy aims to support the private economy as China's private fixed-asset investment fell 3.1 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2025.
Police in Quanzhou - a city that faces Taiwan on the western side of the Taiwan Strait - issued a wanted notice and offered a RMB250,000 (about US$35,200) reward for two Taiwanese social media influencers they accused of separatism. A police statement said that Pa Chiung and Chen Po-yuan - a rapper better known by his stage name Mannam PYC - have long been engaged in publishing and inciting separatist views. Last month, the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a wanted notice for Taiwanese legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for, among other things, founding a civil defense organization that prepares Taiwanese for an invasion by China.
The Beijing High Court rejected an appeal by journalist Dong Yuyu, who is serving a seven-year prison term on espionage charges, his family said in a statement. Dong, now 63, a senior columnist at the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing restaurant. Dong’s family said the court identified the Japanese diplomats Dong met as agents of an “espionage organisation.”
The Ministry of Public Security released a draft automotive safety standard requiring passenger vehicles to start in a default mode that takes at least five seconds to reach 100 kilometers per hour. The ministry said the rule addresses loss-of-control incidents involving electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, as many models now accelerate to 100 km/h in under three seconds, which drivers struggle to manage. Under the draft, drivers must manually activate high-performance settings; vehicles must include systems to detect unintended acceleration and monitor driver attention during automated assistance.
The Ministry of Education issued measures (《教育部办公厅关于进一步减轻中小学教师非教育教学负担若干措施的通知》 ) to reduce the non-teaching workload of primary and secondary school teachers, addressing the problem that teachers currently spend most of their time on administrative tasks. The measures prohibit higher-level authorities from seconding teachers into non-teaching roles except when genuinely necessary and capping such assignments at six months. They also bar assigning teachers on-campus duties during holidays and weekends, and cap the number of government inspections, evaluations, competitions, and other non-educational activities that can be held at schools.
Hong Kong
The District Court sentenced taxi driver Yu Hin-lam to seventeen months in prison and kindergarten teacher Ng Shuk-wai to thirteen months after they pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice for hiding four protesters wanted on rioting charges. Between November 2020 and July 2022, the couple provided refuge to the protesters in a hotel and an industrial building and helped them seek asylum at the US Consulate, which rejected their requests. The four protesters were arrested in July 2022 while attempting to flee from Hong Kong to Taiwan by boat.
The Notaries Public Disciplinary Tribunal suspended former lawmaker and democracy activist Albert Ho from practicing as a notary public for seven years based on his 2021 criminal convictions for organizing and participating in unauthorized assemblies during the 2019-2020 protests. The tribunal ruled that Ho's conduct was prejudicial to the administration of justice and likely to bring the notary public profession into disrepute. Ho is currently detained pending trial on national security charges of inciting subversion.
The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts sentenced Lan Fei, 19, to one year in prison for sedition under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance after she appeared in two promotional videos for the Hong Kong Parliament (香港議會). The Canada-based group held on online unofficial election this year for pro-democracy representatives in exile. Lan received CA$100 (US$71) for each video, in which she called on viewers to “reclaim the rights” belonging to Hong Kong people.
Hong Kong police contacted mainland authorities and asked Chinese online shopping platforms to remove fake police warrant cards being offered for sale on Taobao and other sites. The listings, which remained online as of November 11, also include fraudulent IDs for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and Hong Kong drivers’ licenses.
Japan
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declined to retract her comment that a Chinese use of force against Taiwan “could constitute a survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Japan’s constitution allows the self-defense forces to take action only if Japan’s survival is threatened. China officially protested the remark, made at a parliamentary meeting on Nov. 7, while Japan protested a subsequent offensive social media post by China's consul general in the Japanese city of Osaka. By the end of the week, China had urged its citizens not to travel to Japan.
The Tokyo High Court ruled that Japan's requirement for genital surgery before legal gender change is unconstitutional when applied to individuals whose physical appearance does not change despite hormone therapy. The court approved a legal gender change for a woman in her fifties who underwent hormone therapy for twenty-seven years but was denied because her genital appearance did not meet the legal standard. The court said forcing surgery on persons who cannot achieve the required appearance through hormone therapy violates Article 13 of the Constitution’s protection against physical harm.
