June 21 – June 27
Highlights: China's Justice Ministry defends the extra-territorial jurisdiction clause in the new ethnic unity law; Hong Kong's national security police arrest a former pro-democracy councilor for allegedly selling seditious books at her bookstore; Japan's House of Representatives approves a bill that would require social media platforms to counter misinformation during election campaigns; a South Korean court sentences a former justice minister to prison for taking steps to detain political figures during the brief 2024 declaration of martial law; a deputy commissioner of Taiwan’s National Human Rights Commission urges the legislature to separate the body from the Control Yuan because the Control Yuan may soon become inoperative.
China
Vice Justice Minister Hu Weilie defended a clause in China's new ethnic unity law that empowers Beijing to prosecute people for actions taken outside of China that allegedly incite “ethnic separatism.” Hu said the extraterritorial reach of the law is consistent with international practice. The law, meant to create a shared national identity among minorities including Tibetans and Uyghurs, takes effect on July 1. It is among a growing number of Chinese laws that contain extra-territorial provisions.
The Commerce Ministry banned dual-use exports to ten US entities, including rare earth miners MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, in retaliation for the US Department of Defense's updated designation of Alibaba, Baidu, BYD, and NIO as Chinese military-linked companies. Alibaba sued the US Department of Defense seeking removal from its list of Chinese military-linked companies” and denied any such links exist.
The Ministry of Finance separately barred Chinese buyers from purchasing products from forty-six US companies.
The Commerce Ministry also issued rules to implement the State Council Regulation Regarding Industrial Supply Chain Security that took effect on March 31. The Work Measures for Supply Chain Security Inspections (产业链供应链安全调查工作办法) say that foreign governments, companies, and individuals may become the targets of supply chain investigations. Penalties for disrupting China’s supply chain security could include restrictions or bans relating to investment, trade, government procurement, and other business activities.
Customs authorities began requiring end-user disclosures for indium exports, which buyers called a precursor to formal controls. Beijing already restricts exports of indium phosphide, the derivative used in AI data center chips. China supplies nearly 70 percent of the world’s supply of indium.
The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act cannot be used to sue American corporations for human rights abuses abroad. The plaintiffs, a dozen Chinese members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, had sued Cisco Systems for providing surveillance technology to the Chinese government, which then was used to surveil and persecute them.
The US Departments of State, Agriculture, and Commerce jointly sent letters to state governors and business leaders warning that Chinese diplomatic missions have been pushing for disengagement from Taiwan and misrepresenting US policy as having accepted Beijing's claims to sovereignty over the island. The letters urged anyone coming under Chinese pressure to contact the State Department.
Hong Kong
National security police arrested former pro-democracy councillor Leticia Wong and raided her bookstore for allegedly violating the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance by selling seditious books. It was the second police raid on an independent bookstore this year, after police arrested four Book Punch staff on similar charges in March.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said persons who were arrested during Hong Kong's 2019 anti-government protests but not formally charged could have their cases dropped if they show remorse and self-identify as Chinese. More than 7,000 persons were arrested but remain uncharged. Tang said prosecutions will proceed when evidence of criminality is sufficient.
The Registration and Electoral Office said it has stopped compiling voter turnout data by age and sex because it does not need such data. Turnout for elections plummeted after the National People's Congress initiated major changes to Hong Kong’s election system to ensure that only carefully vetted “patriots” run for office. Overall voter participation in the December 2025 Legislative Council elections was 32 percent, up slightly from 2021’s 30.2 percent. Turnout among voters ages thirty and younger in 2021 was just 7 percent, but the election office said it could not provide comparable figure for the 2025 poll.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said Hong Kong is preparing to open its own drug-approval agency, the Centre for Medical Products Regulation, by the end of 2026 and begin phasing in approval of medications based on clinical trials by 2030. At present, the city conducts only secondary evaluations of medications that have already been approved by regulators in other jurisdictions. Lo said the change aims to give patients faster access to the newest drugs.
Security Secretary Chris Tang Ping-keung called on the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Germany to resume extradition agreements that they suspended in 2020 after Beijing enacted a national security law for Hong Kong. Tang said the suspensions only benefit criminals.
Japan
The House of Representatives approved two bills requiring users to disclose when they post AI-generated content related to election campaigns and requiring social media platforms to take countermeasures to reduce the effects of election misinformation. The bills are expected to be approved by the Diet’s upper house and take effect before next spring's local elections.
All thirteen parties in the Diet have agreed to revise the Imperial House Law to expand the potential pool of male heirs. The draft bill would preserve patrilineal succession, permit adoption into the Imperial House of male descendants from imperial branches that were dissolved after World War II, and allow female members keep their imperial status after marrying commoners. The government has conducted extended consultations with parties before submitting the bill to the legislature in an apparent effort to block any attempt to allow a female to ascend the throne.
The Japan Times took a close look at the challenges faced by Japan’s system of volunteer probation officers, called hogoshi, who assist in the rehabilitation of offenders on parole or probation. The volunteer corps, which now averages 64.7 years of age, struggles to recruit new members. Safety concerns intensified after a volunteer was fatally stabbed in Shiga Prefecture in 2024. The Diet revised the volunteer probation officer law in December 2025 to extend appointment terms from two years to three in an effort to sustain the system.
