February 22 - February 28
China
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and killing of Iran's supreme leader as grave violations of Iran's sovereignty, the UN Charter, and basic norms in international relations. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was confirmed. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Feb. 28, 2026, hours after the first US and Israeli air strikes, China and Russia were among the countries that urged a resumption of negotiations.
Officials began gathering in Beijing for the annual plenary meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC, beginning March 5) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (beginning March 4). The sessions facilitate the top-down transmission of Communist Party policy to government leaders, but occasionally also enable bottom-up suggestions to reach top officials. Delegates will hear reports on the economy, state budget, work of the courts and procuratorate, and important social and political policies. The NPC will approve a new five-year plan and several pieces of legislation, including an Ecological and Environmental Code.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued two regulations governing child welfare institutions, both taking effect on April 1, 2026. The first requires state-run assistance and protection facilities to provide minors with living support, family tracing assistance, medical care, education, and psychological counseling, and assigns them crisis intervention and guardianship assessment duties for vulnerable children outside their custody. The second encourages qualified child welfare institutions to extend rehabilitation services to children in the broader community with autism or other disabilities.
Chinese drone maker DJI filed suit in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit challenging an FCC order that bars imports of all new foreign-made drone models and critical components. The rule effectively prevents DJI from selling new products in the US. The order followed a 2024 congressional directive requiring the FCC to add DJI to its Covered List, and a subsequent January 2026 FCC exemption for some foreign drone imports that excluded all Chinese manufacturers.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced that it will prosecute commercial espionage under Article 219-1 of the Criminal Law in response to rising technology theft cases. Prosecutors charged 1,262 individuals with trade secret infringement between 2021 and 2024, and charged 232 more in the first eleven months of 2025 alone.
Hong Kong
The Court of Appeal overturned former publisher Jimmy Lai's 2022 fraud conviction for allowing a consultancy to use leased office space at Apple Daily's headquarters, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove the offense. The Department of Justice said it would study the ruling and consider appealing. Lai, 78, was serving a sentence of nearly six years for that charge when he was sentenced in February to twenty years in prison for sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals of twelve pro-democracy activists who were convicted of conspiracy to subvert power by participating in an unofficial primary election. The appellants were among forty-seven persons arrested in 2021; all but two were convicted in 2024 and received sentences ranging up to ten years. Some appealed their convictions, others their sentences. The court also upheld the acquittal of barrister Lawrence Lau Wai-chung, finding that he lacked the specific subversive intent required for conviction. The Department of Justice said it would consider whether to appeal further.
The Correctional Services Department (CSD) announced it has expanded Project PATH, a rehabilitation program targeting persons convicted in connection with the 2019 anti-government protests, to include post-release supervision services, including travel to mainland China. In February, the CSD escorted fourteen released participants on a three-day trip to the Greater Bay Area, including visits to an exhibition hall honoring Chinese Communist Party revolutionaries. It said the tours aim to enhance participants’ sense of national identity.
A Hong Kong court convicted thirteen parents and a businessman of bribery for paying a combined HK$1.1 million (about US$140,600) to a former administrator at an English Schools Foundation kindergarten to secure priority admission for children who were wait-listed for admission. Admission guarantees the students a seat all the way through secondary school. The former administrator pleaded guilty in October 2024 and testified against the others.
Japan
The Supreme Court unanimously cleared the way for a retrial in the case of a man who died in prison while serving a life sentence for a 1984 murder and robbery. The Otsu District Court and Osaka High Court had both ordered a retrial after finding that Hiromu Sakahara’s confession was unreliable and that police may have guided him to the victim's body during a crime scene re-enactment. The prosecution had attempted to block the retrial by filing a special appeal. Only one other murder conviction is known to have been retried posthumously in Japan since World War II.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare convened a panel to revise the guidelines that companies employing foreign nationals must follow, aiming to reduce illegal foreign work. Labor representatives said poor working conditions drive foreign workers to abandon their jobs and lose legal status, while management representatives argued that enforcement against non-compliant employers would be more effective than broad revisions.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission raided Microsoft Japan on suspicion of anti-competitive conduct, including restricting Microsoft 365 access to Azure-only cloud environments and charging higher fees to customers using competing services from companies such as Google and Amazon. Microsoft Japan said it will fully cooperate with the commission’s investigation.
