April 05 – April 11
Highlights: Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping meets with the chair of Taiwan’s largest opposition party; political figures from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party are critical but restrained in their responses to the meeting; China’s State Council announces a new framework for ensuring industrial supply chain security; Hong Kong authorities continue their securitization of society by linking restaurant licenses to national security conditions; Japanese lawmakers discuss creating a committee to draft revisions to the constitution; South Korea fines Christie's 280 million won after a data breach exposed 620 clients' personal information.
China
Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping met in Beijing with the chair of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Nationalists (Kuomintang or KMT), and repeated China’s positions that Taiwan is part of China and its independence will not be tolerated. It was the first meeting between the current leaders of the CCP and KMT in a decade.
Xi - who met in his capacity as party head rather than as state president - minimized the significance of Taiwan’s democracy by saying that “differences in social systems should not be an excuse for secession.”
Cheng Li-wun, who became KMT chair last year, echoed some of Xi’s talking points, including that the Taiwan Strait should “never be a chessboard for interference by external forces.” She also said Taiwan should be allowed to rejoin international organizations such as the World Health Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization.
The day after Cheng ended her six-day visit, the CCP Taiwan Work Office released ten measures to boost exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait, including exploring the establishment of a regular communication mechanism between the CPC and the KMT.
See the response in Taiwan below.
The State Council released the text of the Regulation Regarding Industrial Supply Chain Security (关于产业链供应链安全的规定), effective March 31, which makes protecting China's industrial and supply chains a national security priority. The regulation creates the framework of a system for ensuring “stable, continuous” production and flows of raw materials, technologies, equipment and products in key sectors through information sharing, risk monitoring and emergency management.
The Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued a judicial interpretation criminalizing false terrorist threats against civil aviation and disruptive in-flight conduct. Offenders whose actions cause significant social disruption or major economic losses face at least five years in prison.
The Beijing city government announced that as of May 1, drones or their key components may not be sold, rented or brought into the capital. Under the Beijing Municipal Regulations for Managing Drones (北京市无人驾驶航空器管理规定), persons inside Beijing who already own drones must register them with police by April 30, and may not locate more than three drones at the same address. Nationwide rules that also take effect on May 1 require owners to register drones under their real names and obtain permits in advance to fly in restricted zones, which cover most cities.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded a full US investigation into the apparent suicide of Chinese researcher at the University of Michigan soon after being questioned by US federal investigators. The Detroit News said Danhao Wang, who died on March 20, was an assistant research scientist in the university’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The ministry said in a post on X that Wang had been subject to “hostile questioning” about his research and protested discriminatory targeting of Chinese students and scholars.
The Ministry of Public Security announced that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement repatriated a Chinese national suspected of drug smuggling and trafficking, in the first such handover from the United States in several years. China and the US do not have a formal extradition treaty. The transfer was arranged through bilateral counter-narcotics cooperation channels.
The Wall Street Journal reported that China has taken the unusual step of reserving swaths of offshore airspace without explanation for a period of forty days, issuing alerts similar to those used to warn aviation authorities of military exercises. The alerts, known as “notice to airmen” or Notams, are in effect from March 27 through May 6. Notams are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions. Outside speculation is that these alerts are intended as warnings to Japan, with which China has been feuding.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang and called for closer coordination between the two countries on international and regional affairs. It was the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister to North Korea since 2019.
Hong Kong
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said all Hong Kong restaurant licenses will carry national security clauses by September as the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department completes a year-long rollout through license renewals. The clauses provide for restaurants to lose their licenses if the license holder, employees, or subcontractors engage in conduct that endangers national security or is contrary to the public interest.
The Kowloon City Magistrates' Court convicted independent bookseller Pong Yat-ming of operating an unregistered school and fined him and his company, Active Experiential Learning Company, a total of HK$32,000 (US$4,085). The court ruled that a twelve-person Spanish class at the bookstore met the Education Ordinance's definition of a school. Pong and three employees have separately been accused of selling seditious material.
The online Chinese-language news site InMedia (獨立媒體) said its reporters received harassing text messages and appear to have been trailed by unidentified persons after the reporters attended public hearings into the fatal Wang Fuk Court fire. InMedia said it filed two police reports. The website is among Hong Kong’s few remaining self-identified “independent” news sites and has experienced various forms of intimidation in recent years, including a police raid, tax audit, and doxxing its reporters.
Live Nation announced the cancellation of two concerts by the Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK due to “unforeseen circumstances that were outside the control of the artist and the organizer.” Many mainland Chinese cities have cancelled performances by Japanese artists since November 2025, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told legislators that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could pose a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.
Japan
The Cabinet approved and sent to the Diet legislation that would relax some restrictions on using personal data for AI development but also would fine businesses that repeatedly commit serious violations of personal information rules. The amendment to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information would strengthen protections for children's data and facial-recognition data. It excludes a consumer class-action remedy that was considered during drafting.
