December 07 - December 13
China
The Supreme People's Court approved the execution of Bai Tianhui, former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings, the offshore unit of China Huarong Asset Management, for accepting 1.1 billion yuan ($155 million) in bribes. State broadcaster CCTV reported that Bai was promptly executed. A former Huarong chairman, Lai Xiaomin, was executed in 2021 for accepting bribes.
The Supreme People’s Court highlighted five landmark cases related to property management. One case warned property service providers against cutting off access to vital services as a tactic for collecting fees from homeowners, noting that this practice lacks legal basis and often escalates conflicts.
Official media including the China Organization and Personnel Works News and Beijing Daily called for an end to disciplinary tactics that assign insulting nicknames to grassroots officials, warning the approach backfires by harming morale. Some local governments have recently begun publicly shaming under-performing officials with labels like “refrigerator” for being cold and unresponsive, or issued mock awards calling them “snails” or “ostriches.” The central government issued regulations in August to reduce bureaucratic burdens on grassroots officials.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for the immediate release of jailed Chinese-Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai. Gui, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen and book publisher, angered the Chinese government by publishing books that purported to pull back the veil on corruption and bad behavior among senior Chinese leaders. He was first arrested by Chinese police operating extra-territorially in Thailand in 2015. Not long after he was released in 2017, he was rearrested on espionage charges and sentenced in 2020 to 10 years in prison.
Hong Kong
A court denied bail to an online political commentator who has been charged with sedition and disclosing details of a national security investigation. Prosecutors said Wong Kwok-ngon, who uses the pen name Wong On-yin, revealed on YouTube details from his own Dec. 3 meeting with police. Police said they were reviewing about 2,400 videos posted by Wong on various subjects between Jan. 3 and Dec. 6 this year, including the high-rise residential tower fire that killed at least 160 persons.
The government announced the members of an independent committee tasked with investigating the Nov. 26 high-rise fire that killed at least 160 persons and left more than 4,000 homeless. Judge David Lok Kai-hong will lead the committee, which is expected to finish its work within nine months. Separately, judicial authorities said they established a task force within the courts to ensure the speedy handling of matters related to the fire, including coroner and probate procedures; courts also will waive some fees for matters connected to the fire.
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress, Hong Kong’s largest political party, and the Federation of Trade Unions won thirteen of the twenty geographical constituency seats in the Dec. 7 Legislative Council election. The council’s seventy other seats are filled by a government-appointed election committee or special interest groups. Nearly half of the lawmakers who will take office on January 1 will be new faces. No opposition candidates were approved to run in the race. The turnout rate was the second lowest on record at 31.9 percent, slightly above 2021’s 30.2 percent., when the “patriots only” election rules were first put in place.
A district court convicted Detective Constable Wong Yiu-chung of forgery and misconduct in public office for closing ten criminal investigations by forging victim statements between November 2022 and July 2023. Wong deceived supervisors into approving the closures by making it appear complainants had withdrawn their cases, while victims remained uninformed and still hoped to recover their losses. One victim, an 82-year-old who lost HK$260,000 ($33,000) in a telephone scam, unknowingly signed documents without understanding their content.
Japan
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) reported positive results from an initiative to allow suspects who are being questioned by police to periodically step out of the interrogation room to consult with a lawyer. Lawyers are still not allowed to be present during police interrogations, a practice that may help produce false confessions and wrongful convictions. The JFBA said “quasi-attendance” by lawyers is a second-best solution, as in-person attendance by lawyers is not likely to be allowed in the foreseeable future.
An advisory body to the justice minister proposed establishing clear numerical thresholds for dangerous driving charges. The current law allows severely speeding drivers in some circumstances to face only negligent driving charges carrying maximum seven-year sentences instead of dangerous driving charges with up to twenty years. The proposal introduces specific speed and alcohol concentration standards to close this gap. The Justice Ministry plans to submit the revisions at next year's ordinary Diet session.
The Supreme Court ordered Dentsu Group to pay ¥300 million (about US$1.9 million) in fines for rigging bids on Tokyo Olympics contracts in violation of the anti-monopoly law. Between February and July 2018, Koji Henmi, a former assistant chief of Dentsu's sports department, conspired with a former Tokyo Games organizing committee official to pre-select the winners of contracts for planning test events and operating the 2021 Games. The court upheld Henmi’s sentence by a lower court to two years in prison, suspended for four years.
