May 03 – May 09
Highlights: A Chinese military court sentences two former defense ministers to death with reprieve for corruption; Hong Kong announces plans to require physical door handles on new vehicles from 2027; Japan agrees to negotiate the transfer of demobilized Japanese warships to the Philippines as both countries step up their security arrangements; North Korea revises its constitution to remove longstanding references to reunification with South Korea; South Korea's National Assembly tries but fails to approve a constitutional amendment transferring martial law authority from the president to the legislature; after months of wrangling, Taiwan's opposition-controlled legislature approves a special defense budget that is 40 percent smaller than President Lai Ching-te requested.
China
A military court sentenced former Defense Ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu to death with a two-year reprieve after convicting them on bribery charges. Wei, defense minister from 2018-2023, was convicted of taking bribes, while Li, who served for less than a year in 2023, was convicted of both giving and taking bribes. They are the most senior officials yet caught in President Xi Jinping's ongoing efforts to stamp out corruption and alleged disloyalty in the military. Dozens of senior military officials have been purged since 2023.
The Supreme People's Court expanded an AI judicial assistance system to twenty-three courts across eleven provinces after the tool helped judges in Shenzhen process 50 percent more cases per judge in 2025, roughly double China's national average. Guidelines released by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court forbid delegating adjudicative decisions to the system and require judges to retain final authority at every step.
Police in Datong, Shanxi Province, placed a man under administrative detention for using AI to generate an avatar of Taiwan politician Cheng Li-wun and using in his commercial livestream to attract viewers. The Ministry of Public Security’s cybersecurity bureau said the unauthorized appropriation and impersonation of another individual's identity for fraudulent purposes violated the Public Security Administrative Penalty Law. Cheng, the chair of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT), had visited Beijing to meet Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping.
A federal jury in Brooklyn began hearing the case against Lu Jianwang, a US citizen accused of running an unauthorized Chinese police outpost in Manhattan's Chinatown to monitor and harass Chinese dissidents on Beijing's behalf. Co-defendant Chen Jinping pleaded guilty to acting as an unauthorized foreign agent in the same operation and awaits sentencing.
Hong Kong
Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said the Transport Department plans to ban electric vehicles equipped only with electronic doors, following the example of regulators in mainland China. The requirement for physical door handles on both sides of new cars will take effect in 2027 and is intended to aid first responders at the scene of a traffic accident.
A transgender graduate of a Hong Kong secondary school filed a writ in District Court alleging that the school violated the Sex Discrimination Ordinance by barring male students from having long hair while permitting female students to do so. The plaintiff asked the court to declare the rule discriminatory and award compensation for emotional damages. The Equal Opportunities Commission dismissed her complaint.
A Kowloon City magistrate fined independent bookstore Book Punch and its owner a combined HK$6,000 (US$770) for hosting a stand-up comedy show without a public entertainment license. The conviction was their second within a month, following a HK$32,000 (US$4,100) fine for running an unlicensed Spanish language class. Book Punch owner Pong Yat-ming and three employees also were arrested in March on a charge of selling seditious publications.
The Legislative Council's home affairs panel backed a government bill to require licenses to operate claw machines, a kind of arcade game, as well as set caps for fees and prizes. Lawmakers said some operators rig machines with narrow exit chutes and malfunctioning claws to prevent players from winning, and called for mandatory mechanical inspections.
A jury in London convicted two men of spying for the Hong Kong and Chinese governments during 2023-2024 by surveilling Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in the United Kingdom. The men, both dual Chinese and British nationals, had denied the accusations, while the Chinese Embassy in London accused Britain of fabricating the charges. One of the pair worked for Britain’s Border Force and used his position to search the Interior Ministry's database and gain access to information about the exiled activists. The other formerly worked for the Hong Kong government.
Japan
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro agreed to negotiate the transfer of aging Japanese warships to the Philippines. Japan’s Defense Ministry plans to decommission six Abukuma-class destroyers, which have been in service for more than thirty years, in stages. The Philippines wants to increase its naval capacity to defend against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. Japan lifted its decades-long ban on exporting lethal weapons in April, shortly after Mitsubishi Heavy Industries signed a contract to sell Australia three new Mogami-class frigates.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, signed agreements to deepen cooperation in energy and critical mineral supply chains. Australia committed up to A$1.3 billion (US$937 million) to support critical mineral projects with Japanese involvement, targeting gallium, rare earths, and graphite. China is the world’s largest supplier of many critical minerals.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry's expert panel recommended mandatory age verification for social media platforms but rejected blanket age-based bans. The 2009 Law on Establishment of Enhanced Environment for Youth’s Safe and Secure Internet Use requires only best efforts from platforms and permits age self-reporting. The ministry is considering revisions such as requiring service providers to verify users’ ages.
The Takaichi administration said it is considering legislation to allow married people to use former surnames on official documents. Japanese law currently requires married couples to share a surname, with the result that 94 percent of wives adopt their husbands’ surnames. Asuniwa, an advocacy group that supports the option of separate surnames, launched same-surname matchmaking events to demonstrate that couples who share a surname need not change their names.
