January 25 - January 31
China
Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the Chinese government will take “all necessary measures” to safeguard the rights of Chinese companies after Panama's Supreme Court voided a Hong Kong’s company contract to operate container ports on the Panama Canal. The court declared unconstitutional laws that underpin the contract between the government of Panama and a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holding Co. The subsidiary has operated two of the canal’s five ports since the 1990s.
The Chongqing No.5 Intermediate People's Court's handed down a death sentence with a two-year reprieve to a man convicted of running a Myanmar-based telecom fraud operation. Xu Faqi (also known as Xu Laofa) and four crime gang members were convicted of fraud, intentional injury, drug smuggling, and other crimes. Xu’s operation was one of many operating semi-openly for years across Southeast Asia. In the past few years, China has collaborated with authorities in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia to arrest some crime groups that have Chinese ties. The victims are global.
Eleven members of a crime group led by the Ming family were executed in Wenzhou. They were arrested in Myanmar in 2023 and sentenced to death in September 2025 by the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court after being convicted of killing fourteen Chinese citizens and injuring many others in the course of running telecom fraud and gambling operations.
The National Development and Reform Commission announced new rules to curb construction of redundant subway and rail projects. The commission said that proposed intercity rail projects must achieve projected two-way passenger flows of at least 41,000 passengers per day. Large-scale infrastructure construction has long been one of the mainstays of China’s economy but many transportation lines are under-used and debt-burdened.
Beijing municipal officials fined a private tutoring company a record CNY 67.28 million (US$9.7 million) for providing academic courses to primary and secondary school students from 2023 to 2025 without a private school operating license. Speculation had been growing that authorities planned to relax their 2021 ban on for-profit tutoring, but the large fine against Beijing Hanxiu Bowen Culture Consulting Co. Ltd. suggests no reversal is in sight.
The National Healthcare Security Administration said it uncovered a CNY 4 million (US$575,400) fraud involving maternity insurance fund claims. The companies involved hired pregnant women, applied for maternity benefits on their behalf, and then kept most of the benefits, giving only a small portion to the women. A suspect was in custody.
The State Council issued regulations to reform the management of clinical trials for new drugs, accelerate the review pathways for marketing drugs, encourage development of drugs for pediatric care and rare diseases by granting them market exclusivity, improve oversight of online drug sales, and impose new requirements on drug makers. The regulations take effect May 15.
Hong Kong
One of three judges presiding over the national security trial of pro-democracy activists Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan repeatedly stopped the prosecution for presenting evidence that he said was not relevant to the charges against the defendants. Chow and Lee are accused of inciting subversion under a 2020 law, but the prosecution played videos of public speeches, press conferences, and interviews from before the law took effect. Chow and Lee led the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organized Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils. Prosecutors argue that the group’s call for ending one-party rule in China was criminal.
Three opposition politicians imprisoned for participating in an unofficial primary election in 2020 completed their terms and were released. Fergus Leung and Sam Cheung, former district councillors, served four years and eleven months, and former student activist Lester Shum served four years and six months. All pleaded guilty to conspiracy to subvert state power. Of the 47 persons prosecuted in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case, twenty-nine remain in prison.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested thirty-three people on charges of defrauding government technology grant programs. The suspects allegedly recruited small businesses to sign grant applications and forged payment records.
Only five days after an unpopular law took effect requiring that seat belts be worn on buses, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said the government plans to repeal the law because of a “technical shortcoming” and try again. She did not explain, but a former lawmaker posted on social media that the law as written appeared to apply only to newly registered buses, not the existing fleet.
Japan
A group of Cabinet ministers approved policies to make it harder to become a Japanese citizen and agreed to more closely supervise the behavior of foreigners in the country, including tracking if they have unpaid medical bills or live in public housing, or buy condominiums in major cities. The government is considering regulating real estate purchases by foreigners.
The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association endorsed a government draft code requiring AI providers to respect intellectual property in training data, but expressed concern about its effectiveness because it lacks penalties. The association urged the government to promote awareness and compliance, and consider enacting legislation.
The Hiroshima District Court ordered the Japanese government to pay 3.3 million yen (about US$21,600) to the families of three now-deceased Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bomb who were denied government medical benefits from 1974 to 2003 because they had returned to South Korea. Under Japan's Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Law, bomb survivors are eligible for reimbursement of medical expenses and other fees. In 2007, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that survivors living outside Japan should also be reimbursed.
The Tokyo District Court ordered the government of North Korea to pay 22 million yen (US$143,000) to each of four plaintiffs who moved there between 1959 and 1984 in response to false promises of free health care, education, jobs, and other benefits. Instead, they experienced extreme deprivation. North Korea did not participate in the case. Kenji Fukuda, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said it was possible that North Korean assets in Japan could be seized to collect the damages.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry instructed forty-two companies to implement measures to prevent deaths from overwork. Nationally, 159 cases were reported of deaths from overwork, overwork-related suicides, or overwork-related attempted suicides during the twelve months ending March 31, 2025 - the highest in five years.