The Supreme Court upheld the dissolution of the former Unification Church for unlawful donation solicitation. The education ministry sought the order after the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by a gunman who blamed the church for his family's financial ruin.
The House of Representatives set numerical speed and alcohol thresholds for the crime of causing death by dangerous driving after critics said vague criteria allowed courts to treat some fatal crashes as negligence. Dangerous driving carries up to twenty years compared with seven years for negligence. The new thresholds take effect in July.
The Sendai District Court acquitted a Pakistani man of robbery resulting in death because the statement that convicted him came partly from an interpreter translating his hand gestures, not his words. The Sendai High Court earlier ruled that this exceeded the permissible limits of interpretation.
Koreas
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae to twenty-five years in prison for insurrection, finding that he directed the Justice Ministry to prepare for the detention of political figures after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in December 2024. The court said Park abandoned his constitutional duty because he believed the insurrection would succeed.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kim Keon Hee, wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, to seven years in prison for influence peddling. The court found she accepted jewelry from business people seeking government appointments.
The Incheon District Court rejected a lawsuit by twenty-four inmates who alleged illegal overcrowding. South Korean courts have deemed cell space of less than two square meters per inmate a potential rights violation, but the court found the plaintiffs failed to prove that their space fell below that threshold.
South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said the government endorses stripping prosecutors of their power to conduct even “supplementary investigations” as it moves to implement a radical reorganization of the prosecutorial role. For nearly eight decades, South Korean prosecutors have both investigated and prosecuted crimes - giving them tremendous powers, which critics say they have abused. The National Assembly approved a law in 2025 to split the two functions, but questions had lingered about whether prosecutors might retain the power to supplement the work of outside investigators.
Authorities arrested the 95-year-old leader of the Shincheonji Church, Lee Man-hee, on suspicion of pressuring more than 50,000 followers to join the People Power Party (PPP) from 2021 to 2024 in hopes of influencing the party’s presidential and legislative primaries. Investigators allege that Lee sought favors from the administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol of the PPP.
The Seoul Western District Court upheld a six-month prison sentence for American livestreamer Ramsey Khalid Ismael, known as Johnny Somali, who was convicted of distributing sexual deepfake content and creating a disturbance in a public place while livestreaming in public. The court rejected appeals from both Ismael and prosecutors, who had a sought three-year sentence.
The National Assembly revised the Framework Act on the Safety of Products to authorize inspections of goods sold by overseas online retailers, which previously fell outside domestic safety oversight. Authorities can now request customs to return or destroy non-compliant imports and recommend that platforms stop listing hazardous products.
The US-led United Nations Command, which enforces the 1953 Korean War armistice, said recent North Korean activity along the Military Demarcation Line with South Korea does not breach the armistice. South Korea's Defense Ministry accused the North of breaching the agreement by erecting new barbed-wire fences, repairing roads, and clearing land to lay landmines as close as five to ten meters from the demarcation line. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's late 2023 declaration that the two Koreas are “hostile states” triggered the new fortification.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced that his country is arming its navy with nuclear weapons and will build 10,000-ton warships in response to what he called US and South Korean military pressure. The buildup violates United Nations Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang's nuclear program. North Korea has ruled out denuclearization since its 2019 Hanoi summit with President Trump collapsed.
Taiwan
National Human Rights Commission Deputy Commissioner Chi Hui-jung urged lawmakers to pass a law separating the human rights body from the Control Yuan. The Control Yuan is one of the five branches of Taiwan’s government, with auditor and ombudsman functions, and all leading political parties have said at various times that it should be abolished. Chi warned that the human rights commission could be disabled soon because opposition lawmakers are blocking the appointment of replacements for Control Yuan commissioners whose terms expire July 31.
Eight Taiwanese lawmakers from the three largest parties met with officials from the US White House, Department of Defense, and Congress during a week-long visit to the United States. The delegation, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party or KMT), discussed Taiwan-US security cooperation, economic and trade ties, and industrial collaboration. The delegation, which also included members of the Democratic Progressive Party and Taiwan People’s Party, met with more than thirty members of the House of Representatives including Speaker Mike Johnson and a group of Democratic Senators, in sharp contrast to the tepid reception given KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun when she visited Washington two weeks earlier.
The Ministry of National Defense announced it will standardize reserve training at fourteen days and seek amendments mandating reserve call-ups for discharged female service members, who currently have no such obligation. The ministry said the reforms respond to growing Chinese military pressure.
The Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the National Sports Act requiring that neither gender account for less than one-third of the directors and supervisors at Taiwan's single-sport governing bodies. The gender-balance rule extends a governance reform that began with nearly a decade ago when the sport governing bodies were opened to individual members and direct leadership elections.
The Cabinet proposed adding fines and criminal penalties to enforce Taiwan’s ban on electronic cigarettes. There is currently no penalty for possession. Premier Cho Jung-tai said electronic cigarettes have become a primary means of consuming etomidate, an illegal narcotic spreading in schools.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare declined to legalize euthanasia after a man traveled to Switzerland for assisted dying. The ministry said it will instead expand palliative care and rely on its existing Patient Right to Autonomy Act, which lets people set advance directives for a dignified death.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications proposed amendments to taxi regulations after companies charged drivers up to NT$350,000 ($11,000) for access to company-held operating licenses. The amendments, effective in August, would require regulatory approval of fees and authorize penalties including license revocation.