Koreas
North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly revised the constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to remove longstanding references to reunification with South Korea and designate South Korea as a separate sovereign state. The amendment codifies the “two hostile states” doctrine announced by Kim Jong Un in a 2023 speech. The amended constitution also designates Kim’s main government post, chairman of the State Affairs Commission, as head of state with sole command over the country's nuclear forces and removes the assembly's power to dismiss the chairman.
North Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Song issued a statement to the 11th Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference meeting in New York, declaring that North Korea is not bound by the treaty and that its nuclear weapons are a legitimate exercise of its defense rights. Kim also accused the United States and other countries of violating their treaty obligations by, among other things, transferring nuclear submarine technology. In October 2025, the US approved South Korea’s plan to build nuclear submarines at a South Korean-owned shipyard in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, South Korean diplomats at the NPT conference stressed the importance of maintaining the goal of North Korea's complete denuclearization.
Lawmakers from South Korea’s opposition People Power Party boycotted a National Assembly vote to amend the constitution to transfer martial law powers from the president to the legislature. Constitutional amendments require approval by both a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly and a majority of voters. The proposed amendment was supported by the ruling Democratic Party and five minor parties, but they lacked sufficient votes to proceed. The amendment was inspired by former President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law in December 2024, which led to his impeachment and removal from office.
The Seoul High Court upheld former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's insurrection conviction for helping legitimize then-President Yoon Suk Yeol's 2024 martial law declaration, but reduced his prison sentence to 15 years from 23. Han's lawyer said he will appeal to the Supreme Court.
Eight South Korean adoptees sued Denmark for failing to verify that their adoptions in the 1970s and 1980s were legally authorized by their birth families, allegedly in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission found last year that its overseas adoption program, which sent more than 140,000 children abroad between 1955 and 1999, involved falsified orphan registrations and forged parental consent.
Police found the body of a Seoul High Court judge near his courthouse and said he appeared to have fallen from a building. They also found what appeared to be a suicide note. Only one week earlier, Judge Shin Jong-o had presided over the second-instance trial of Kim Keon Hee, wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, and increased her sentence after finding her guilty of additional charges. There was no apparent connection between the judge’s death and Kim’s case.
Taiwan
After months of wrangling, the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan approved a special defense budget that is 40 percent smaller than President Lai Ching-te requested. In its final form, the seven-year budget for arms purchases totaled NT$780 billion (US $24.8 billion), while President Lai had asked for NT$1.25 trillion. The budget will cover an initial purchase of NT$300 billion worth of arms from the US, which Washington has already approved, with NT$480 billion reserved for an anticipated second package of US arms. Left out of the budget are funds for a Taiwan Dome missile defense system, Taiwan-US technical cooperation in defense technology, a drone program, AI-boosted command and control, and building a domestic defense industry.
Long Time Technology Co., a Taiwan company with offices in mainland China, said it fired an employee who is the nephew of Taiwan’s interior minister. In January, Beijing placed Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) on its sanctions list as a “die-hard supporter of Taiwan independence.” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said that authorities in China’s Jiangxi Province froze Long Time Technology’s Chinese bank account and prohibited suppliers and customers from doing business with it in order to force the company to sign an affidavit supporting Beijing’s one-China policy.
A legislative committee approved draft amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act that would lower the voting age to 18 from the current 20. However, as the voting age is fixed in the Constitution, the committee also urged the legislature's Constitutional Amendment Committee to begin a formal constitutional revision process. Constitutional amendments must be approved by the legislature and a national referendum. A 2022 referendum to lower the voting age failed.
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena visited Taipei along with a business delegation. Paraguay is one of only twelve states worldwide and the only one in South America that maintain formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan. Last week, Lai visited the southern African nation of Eswatini, Taiwan’s last remaining diplomatic partner in Africa.
The Kaohsiung Ciaotou District Prosecutors Office indicted CTi TV reporter Lin Chen-you on charges of paying six military personnel to transmit classified documents to a Chinese operative and producing political content at that operative's direction to shape Taiwan's legislative recall campaigns. Lin was accused of violating multiple national security and anti-corruption statutes. Prosecutors also indicted the six military personnel on charges of bribery and transferring classified records to China.
The Legislative Yuan amended the Medical Care Act to convert nurse-to-patient staffing ratios from unenforceable ministerial policy into a binding statutory requirement. Non-compliant hospitals will be subject to fines and suspensions of up to one year. The law responds to a chronic staffing crisis. Taiwan has 300,000 licensed nurses but only 190,000 are still in practice.
The Cabinet proposed amending Taiwan's parental leave law to grant each parent one bonus month of allowance if both take the full six-month entitlement per child. Men filed only 26 percent of applications in 2025 despite equal eligibility. Democratic Progressive Party legislators separately called for extending eligibility to parents of children up to age twelve and allowing simultaneous receipt of childcare and daycare allowances, which currently are treated as mutually exclusive.
The Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office granted deferred prosecution to a man who bet NT$227 ($7) on the 2026 local elections through Polymarket, a global cryptocurrency prediction platform. Taiwan's election betting ban extends to transactions on overseas platforms and carries penalties of up to six months in prison. Prosecutors cited the defendant's clean record and remorse in granting leniency.