The Cabinet postponed action on revising the criminal procedure law as debate continues over how much easier it should be to reopen suspected cases of wrongful conviction. The Ministry of Justice drafted revisions to the law for submission to the current Diet session, but some members of the Liberal Democratic Party are demanding a complete ban on prosecutorial appeals after a court orders the retrial of a previously finalized conviction. The current reform effort was triggered by the exoneration of Hakamada Iwao in 2024 after spending forty-six years on death row.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposed revising Japan's defense equipment transfer guidelines to allow exports of lethal weapons to nations that have signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan. Non-lethal equipment could be exported without major restrictions. The proposal would vest case-by-case approval authority in the National Security Council and replace prior parliamentary consultation with notifying parliament after export decisions are made.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, proposed establishing a constitutional amendment drafting committee in the House of Representatives, advancing Japan's decades-long reform debate toward actual text drafting. The proposals center on two long-discussed provisions: a national emergencies clause and an explicit constitutional reference recognizing the legitimacy of the Self-Defense Forces.
The Cabinet advanced a bill to replace Japan's three-tier adult guardianship system with a single category, “assistant,” whose scope of authority would be defined individually. The bill would allow people to more easily replace their guardians and to exit guardianship based a decision about their needs rather than a judicial finding of fully restored capacity. The bill now goes to the legislature.
Koreas
The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that South Korea violated its international human rights obligations by refusing to process a Congolese man’s application for asylum at Incheon Airport, instead confining him in the transit area for fourteen months during 2020-2021. The HRC said the confinement constituted arbitrary detention and urged South Korea to compensate the man and reform its asylum screening procedures. The man has since entered South Korea and is awaiting a decision on his asylum claim.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea urged authorities to investigate a coating plant owner in Hwaseong who allegedly directed compressed air at a Thai migrant worker's lower body, causing serious internal injuries, then denied the worker medical care and pressured him to leave the country. The commission said the case illustrates a recurring pattern of abuse against migrants in precarious residency situations.
The Personal Information Protection Commission fined the auction house Christie's 280 million won ($189,000) after a hacker used a voice phishing scheme to obtain the personal data of 620 Korean clients. The commission found that Christie's retained client identification numbers without encryption or legal basis and failed to notify authorities within the legally required 72 hours of discovering the breach.
The Education Ministry reported that a government inspection of the country's highest-charging private academies found nearly 2,400 institutions had engaged in improper fee hikes. The ministry said it will propose raising the maximum fine under the Private Teaching Institutes Act more than threefold and introducing financial penalties of up to 50 percent of related sales.
Taiwan
Political figures from the Democratic Progressive Party were critical but restrained in their responses to the meeting between Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun.
A Cabinet spokesperson said Beijing’s post-meeting ten measures for increased cross-straits cooperation used “exchanges as a tool and trade as a weapon.”
A Mainland Affairs Council spokesman said the meeting's framing of cross-strait relations as an internal Chinese matter could jeopardize international support for Taiwan, and cautioned Taiwan businesses against becoming reliant on the Chinese market.
Premier Cho Jung-tai said Cheng is playing with fire by saying that Taiwan should not be a “chessboard for interference by external forces,” and called for stronger legal scrutiny of Taiwanese political leaders' exchanges with Beijing.
The Central Election Commission is the latest victim of the power struggle between the executive and legislature. After the Cabinet nominated seven new commission members, the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan approved only four, including three recommended by the opposition parties themselves. A Cabinet spokesperson said it plans to submit a new nominee list and will not onboard anyone until the list is approved. The commission must have at least five sitting members to convene.
The Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) said they will not recommend candidates for the Control Yuan to replace members whose six-year terms end on July 31. Because the two parties together control the Legislative Yuan and it must confirm presidential nominees to the body, their coordinated refusal could leave the oversight institution unable to function after July 31. The opposition parties say the Control Yuan has become a tool of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Premier Cho Jung-tai refused to respond to questions from Taiwan People's Party legislator Li Zhenxiu during a legislative session. He said Li is legally disqualified from serving because the government decided that she did not renounce her mainland Chinese citizenship and household registration on the timeline set out by the Cross-Strait Act and Nationality Act. Li's eligibility has been disputed since she took office in February.
The Cabinet approved a rule change that would ban employers and labor brokers from retaining migrant workers' identity documents, replacing a rule that permitted consent-based retention. The revision fulfills one commitment under the Taiwan-U.S. Act on Reciprocal Trade. The Cabinet did not introduce a proposal to ban recruitment fees in manufacturing and fishing, another commitment under the same agreement. The revision requires legislative approval.
The National Human Rights Commission urged the government to suspend new administrative rules allowing households with children under twelve to hire migrant domestic workers, saying that the policy would entrench class inequality and undermine domestic care workers' employment rights. The Ministry of Labor said the rules will take effect as scheduled.
The Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted five persons on charges of spying for China, including a retired air force serviceman and former TV producer Lee Neng-chien (李能謙).
The Supreme Court affirmed a five-year, four-month sentence for retired Lieutenant Colonel Kung Fan-chia, who agreed to build a spy network for a People's Liberation Army operative while on active duty from 2006 to 2008. He continued soliciting military contacts after retiring in 2012, although without success