July 05 – July 11
Highlights: China is reported to be discussing restricting overseas access to its most advanced artificial intelligence models; Hong Kong proposes to give platform delivery workers work-injury compensation comparable to what employees receive; Japan's Diet revises the personal information law to allow businesses to use personal data for AI development without individuals' consent; South Korea enacts controversial anti-disinformation legislation with critics saying it will chill legitimate speech; Taiwan's legislature amends the Criminal Code to pause the statute of limitations for child sexual assault until the victim turns 20.
China
Reuters reported that the Ministry of Commerce has met with top technology firms, including Alibaba and ByteDance, about restricting overseas access to China's most advanced artificial intelligence models. Officials discussed making any leak or theft of proprietary AI technology an offense under the National Security Law. Reuters said its sources were persons familiar with the discussions. In June, authorities issued Outbound Investment Regulations that require national security reviews of a wide range of cross-border collaborations.
The Shanghai Maritime Court invoked the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law to order a Singaporean carrier to pay more than RMB 4.99 million (about US$700,000) in compensation after the carrier refused to perform a delivery contract. The carrier said the shipper was on a foreign state's unilateral sanctions list. The court’s ruling confirms that foreign unilateral sanctions cannot be invoked as a valid defense for non-performance of a commercial contract. The case was included among 2025 National Maritime Trial Typical Cases released by the Supreme People's Court on June 24, 2026.
The Xiamen Maritime Court issued a pioneering conduct preservation ruling containing China’s first-ever anti-anti-anti-suit injunction (AAASI) in the maritime arbitration sector. The ruling came in a cross-border dispute involving two Singaporean companies. The underlying dispute arose from a ship finance lease agreement, which the parties had submitted to the Xiamen Arbitration Commission. While arbitration was pending, the respondent petitioned a court in Guinea to seize the vessels at issue. The applicant applied to the Xiamen Maritime Court for an urgent conduct preservation order. The Xiamen Maritime Court ordered the respondent to withdraw the proceedings in Guinea and prohibited it from filing any opposing or retaliatory applications in any foreign jurisdiction (AAASI).
The Changzhou Intermediate People's Court handed down a death sentence to Yang Youlin, a former senior official in the eastern city of Nanjing, for accepting bribes totaling more than 2.2 billion yuan (US$324 million) between 1993 and 2023, as well as abuse of power and money laundering. Death sentences for corruption are rare in China.
The European Commission imposed “definitive” or permanent anti-dumping duties of up to 45.3 percent on tires for cars and light trucks imported from China, effective July 8. Sixty-four producers, including Chinese plants that make tires for Pirelli, Goodyear, and Continental, received a 24.4 percent duty.
Hong Kong
Jailed activist Joshua Wong is expected to plead guilty at the High Court on September 2 to conspiring to collude with foreign forces, his second prosecution under the National Security Law. Prosecutors accuse Wong of conspiring in 2020 with fellow activist Nathan Law, who now lives in the United Kingdom, to ask foreign countries to impose sanctions or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China. Wong is already serving a term of four years and eight months for his first conviction under the law, stemming from participation in a 2020 unofficial primary election.
The Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2026 received its first reading in the Legislative Council. The bill would increase the number of lay members on the Medical Council - the body that regulates physicians - from eight to eleven on an expanded thirty-five-member council and require it to publish time frames for handling complaints.
The Medical Council found pediatrician Sit Sou-chi guilty of professional misconduct for his handling of a 2009 infant seizure and ordered his removal from the General Register for nine months. The council decided to terminate the case last year on the grounds that the sixteen-year delay made a fair hearing impossible. However, following a public outcry, the council reopened the inquiry.
The Labor and Welfare Bureau proposed legislation to give digital platform workers who deliver food and goods work-injury compensation comparable to what employees receive under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance. The entitlements would cover sick leave payments, medical expenses, permanent incapacity, and, in fatal cases, death compensation.
The High Court refused to allow social worker Jackie Chen to appeal her conviction for rioting during an August 2019 anti-government protest. The government had successfully appealed Chen's acquittal at her first trial in 2020. The District Court convicted her at a retrial in March 2025 and sentenced her to three years and nine months in prison.
Japan
The Japan Fair Trade Commission began surveying about 370 media companies that operate news websites on the unauthorized use of their articles by generative artificial intelligence search services and on article usage fees. The commission plans to suggest corrective measures if its survey finds violations of the Anti-monopoly Act, including abuse of a superior bargaining position.
The Diet revised the Act on Stabilization of Supply, Demand and Prices of Staple Food to increase food security by holding farmers responsible for producing rice in line with demand. The revision deletes language about “production adjustment” that previously encouraged reducing rice production based on assumed falling demand due to population decline. The revision also requires rice producers to regularly report their stock levels and sales prices, and wholesalers to maintain inventory for quick release in the event of shortages. Insufficient stockpiles and inadequate market data were factors in a severe rice shortage and price surge in 2024.
