Pugust 23 – August 29
Highlights: China's top legislature begins reviewing a draft law that would codify Beijing's overseas pursuit of fugitive officials and their assets; Hong Kong invites Uber, Didi, and other ride-hailing platforms to apply for licenses under its first law regulating the industry; a Japanese Justice Ministry panel proposes to punish persons who solicit prostitutes; South Korea's Constitutional Court rules that every child born in the country has a constitutional right to birth registration, regardless of nationality or immigration status; Taiwan's opposition-controlled legislature passes a law to fund US$7.6 billion in attack drones and other unmanned systems through regular annual budgets rather than the special budget the government requested.
China
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress began its first review of a draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law (反跨境腐败法) that codifies the methods Beijing has already been using to pursue former officials who flee abroad. Beijing says its operations abroad have returned more than 3,000 persons from some 120 countries and recovered about US$10 billion since 2015. Some foreign governments and human rights groups say the operations have involved surveillance, harassment, and coercion outside formal extradition procedures. According to state media, the draft law also imposes anti-bribery compliance obligations on Chinese companies abroad and provides for unspecified countermeasures and blocking measures against foreign actions.
The Sanhe City People's Court in Hebei Province sentenced New York-based artist Gao Zhen (高兟) to three years in prison, the maximum penalty, for the crime of infringing on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs. The charge concerned irreverent sculptures of Mao Zedong, including one of Mao kneeling in remorse, that Gao and his brother made between 2005 and 2009. The offense was added to the Criminal Law in 2021. Gao, 70, plans to appeal. His wife said she and their son, a US citizen, have been barred from leaving China since Gao was detained in August 2024 during a family visit to China. The US State Department said it has “significant concerns” about a conviction for conduct that predates the law. It said court officials barred US and other diplomats from the sentencing hearing.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee began its first review of a draft revision of the Road Traffic Safety Law (道路交通安全法) that would add a chapter on autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles now operate in China only under local pilot arrangements, and the national law assumes a human driver. Under the draft, the manufacturer or importer would be liable for traffic violations committed while a vehicle is in autonomous-driving mode. Vehicles using only driver-assistance functions would remain subject to the existing rules. Mandatory national safety standards for both kinds of systems, issued in June and July, take effect in 2027.
The State Administration for Market Regulation and three ministries ordered automakers to audit the quality and safety of their vehicles over the next year, including driver-assistance and autonomous-driving systems, and to file recall plans for any defects they find. The order followed an August recall of 4.3 million vehicles by Tesla and eight Chinese electric vehicle makers over faulty emergency door releases.
Caixin Media reported on a lawsuit that asks a court in Hebei Province to recognize KFC, the delivery company SF Intra-city, and two labor subcontractors as the joint employer of a delivery worker who suffered a severe brain injury in a traffic accident. Delivery platforms in China typically route riders’ contracts and pay through layers of subcontractors, and therefore no single company is recognized as the employer responsible for injury compensation and social insurance. The Beijing Zhicheng Migrant Workers' Legal Aid and Research Center, which brought the case, argues that companies that jointly direct a worker's labor and profit from it should be jointly liable as his employer. Supreme People's Court guidance issued in late 2024 treats the single entity closest to the worker as the employer in subcontracting arrangements. The center's own review of 642 court rulings in delivery-platform labor disputes from 2021 to 2026 found that courts assigned employer status to bottom-tier subcontractors 96 percent of the time and never to a platform.
A Renmin University of China study reported by Caixin finds that local governments under fiscal pressure have increasingly relied on fines and confiscations for revenue. Across 279 prefecture-level cities from 2015 to 2023, such penalties provided an average of nearly 15 percent of non-tax revenue and rose steadily over the period. Enforcement was most aggressive in cities whose party chiefs faced strong promotion pressure. Higher penalties deterred new businesses in sectors including hospitality and agriculture.
The Standing Committee removed Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the state Central Military Commission (CMC), and Liu Zhenli, chief of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department, from the commission. The Defense Ministry announced in January that both were under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. Five of the CMC’s seven members have now been removed, leaving just party General Secretary Xi Jinping and one other member. China's state and Communist Party military commissions have identical membership and act as one body. Zhang and Liu have not yet been formally removed from the party commission.
