August 2 – August 8
Highlights: China increases protection for domestic semiconductor chip layout designs and imposes retaliatory controls on drone exports to the United States; Hong Kong authorities consider adding facial recognition to drones it now uses to enforce safety rules at construction sites; the Japanese Defense Ministry’s annual white paper calls for preparedness as China and North Korea increase their military capabilities; South Korea promulgates a sweeping revision of the Criminal Procedure Act that strips prosecutors of all investigative powers, capping a years-long effort to rein them in; Taiwan's legislature bars persons convicted of large-scale fraud from running for president or vice president.
China
The State Council issued regulations protecting integrated-circuit layout designs, tightening registration standards, and allowing punitive damages for serious infringement of the IP in domestic chips. The rules cover detailed layouts that determine how components are arranged within a chip, designs that can reflect substantial engineering work and are central to semiconductor development even for companies that do not manufacture chips themselves.
The Commerce Ministry imposed controls on exports of drones to the United States and banned Chinese individuals and organizations from any dealings with six American entities: Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., Stratum Reservoir, LLC, Altana Technologies, Inc., the Responsible Business Alliance, Verite Group, Inc., and Human Rights in China. The action was in response to recent US measures, including a ban on importing Chinese drones and the addition of forty-three Chinese companies to a list of entities to be sanctioned for allegedly benefiting from Uyghur forced labor. The Commerce Ministry said the six American entities had assisted the US government in targeting the Chinese companies.
The Foreign Ministry and Xinjiang regional government hosted officials and scholars from two dozen countries and organizations at an International Seminar on Counter-Terrorism in Yining, Xinjiang. Zhai Jun, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, told the seminar that anti-terrorism should be integrated with integrated with conflict reduction, poverty alleviation, and bridging civilizational divides. Other Chinese officials told China’s story of quelling terrorist attacks in Xinjiang. The UN Human Rights Council and many Western governments have condemned the mass detentions of Uyghurs, forced labor, and family separations at the heart of China’s counter-terrorism program.
The government announced a new one-year campaign against organized crime, with a loose focus on cyber crime and local gangs. Attorneys and legal scholars warned against repeating the abuses of past anti-crime campaigns, including lowered evidentiary standards, charge inflation, and wrongful convictions as police, prosecutors, and courts work to meet campaign quotas and even reap profits by seizing assets from legitimate private businesses.
Amnesty International called for the release of Zhang Yi, a democracy activist who has been charged with inciting separatism for allegedly showing a photo of the Dalai Lama to a Tibetan worshipper at Sera Monastery in Tibet on July 1, 2026. Zhang has been a human rights advocate since participating as a law student in the 1989 student-led pro-democracy protests, for which he was imprisoned.
The Dazhou Intermediate People's Court in Sichuan province sentenced Zhang Jianhua, a former deputy director of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, to ten years in prison for accepting bribes and using his influence to accept bribes. The court found that Zhang took more than 43 million yuan (about US$6 million) between 2008 and 2025, including payments accepted after he retired in 2021. Zhang pleaded guilty. Earlier this year, former defense ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu received suspended death sentences for bribery.
Reuters reported that China's Ministry of Public Security and the American FBI have established a law enforcement partnership over the past year, with monthly exchanges of working-level officers and joint working groups on cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics, and fugitive cases. China had ended most such cooperation in 2022 after a Taiwan visit by then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Former FBI officials warned that the partnership poses counterintelligence risks for the United States.
Hong Kong
The Buildings Department has sent multiple notices of violations to a pro-democracy bookshop and its landlord, threatening prosecution over its signboard, the position of outdoor air conditioners, and other alleged exterior problems. Former District Councilor Derek Chu says the notices began arriving in October 2025, a month after he rented the premises for his shop, As One, which sells books and local groceries. Chu said the signboard was actually erected by previous occupants twenty years ago. Businesses affiliated with the pro-democracy movement have complained of heightened scrutiny from government departments since the National Security Law took effect in 2020.
The Labor Department said it is studying whether to add artificial intelligence facial recognition tools to the drones it uses to enforce a new ban on smoking at construction sites. None of the thirty-nine fines issued since the ban took effect in mid-July resulted from the infrared-camera drones now in use. The government adopted the ban after investigators concluded that smoking likely caused a November 2025 fire that killed 168 people at a housing estate under renovation.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang criticized the Hong Kong Journalists Association for not making public the names of candidates running for seats on its executive committee. Association Chair Selina Cheng said that election information was made available to the group’s members, but not to the public due to intense harassment campaigns against the organization’s leadership in recent years.
Legislative Council President Starry Lee wrote in the newspaper Ming Pao that official records do not fully reflect lawmakers’ work. She was responding to the paper's report that at least seventeen legislators have never spoken at meetings of some committees on which they sit. The legislature has had no opposition members since 2021.
