February 15 - February 21
China
The Communist Party began conducting a more searching review of officials’ overseas ties in 2025 and has denied promotions or even removed those found to have adult children living overseas, according to the South China Morning Post. Party police since 2014 has been to deny promotions and leadership positions to “naked officials” - those whose spouses and children have moved abroad. But now even having a single child living abroad can prompt heightened monitoring or dismissal.
As of May 1, China will extend zero-tariff treatment to all 53 of its African diplomatic partners, an increase from the current 33 and apparent response to the US imposition of universal tariffs. The only African country to be excluded will be Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, which maintains formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
The Chinese diplomatic missions in Da Nang, Vietnam, and Singapore separately issued statements warning Chinese nationals to stay away from casinos when traveling overseas, and reminding them that Chinese law criminalizes gambling even outside China in jurisdictions where it is legal. The statements came as many Chinese travel during the week-long Spring Festival holiday.
The US government-funded news service Radio Free Asia (RFA) resumed limited services in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur after months of inactivity caused by the Trump administrating cutting its funding in 2025. Funding was restored, albeit at a lower level, this month. Mandarin audio reports are currently available only on digital platforms but RFA said regular over-the-air broadcasts will resume soon. News in Tibetan, Uyghur, Korean, and Burmese languages is being transmitted on short-wave and medium-wave radio through partnerships with private transmission services.
ByteDance pledged to strengthen IP safeguards on its AI video generator Seedance 2.0 after Disney and Paramount Skydance sent cease-and-desist letters alleging the tool reproduced copyrighted characters such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader without authorization. Disney had already licensed comparable use of its characters to OpenAI for the Sora generator in December.
Hong Kong
The High Court recognized a Hong Kong couple’s parental rights over two boys born in Shenzhen in 2024 through two separate commercial surrogacy arrangements, even though such arrangements are illegal in both Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Both mainland China and Hong Kong authorities had declined to issue identification documents for the babies that would allow the couple to raise the babies in Hong Kong. The court ruled that the boys' best interests require having a legal mother.
Authorities offered to buy approximately 1,700 apartments that were destroyed in a November 2026 fire that killed 168 persons. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong said Hong Kong authorities will spend up to HK$6.8 billion (US$870 million) to acquire property titles from flat owners, either in cash or as part of a flat swap. Wong said the site might be turned into a park or community facility.
Police Commissioner Joe Chow announced plans to add facial recognition to the city's CCTV network within this year, even as the government is still drafting a legal framework to govern its use. The HK$4.07 billion (approximately US$520 million) expansion will increase police-connected cameras from about 11,000 now to 66,500 by 2031, including cameras from shopping malls and other government departments.
Japan
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned in her first post-election parliamentary address that China has intensified efforts to change the status quo through force in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and pledged to revise Japan's three core security documents to produce a new defense strategy this year. She also announced plans to scrap restrictions limiting military exports to non-lethal equipment and to establish a foreign investment screening body modeled on the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
The government plans to propose revisions to the 2022 Economic Security Promotion Law, shifting its focus from domestic protection to overseas engagement by supporting Japanese companies in strategic sectors such as seaport logistics and AI data centers. The revision also would authorize the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to provide subordinated investment financing for such projects.
The Fukuoka High Court again rejected a retrial petition from the wife of a man who was executed in 2008 for the 1992 murders of two first-grade girls in Iizuka on the basis of circumstantial evidence. The court dismissed two witness testimonies submitted as new evidence by Michitoshi Kuma's wife, finding both lacked credibility.
Japan and the US announced the first three projects out of a planned $550 billion worth of investments that Japan agreed to make in the US in return for lowering punishingly high US tariffs. The projects are a synthetic diamond plant in the state of Georgia, an oil export facility in Texas, and a natural gas power plant in Ohio. Major companies including Softbank Group Corp., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Nippon Steel Corp., and JFE Steel Corp. expressed interest in playing a role in the projects. Neither government immediately commented on the possible impact on the plan of a US Supreme Court decision on Feb. 20 invalidating the tariffs that forced Japan to agree to the investments.
Koreas
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison for insurrection after ruling that his December 2024 martial law declaration, which deployed troops to the National Assembly to halt its functions, constituted a violent attempt to subvert the Constitution. The prosecution had requested the death penalty. Yoon faces six additional trials, the most serious of which will hear charges that he conspired with defense and intelligence officials to send drones into North Korea to create conditions favorable for declaring martial law.
The same court sentenced former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to thirty years, former chief of the Korea Defense Intelligence Command Noh Sang-won to eighteen years, former National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho to twelve years, and former Seoul Police Chief Kim Bong-shik to ten years, all on related charges. Two co-defendants were acquitted.
A Democratic Party-led subcommittee of the National Assembly's legislation and judiciary committee approved an amendment to the Pardon Act that would bar presidential pardons for insurrection convictions, permitting an exception only with the consent of three-fifths of National Assembly members.
South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party introduced bills that would nearly double the number of Supreme Court justices, strip the court’s rulings of finality, and penalize criminal justice officials who wrongly interpret the law when charging or convicting someone. The opposition People Power Party said the changes are designed to protect President Lee Jae-myung. Shortly before his election in June 2025, the Supreme Court overturned Lee’s acquittal on election law charges and remanded the case to a lower court for reconsideration; this matter and four other criminal cases against Lee are paused while he serves his five-year presidential term.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung called on regulators to permanently expel repeat cartel offenders from the market, saying economic penalties such as confiscating illicit gains are more effective than criminal punishment. His remarks followed prosecutors' indictments of dozens of companies on charges of price-fixing in flour, sugar, and electricity, with collusion in those three sectors alone estimated at approximately 10 trillion won (US$6.9 billion).
Taiwan
The Legislative Yuan’s leadership said reviewing the Cabinet's proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.5 billion) special defense budget will be the first order of business when the body reconvenes on Feb. 23 after the lunar new year holiday. Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Deputy Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), both members of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) which has opposed the budget, were responding to a letter from thirty-four US lawmakers urging approval of the full eight-year budget.
US President Donald Trump said he is discussing possible arms sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping, causing alarm in Taiwan. The US issued a pledge called the Six Assurances in 1982 explicitly agreeing not to consult Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan. The White House reaffirmed that US policy has not changed, but Representative Ro Khanna (D-Cal.) called Trump's remarks a blatant violation of the policy and urged Congress to codify the Six Assurances in law.
The government said it is ending a two-decade-old program that allowed men to serve on overseas technical and medical missions in lieu of compulsory military service. The government says it wants to focus on strengthening defense. The International Cooperation and Development Fund, the government's international aid agency, said one-third to half of their overseas technical missions currently are made up of persons performing alternative service.