The Nanjing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Jiang Chaoliang, a former party secretary of Hubei Province who was removed during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery. The court found that Jiang accepted more than 746 million yuan (US$111 million) between 1995 and 2025 while holding a series of leadership posts in state banks and Jilin and Hubei provinces. The court said Jiang was not being executed immediately because he pleaded guilty and informed on others. Suspended death sentences are normally commuted to life imprisonment after two years.
Separately, the Dandong Intermediate People's Court in Liaoning Province sentenced Ren Yuzhong, a former vice president of Peking University, to eight years in prison for bribery. The court found that Ren accepted nearly 32 million yuan (US$4.7 million) between 2006 and 2025 for help with admissions, hiring, and training contracts. Ren pleaded guilty and returned the money.
The party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced an investigation of Jiangxi Province Governor Ye Jianchun for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. Ye's predecessor as governor, Yi Lianhong, was placed under investigation in February. Ye is the forty-seventh senior official investigated by the commission this year, according to Caixin.
Olympic hurdling champion Liu Xiang publicly challenged a demand by the Shanghai Sports Bureau that he either take a coaching job or accept a one-time buyout to end his status as a retired athlete still on the state payroll. Elite athletes in China's state sports system are state employees whom local sports bureaus must place in jobs when they retire. Liu retired in 2015 but was never given a job.
TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance agreed to pay US$400 million to settle a US Justice Department lawsuit alleging that the platform collected children's personal data without parental consent. Days later, Brazil's data protection authority fined ByteDance US$30 million over TikTok's handling of minors' data.
Hong Kong
The Transport Department invited ride-hailing platforms to apply for operating licenses under the Road Traffic (Amendment) (Ride-hailing Service) Ordinance 2025 (2025年道路交通（修訂）（網約車服務）條例), the city's first law regulating the industry. Uber and mainland China's Didi have operated without legal authorization since 2014 and 2018, respectively. Both said they will apply. Applicant companies must already operate in a city of at least 7.5 million people and hold at least HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) in paid-up capital.
The Labor Department lowered the thresholds for issuing higher-level alerts under its three-tier Heat Stress at Work Warning system, effective August 28. The system had never issued an alert above the lowest level since it began operations in 2023, not even on August 9, when the Hong Kong Observatory recorded a record 36.9 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit). Triggering the heat alerts does not require employers to give employees extra rest breaks or halt outdoor labor.
The Healthcare Dispute Resolution Center, a non-profit body, launched an online platform for mediating and arbitrating disputes between patients and medical providers in Hong Kong and neighboring mainland cities. The statutory Medical Council of Hong Kong, the existing channel for complaints against doctors, completed 263 cases between 2020 and 2025, including eleven cases that took ten years or longer to resolve.
Japan
A group of 176 plaintiffs who evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture to Hokkaido after the March 2011 nuclear disaster settled their damages lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the operator of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, at the Sapporo High Court. They also dropped their claims against the national government after the Supreme Court held in June 2022 that the government is not liable for the accident. In 2020 the Sapporo District Court found both the power company and the government liable and awarded some of the plaintiffs about 53 million yen (about US$330,000). A plaintiffs’ representative said the group accepted a settlement now because they were exhausted.
A Justice Ministry expert panel broadly endorsed a draft report that proposes punishing those who solicit prostitutes. The 1956 Anti-Prostitution Law (売春防止法) prohibits both selling and buying sex but actually punishes only the sellers who solicit or wait for customers in public. Panel members said it was imbalanced to not punish buyers. The draft suggests that cruising the streets looking for prostitutes could become subject to punishment, but notes that it would be objectively difficult to prove the motive. The ministry is considering submitting an amendment to the Anti-Prostitution Law to the Diet as early as this fall.
The Tokyo District Court sentenced the former president of Albatross, a company that quits jobs on behalf of workers who do not want to confront their employers, and his wife to suspended prison terms of two years and eighteen months, respectively, for violating the Attorney Act (弁護士法) by taking fees for referring customers to lawyers. Because non-lawyers may not negotiate with employers, Albatross sent 174 customers with wage and other disputes to two lawyers. The lawyers paid Albatross 16,500 yen (about US$100) per customer, disguised as donations to a labor union. The court called the scheme a large-scale, professional crime.