The House of Representatives passed a bill revising the Imperial House Law to secure an adequate number of imperial family members. The bill would allow the family to adopt male, paternal-line descendants of former imperial branches, whose sons would become eligible to succeed to the throne. The proposed revisions also would allow female members to remain part of the imperial family after marriage, although they are not eligible to take the throne. The bill goes now to the House of Councillors, which is expected to approve it before the Diet session ends July 17.
The House of Councillors revised the Act on the Protection of Personal Information to ease restrictions on the use of personal data for artificial intelligence development. The revision is intended to strengthen Japan's competitiveness in the global AI race. Businesses will be allowed to collect and provide personal data without individuals’ consent as long as the data is used solely for statistical analysis and AI development.
Koreas
South Korea’s revised Information and Communications Network Act took effect July 7 amid warnings from journalists and the opposition that it will suppress legitimate speech. The law allows victims of false or manipulated information that has been maliciously distributed to seek punitive damages of up to five times their actual damages from news organizations and online accounts with large followings. Platforms with more than one million daily users, including Naver, Kakao, Google, Meta, and X, must report and remove reported false information, hate speech, and discriminatory content. The law says platforms should decide whether reported content is false.
The opposition People Power Party plans a constitutional challenge to what it calls a “super gag law.”
The US State Department urged South Korea not to use the law to impose “disproportionate” burdens on American platforms. Separately, the South Korean government rejected a US House Judiciary Committee report that described South Korean regulators’ investigation of the US-based e-commerce company Coupang as discriminatory. The investigations were triggered by a massive data leak believed to have affected more than 33 million users.
The South Korean Ministry of Justice announced a public debate on amending the Civil Act so that animals are no longer classified as objects. Critics say the classification limits compensation for harm to companion animals and allows pets to be seized as property.
The South Korean Supreme Court reversed and remanded an elementary school teacher's conviction for emotional child abuse under the Child Welfare Act for calling a student a fraud for repeated lying in class. The court said the child's behavior had interfered with other students' right to learn and the teacher's right to teach.
The Seoul High Court recognized a food delivery rider as an employee under the Labor Standards Act, according to the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union. South Korean platform workers are generally treated as independent contractors without paid leave or severance pay. The court found that riders cannot secure delivery orders on their own and that the platform effectively sets their pay.
In the first final judgment relating to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's multiple martial law criminal cases, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld his seven-year prison sentence for obstructing the execution of his arrest warrant and other crimes connected to his December 2024 martial law declaration. The court held that the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials lawfully pursued insurrection allegations it discovered during its abuse-of-power investigation. Yoon is separately appealing a life sentence for rebellion.
Rep. Lee Sung-yoon of the ruling Democratic Party proposed amendments to the Civil Procedure Act and the Criminal Procedure Act that would fine litigants and lawyers up to five million won (US$3,270) for submitting court documents citing fabricated precedents or nonexistent case numbers. Courts have found nonexistent citations in filings drafted with artificial intelligence tools.
Refugees and rights activists rallied outside the National Assembly to oppose a proposed Refugee Act amendment that would allow the justice minister to dismiss asylum applications without formal review when applicants submit false information, reapply without new grounds, or miss three consecutive interviews. The activists said the Refugee Convention obliges states to substantively examine every asylum claim, even manifestly fraudulent ones.
Taiwan
The Legislative Yuan amended the Criminal Code (刑法) so that the statute of limitations for prosecuting sexual assault against a minor begins to run only when the victim turns 20, rather than on the date of the offense. The Executive Yuan and the Judicial Yuan, which proposed the change, said child victims often delay reporting abuse because of trauma, unequal power relationships with offenders, or a lack of awareness of their legal rights.
The US State Department dismissed as baseless Chinese criticism of Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, after Greene called for Taiwan to build a “hornet's nest” of drones to deter conflict. The department said US policy toward Taiwan remains guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three US-China joint communiqués, and the Six Assurances. The institute functions as the United States’ de facto embassy in Taiwan.
The Ministry of National Defense revived compulsory “anti-communist patriotic education,” a name dropped in 2002, for graduates of Taiwan's eight military academies. The ministry said the change responds to Beijing's intensifying military pressure, espionage, and “united front” influence activities. According to the National Security Bureau, Taiwan's main intelligence agency, serving and former military personnel accounted for about 60 percent of the 159 persons who were indicted in espionage cases between 2020 and 2025.
The Taiwan High Court sentenced Huang Chu-jung (黃取榮), a former staffer of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), to ten years in prison for violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) by developing an espionage network on behalf of China. The court found that Huang recruited a fellow DPP staffer to help collect classified information, including details of visits by then-Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), now president, to Taiwan's diplomatic allies. Huang was separately convicted and sentenced earlier for violating the Classified National Security Information Protection Act.