Koreas
The Seoul Central District Court convicted former first lady Kim Keon Hee of accepting bribes worth US$9,000 from a Unification Church official seeking policy favors. The court acquitted Kim of more serious charges including stock manipulation, and sentenced Kim to twenty months in prison. Special counsel Min Joong-ki immediately appealed. Kim’s husband, impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, is in jail awaiting a verdict on insurrection charges.
In a related case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Rep. Kweon Seong-dong to two years in prison for accepting 100 million won (about US$70,000) from the Unification Church during the 2022 presidential campaign in exchange for relaying the church's policy interests to then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol.
South Korea’s industry minister said more talks with the US are needed to resolve issues related to the trade and investment agreement the two sides announced last July. The agreement requires South Korea to invest $350 billion in the US in exchange for a reduction in US tariffs to 15 percent. US President Donald Trump this week threatened to raise tariffs back to 25 percent because South Korea’s legislature has not approved a bill to create a state investment corporation to manage the investments.
Prosecutors in Seoul are seeking prison terms for a woman who aborted a 36-week-old fetus, the doctor who performed the operation, and a hospital director who was paid for it and recorded it as a stillborn birth. The legality of abortion in South Korea has been unclear since the Constitutional Court struck down a law that criminalized most abortions. In this case, prosecutors allege that a child was delivered by Caesarean section and killed by being placed in a refrigerator.
Prosecutors and police in Gyeonggi Province raided the Shincheonji Church of Jesus headquarters in response to allegations that the church forced members to join the People Power Party and support it in the 2021 presidential and 2024 general elections.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor and Korea Legal Aid Corp. announced they will provide free legal representation and cover litigation costs for freelancers and platform workers to recover unpaid wages. These workers cannot use existing wage recovery mechanisms because current law does not classify them as employees. The program is part of a sweeping overhaul of labor laws aimed at bringing an estimated 8.7 million workers — including freelancers and platform workers — into the formal labor system.
Taiwan
The opposition-controlled legislature refused to review the Cabinet's NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.8 billion) special defense budget bill, while advancing an alternative Taiwan People's Party bill that caps arms procurement at NT$400 billion (about US$12.7 billion). The TPP bill would fund only five of eight weapons systems approved for sale by the US Department of State in December. Items left out include a T-Dome air defense system. Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee said opposition parties politicizing the issue could delay weapons procurement and harm combat readiness.
In another expression of the deep partisan divide between the executive and legislature, the Cabinet said it would seek “lawful and constitutional remedies” after the legislature approved amendments to three laws despite executive branch objections. One amendment gives individual legislators greater control over public funds they are given to pay office and staff expenses; another attempts to make it more difficult for the government to refuse to renew television channel licenses; the third would protect the properties of Kuomintang-affiliated organizations from government seizure.
Taiwan’s Nationalist or Kuomintang (KMT Party) will revive a long-suspended dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party by holding a think tank forum in Beijing on Feb. 3, 2026, according to the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office. The two parties began holding an annual “party forum” beginning in 2006, but the dialogue was suspended in 2016 after the KMT was voted out of power in Taiwan. KMT insiders said the forum will focus on non-political topics, including artificial intelligence, disaster prevention, and low-carbon and sustainable industrial development. Media reports say it could pave the way for a meeting between CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping and the new KMT chair, Cheng Li-wun.
The Taiwan High Prosecutors' Office indicted a businessman and a retired Executive Yuan official on charges of developing a spy network for China. Prosecutors said Cheng Ming-chia (鄭明嘉), who moved to Guangzhou, China, in 2008 to start a business, recruited Hu Peng-nien (胡鵬年) in 2021 and engaged him to recruit Taiwanese political figures and military personnel to obtain sensitive government information in exchange for rewards. The two men were arrested in September 2025.
The Supreme Court upheld the convictions and sentences of seven persons convicted of providing national security-related information to China. The group was led by a retired Army officer, Chu Hung-yi (屈宏義), who led a pro-unification organization called the Rehabilitation Alliance Party. The others were party members.
The Supreme Court also upheld an eleven-year prison sentence for former Air Force Colonel Chang Ming-che, who recruited spies for China while on active duty.
The Chiayi District Prosecutors Office indicted eleven Kuomintang members on charges of forging over 1,900 signatures on a recall petition targeting Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Mei-hui. An investigation was opened after relatives of a deceased person reported the individual's name on the petition.
Taiwan’s National Human Rights Commission issued a critical assessment of Taiwan’s implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Areas of concern included low female representation in government, use of inconsistent standards for identifying gender discrimination, insufficient resources for gender equality mechanisms, and the persistence of gender-based violence.
The Cabinet proposed extending prosecution deadlines for sexual assault of minors by starting the clock when victims turn twenty instead of when the crime occurred. The proposal requires legislative approval.
Nearly twenty people attended the founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Taiwan in mid-January. Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Head Liang Wen-chieh called the group, which can exist under Taiwan’s law, a harmless book club.