Koreas
The National Assembly passed controversial legislation that criminalizes intentional misapplication of law by judges and prosecutors and allows litigants to appeal finalized Supreme Court rulings to the Constitutional Court. The assembly, which is dominated by the ruling Democratic Party, is also poised to expand the Supreme Court bench from fourteen to twenty-six justices, which would allow President Lee Jae Myung to appoint a majority of justices before his term ends in 2030. Critics, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de and National Court Administration head Park Young-jae, who offered to resign in protest, say the bills undermine judicial independence and are designed to shield President Lee. Five criminal cases that predate his presidency have been suspended while he is in office.
South Korea's inter-agency geographic data export review body approved Google's request to export 1:5,000-scale map data overseas, ending a 19-year impasse that had prevented Google Maps from offering turn-by-turn navigation in the country. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport attributed the approval in part to US pressure after the US Trade Representative designated Korea's restrictions a non-tariff barrier. Five security conditions were imposed, including removing Korean territorial coordinates from global services and processing all data on domestic servers through a local partner.
South Korean police and prosecutors raided the headquarters of the People Power Party (PPP), the main opposition party, and seized its membership list. The move follows allegations that the Shincheonji Church of Jesus instructed tens of thousands of its followers to become dues-paying PPP members in order to manipulate the party's 2021 presidential primary and 2024 candidate nominations in violation of the Political Parties Act. Shincheonji has denied all allegations.
The National Assembly approved an amendment to the Criminal Act that punishes espionage activities conducted on behalf of any foreign government, not just North Korea. Previously, the charge of “espionage” only applied to acts benefiting North Korea. Cases involving the transfer of sensitive information to other countries were prosecuted under lesser charges.
The Ministry of Justice announced that as of October 2025, it stopped issuing visas to international students under age nineteen who participate in employment-residency programs. It said such programs raised concerns about possible coercion, deception, and forced labor. The ministry said it informed local education offices of the policy change in June 2025, but some regional offices continued recruiting minors and submitting visa applications regardless, resulting in forty-five students at one high school receiving visa denials one week before the start of classes.
Student journalists from Tokipul, an independent youth newspaper in South Korea, filed a constitutional complaint against provisions of the Act on the Promotion of Periodicals and the Newspaper Act that bar minors from registering as publishers or editors of media outlets. The students said that because their publications lack registered status, they cannot invoke legal protections under those statutes in disputes with their schools, nor can they access the 50 percent postal fee discount enjoyed by registered publications.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced measures to combat price gouging targeting international tourists, including suspending the licenses of taxi drivers who overcharge passengers and shutting down hotels that cancel confirmed reservations only to relist rooms at higher prices. The ministry said it will fast-track related legislative revisions in the first half of 2026.
Taiwan
The National Security Bureau completed the declassification of pre-1992 political archives, including from Taiwan's martial law period (1949–1987), and transferred them to the National Archives Administration pursuant to the Political Archives Act. With this transfer of more than 51,000 items, the intelligence agency completed a declassification project that it began in 2000 as part of a larger truth and reconciliation effort.
Premier Cho Jung-tai ordered all ministries and agencies to withhold government information, including classified materials, from Taiwan People's Party legislator-at-large Li Chen-hsiu (李貞秀) pending confirmation of her eligibility to serve in the legislature. The Ministry of the Interior said it has not received proof that she renounced her People's Republic of China nationality before taking office. The Mainland Affairs Council said her Chinese household registration cancellation certificate appeared irregular, meaning she likely held dual household registrations when she registered as a candidate in late 2023.
The National Human Rights Commission, a government watchdog body, announced it will investigate seven past cases of forced demolitions and evictions from public property in order to determine if government actions complied with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The commission plans to interview forty affected individuals from March through June and compile policy recommendations by year's end to guide urban transitional justice reforms.
Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said Taiwan is seeking US assurances that two trade agreements reducing tariffs on Taiwanese exports from 20 percent to 15 percent will remain in force after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs. The agreements commit Taiwan to US$250 billion in US investments and a schedule for eliminating or lowering Taiwan’s tariffs on nearly all US goods.