A Liberal Democratic Party commission on public security compiled proposals to address crimes by foreign nationals and will submit them to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Among other things, the proposals call for the National Police Agency to maintain interpreter lists for investigations, expand legal education programs for foreigners, and strengthen cybersecurity for small businesses, which have been attacked by foreign-based criminals. The commission chair said that crimes by foreigners have been rising at the same pace as crimes committed by Japanese nationals.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department deployed an AI tool that is designed to identify social media posts advertising illegal part-time jobs and post warnings beneath them. Daily warnings increased from twenty-five to 150 after the tool's late July launch.
Koreas
Seoul Metro and two of its three labor unions reached a wage agreement, averting a general strike that would have disrupted service for millions of commuters. Management agreed to raise wages by three percent and hire 820 new employees to fill vacancies created by retirements. The unions, representing about eighty-six percent of Seoul Metro's workforce, had threatened to strike over under-staffing and compensation.
The Supreme Court dismissed Nippon Steel Corp.'s appeal in a lawsuit filed by relatives of a former forced laborer, finalizing a lower court order that requires the company to pay 100 million won ($71,000) in compensation. The plaintiffs said the worker was required to work at an iron works in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, from 1940 to 1942. It was the first finalized ruling against a Japanese company for colonial-era abuses since President Lee Jae Myung took office in June.
A US federal court sentenced Kwon Do-hyeong, co-founder of Terraform Labs, to fifteen years in prison for his role in a 2022 cryptocurrency crash that caused over $40 billion in losses to investors. Kwon pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud charges related to schemes that deceived investors about the stability of TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies. Under a plea deal, prosecutors will support Kwon serving the second half of his sentence in South Korea.
Taiwan
The High Court rejected an appeal by former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je to broadcast live his corruption trial, which begins on Dec. 15. Ko is among eleven defendants in the case, which is linked to a property development project during his time as mayor. Ko argued that live coverage would allow him to explain his position directly to the public.
The Legislative Yuan amended several laws to widen the range of possible penalties for damaging undersea power cables, gas pipelines, and water pipelines. The action follows repeated disruptions, including a February incident in which a Togo-flagged cargo ship under a Chinese captain disconnected the cable to the Penghu Islands. The captain was later sentenced to three years in prison.
Around 1,000 migrant workers rallied in Taipei to demand an end to regulations that require them to leave Taiwan after twelve years in manufacturing or construction, or fourteen years in care giving. Workers said the limits force them to abandon lives they have built in Taiwan. The Ministry of Labor said its Long-term Retention of Skilled Foreign Workers Program, launched in April 2022, allows qualified workers to stay indefinitely, with around 60,000 currently admitted.
The Taichung District Prosecutors Office indicted fourteen individuals and three companies in connection with a December 2024 fire that killed nine construction workers at a PX Mart facility. Workers used an oxygen-acetylene torch without a required hot-work permit to cut a floor slab, producing sparks that ignited highly flammable foam boards being stored nearby. Three executives face charges of causing death by occupational accident, and twelve individuals face negligent homicide charges.
The National Communications Commission said it will fine Mirror TV if the station hosts a political talk show by former President Chen Shui-bian, who is serving a 20-year corruption sentence on medical parole with restrictions that bar him from media interviews and political commentary. Despite these restrictions, Chen began hosting a talk radio show in 2021 and appeared onstage during President Lai Ching-te's 2024 National Day address. Mirror TV has not been approved to launch political commentary programming.
Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) proposed amending the law to allow legislators to control monthly assistant salary stipends of around NT$560,000 (US$17,900). The Legislative Yuan currently pays the stipends directly to assistants. Under Chen’s proposal, the funds would be paid to legislators, who could spend them without having to provide any paperwork. Critics warned the changes would enable legislators to hire relatives or friends as assistants in name only and pocket the public funds. Over 300 legislative assistants from all parties signed a petition demanding the proposal be withdrawn.
A mixed panel of professional and lay judges in the Taichung District Court sentenced a 23-year-old unlicensed driver to ten years in prison for a drunk-driving hit-and-run that killed a medical student in March. The defendant, identified only as Wu, had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he struck 22-year-old Chen. Chen's father wore his son's clothing to court and criticized Taiwan's penalties for DUI fatalities as too lenient.