Japan
The Ministry of Defense released its annual defense white paper, Defense of Japan 2026, expressing serious concern about China’s intensified military activities around Japan and Taiwan, North Korea’s nuclear and missile gains, and increased cooperation among China, North Korea, and Russia. It said Japan must reinforce its defense capabilities and work closely with its allies. China's Foreign Ministry immediately lodged a complaint, saying that Taiwan is purely China's internal affair and urging Japan to “stop seeking excuses for military expansion.”
The Immigration Services Agency released draft guidelines raising the requirements for permanent residency. They require applicants to have incomes above the average for Japanese households, and to show that they “actively yield concrete benefits” to Japan, including through Japanese language proficiency. About 940,000 of Japan's roughly 4.1 million foreign residents hold permanent residency. The agency plans to implement the revised guidelines in April 2027 but apply the income requirement to applications filed since April 2026.
The agency recently said it plans to urgently increase its officers on staff in order to crack down on foreigners illegally overstaying their visas.
Former Justice Minister Masako Mori called for an independent investigation of the public prosecution service, which holds a near-monopoly on criminal indictments. Mori said a succession of scandals, including sexual assault and the fabrication of evidence, shows that the service cannot be trusted to investigate itself. She chairs a group of lawmakers that asked the Justice Ministry in July to establish an independent committee to investigate and reform the service. The group was formed after a former prosecutor accused Kentaro Kitagawa, the former chief prosecutor of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, of raping her in 2018. Kitagawa is on trial.
Koreas
Capping a years-long effort by the ruling Democratic Party to rein in the country's powerful prosecutors, the South Korean Cabinet approved the promulgation of a sweeping revision to the Criminal Procedure Act that strips prosecutors of all investigative powers. The revision puts all criminal investigations in the hands of the police and a new serious crimes investigation agency. President Lee Jae Myung rejected opposition calls to veto the measure. He said prosecutors had for decades abused their powers when selecting cases to pursue. However, Lee acknowledged that police now held tremendous investigative power and called for safeguards. The revision takes effect October 2, 2026.
The Cabinet also approved legislation authorizing a special counsel to investigate the National Election Commission's management of the June 3 local elections. Ninety-one polling stations experienced ballot shortages during the vote.
The Cabinet approved a decree allowing the government to order the closure of private universities in financial distress. The decree implements the Special Act on the Structural Improvement of Private Universities, which takes effect August 15. South Korea's shrinking school-age population has left many private universities unable to fill their classes.
The Korean National Police Agency said the inter-agency Transnational Crime Special Response Task Force dismantled a Korean-run scam operation in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in cooperation with local authorities. Kazakh authorities raided the ring’s scam office and safe houses in Almaty and arrested fourteen South Korean nationals, while authorities in Korea arrested five other alleged members of the ring. Police said the group originally operated in Cambodia but relocated after a crackdown on large-scale scams in that country.
New penalties for lodging businesses that overcharge guests took effect August 4. Businesses that fail to post their room rates or charge more than the posted rates now face a five-day suspension for a first offense, under an amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Tourism Promotion Act. Separately, a National Assembly member introduced a bill that would also bar unjustified price increases and reservation cancellations ahead of major events. The crackdown follows complaints that Busan hotels canceled confirmed reservations and resold the rooms at far higher prices ahead of June concerts by the K-pop group BTS.
Taiwan
The Legislative Yuan amended the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) to bar persons convicted under the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), a 2024 law that increased penalties for large-scale fraud, from running for president or vice president. The sponsor, Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), said presidential candidates should meet a higher standard of integrity than ordinary citizens. The Ministry of the Interior said that a 2023 amendment already disqualified persons convicted of the underlying crime of aggravated fraud.
The head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that China's new exit and entry rules could increase the risks Taiwanese face when traveling there. China's State Council promulgated the Provisions on Exit and Entry Administration (国务院关于出境入境管理的规定) on July 31, 2026, effective September 15. The provisions allow authorities to bar Chinese citizens who committed crimes overseas harming China's “national security and interests” from leaving the country for six months to three years after their return. China considers Taiwanese to be Chinese citizens. MAC head Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said the provisions codify Beijing's existing strict controls in vague terms that could be applied arbitrarily.
The government blocked a Chinese state-run online platform that recruits young Taiwanese for internships, jobs, and study in China. The Mainland Affairs Council said the Taiwan Youth e-Home (台青e家) platform violated the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which requires Taiwan government approval to recruit students for Chinese schools, and restricts advertising Chinese services in Taiwan. China's Taiwan Affairs Office dismissed the concerns as “deliberate smears.”
A Legislative Yuan committee reviewed Judicial Yuan proposals to amend the Court Organization Act (法院組織法) to let courts directly fine persons who disrupt court proceedings up to NT$30,000 (US$1,000). Such conduct is currently punishable only through criminal prosecution. Ruling Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said existing law already allows courts to remove disruptive persons.