Family courts in Tokyo and Naha rejected Japanese nationality requests from four elderly people born in the Philippines to Japanese fathers and Filipino mothers. The courts cited missing marriage records or paternity acknowledgment despite DNA tests showing a 99.9 percent probability of blood relationship. Their lawyers filed appeals, arguing that requiring documents lost during wartime to prove nationality violates the constitutional principle of equality. About fifty similar cases remain pending.
A Cameroonian asylum-seeker sued the Japanese government for 6.6 million yen ($42,700) in compensation after immigration officials attempted to deport him without allowing him to consult a lawyer or request a review following his initial rejection. A family-contacted lawyer halted the deportation by phone after the man was taken to an airport boarding gate. His lawyer said several district and high courts have ruled such deportations illegal when carried out before a trial.
Koreas
A real estate development scandal linked to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has triggered the first major political crisis of his five-month-old administration. Prosecutors nationwide accused the Justice Ministry of pressuring prosecutors not to appeal a court decision to acquit two businessmen of aggravated breach of trust in the case. The court convicted the men of the lesser charge of ordinary breach of duty and sentenced them to eight years in prison.
The opposition People Power Party demanded the justice minister resign, called for an investigation, and denounced President Lee at a public rally. Instead, Acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok offered his resignation.
Lee’s Democratic Party proposed amending the Prosecutors' Disciplinary Act to allow dismissal of prosecutors as a disciplinary measure, which is currently prohibited.
The development project was built in the Seoul satellite of Seongnam while President Lee was Seongnam’s mayor. Lee is accused of breach of trust, demanding bribes, and other crimes in connection with the project. His trial in the matter was indefinitely postponed after he won the presidency in June.
South Korea's Interior Ministry announced measures to address kidnapping and child luring crimes following several recent attempts to kidnap elementary school children. The package of proposals includes more public education, heightened police responses, pretrial detention for stranger abductions, and more severe penalties.
Seoul police cleared TV personality Paik Jong-won of violating the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods but referred his company, TheBorn Korea, and two officials to prosecutors for allegedly mislabeling rice porridge and sweet potato bread as containing locally sourced ingredients. Police found insufficient evidence to prove that Paik personally violated the law or that his company breached food sanitation laws. Paik is known for hosting and judging cooking shows.
Taiwan
The Cabinet approved draft amendments to raise the penalties for fraud crimes. The proposed bill lowers the threshold for “large scale” fraud from NT$5 million to NT$1 million and sets maximum sentences of twelve years and fines up to NT$500 million. Fraudsters seeking reduced sentences must surrender, settle with victims, and fully pay compensation within six months.
The Ministry of Agriculture announced that persons who receive parcels containing pork products from abroad will face fines even if the violation was unintentional. The move follows confirmation that African swine fever was found at a Taichung pig farm last month. Agriculture Minister Chen Junne-jih said that in the past, some recipients claimed ignorance to avoid punishment. Under the new rule, all violators will be fined regardless of intent or negligence.
A Taipei district court sentenced an 80-year-old woman to two years and six months in prison for killing her paralyzed son after fifty years of caregiving, but recommended in its judgment that the president grant her a special pardon. As the Taiwan High Court heard her appeal, the Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers urged courts to consider caregivers’ mental health, financial situation, and help-seeking efforts when sentencing such cases. The group said sixty-two similar cases were reported between 2018 and 2024. The Presidential Office said it will not intervene out of respect for judicial independence.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau will refer two men to summary court for allegedly spreading a false claim that Taiwan spent 8 billion euros (nearly US$9 billion) for Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) to give a speech at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a global group of lawmakers who seek to coordinate their countries’ China-related policies. Hsiao delivered her speech on Nov. 7 in the European Parliament building in Brussels, but the full parliament was not present. One man created a meme stating Hsiao used public funds to rent the venue and sponsor the meeting, and another shared it on social media. The bureau said they may have violated the Social Order Maintenance Act, which punishes spreading rumors.
Kaohsiung prosecutors indicted a man for repeatedly slamming a 4-year-old boy’s head against a wall, leaving him in a coma. It is the first case to be brought since the Criminal Code was revised to raise to ten years the minimum prison term for abuse of children under seven causing serious injury.