In a wide-ranging annual report, the National Police Agency highlighted the achievements of its National Cyber Department and preparations for taking on the new mission of “active cyber defense” beginning Oct. 1, 2026. The Law on Preventing Damage from Unauthorized Acts Against Critical Computers (重要電子計算機に対する不正な行為による被害の防止に関する法律), enacted in May 2025, will allow police to access and neutralize servers used in cyber attacks that threaten serious harm, with approval from an independent oversight commission.
Koreas
The South Korean Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that the National Assembly's failure to allow foreign children born in the country to register their births is unconstitutional. Under the Act on Registration of Family Relations, only Korean nationals may register a birth. The court held that everyone born in South Korea has a constitutional right to have the birth recorded, regardless of nationality or immigration status. The complainants, a Vietnamese man who overstayed his visa and his daughter, born in Seoul, argued that without a birth record she could be denied healthcare, childcare, and schooling. The court rejected their separate challenges to rules limiting compulsory education to Korean nationals and requiring foreigner registration for school enrollment.
The South Korean National Police Agency announced it is re-examining about 310,000 missing-person cases closed over the past three years and requiring senior-level approval to close a case. The measures follow the case of a police officer on Jeju Island who is suspected of closing two missing-person cases by falsely telling the families that he had contacted the missing persons and they did not want to be in touch. Both missing persons were later found dead, although apparently not by foul play.
The South Korean Presidential Office refused to nominate one of two Supreme Court candidates recommended by Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae because he submitted the names in writing without the customary prior consultation with the president. Under the constitution, the president appoints Supreme Court justices on the chief justice's recommendation, with the consent of the National Assembly. The opposition People Power Party called the rejection of one nominee an attack on judicial independence.
The South Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor said it is preparing to revise the enforcement rules of the National Technical Qualifications Act to cover smart glasses and other new devices used to cheat on state technical certification exams. Proctors caught five candidates using smart glasses in May and June, according to the state agency that administers the exams. The ministry wants to phrase the new rules broadly enough to cover devices that may be invented in future.
Taiwan
Following weeks of debate, the Legislative Yuan passed the Act on Strengthening Defense Autonomy and Developing the Unmanned Vehicles Industry (強化國防自主暨無人載具產業發展條例) by a vote of 60-50. The act funds purchases of coastal attack and reconnaissance drones, small suicide boats, and other unmanned systems through the regular annual budget, amounting to NT$240 billion (US$7.56 billion) over six years. The opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which control the legislature, rejected the Democratic Progressive Party government's request for a lump-sum NT$210 billion (US$6.6 billion) special budget for the same systems. The KMT said annual budgets will allow purchases in phases so that fast-evolving technology does not become outdated before delivery.
The Central Election Commission approved a referendum on abolishing the government's Nuclear-Free Homeland (非核家園) policy for the ballot in the November 28 local elections. Taiwan shut its last operating nuclear reactor in May 2025 under the policy. The commission rejected two other referendum proposals submitted by the opposition-controlled legislature: to introduce judicial caning for sex offenders and child abusers and to earmark traffic fine revenue for road safety. It said those matters are outside the scope of the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
Prosecutors in the port city of Keelung charged nine people, including former employees of Nvidia and Super Micro Computer, with aiding the shipment of advanced artificial-intelligence servers to China. Prosecutors said two of those charged made false claims to secure approval for the purchase of 130 AI servers from Super Micro equipped with high-end Nvidia chips, including saying the hardware would be used in Taiwan. Ultimately, seventy-four advanced servers were shipped to China directly or through Hong Kong, Japan, and Indonesia, while Taiwan customs officials intercepted fifty-six servers. Under US law, a license is required to sell such servers to China.
The Legislative Yuan amended the Organic Act of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (衛生福利部組織法) to refocus its attention on child welfare and elder care in response to Taiwan's declining birthrate and aging population. The amendments replace the ministry’s Social and Family Affairs Administration with an Administration of Children, Youth and Family Support and an Administration of Social Development and Long-term Care. The legislature also created two government-funded administrative corporations under the ministry, a National Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a National Center for Health Technology Assessment, which will evaluate new drugs and medical technologies for reimbursement.
The Legislative Yuan amended the Medical Care Act (醫療法) to introduce a prison term of up to three years and fine of up to NT$300,000 (US$9,400) for medical personnel who engage in unauthorized photographing or filming of patients' intimate body parts. The amendments respond to a series of incidents in which beauty clinics filmed patients' intimate body parts without their consent.