China has a new minister of justice; Hong Kong’s Department of Justice proposes to require chief executive approval for a foreign lawyer to represent a client in cases related to national security; a Japanese court awards compensation to a woman forcibly sterilized in 1970; a South Korean court says same-sex couples are entitled to spousal coverage in the National Health Insurance Service; a court in Taiwan says mainland Chinese nationals are treated as Republic of China citizens when seeking state compensation for wrongful death and injury.

UN rights experts say one million Tibetan children are undergoing forced assimilation at residential schools; Hong Kong’s top court says transgender persons can change their gender identity on official ID cards without undergoing surgery; a Japanese district court dismisses the claim by children of nuclear bomb survivors for governmental support; a court orders the South Korean government for the first time ever to compensate the Vietnamese victim of a Korean military massacre in 1968; Taiwan’s Supreme Court sustains a Taiwanese businessman’s prison sentence for selling oil to North Korea.

China’s National People’s Congress says the Hong Kong government — rather than Hong Kong courts — has the power to decide whether foreign lawyers may participate in national security cases; Hong Kong’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security approves amending a local ordinance to block a British lawyer from representing Jimmy Lai at his national security trial; Japan’s ruling party prioritizes constitutional reforms; South Korea’s National Assembly secretariat shuts down an exhibit of art works satirizing the president and first lady; Taiwan’s Supreme Court overturns the conviction of a man who has been serving a life sentence for murder since 2007.

A Chinese court rejects litigation finance; Hong Kong further postpones Jimmy Lai’s trial on national security charges; Japan lifts its ban on women remarrying within 100 days of divorce; a Korean court cancels a disciplinary warning against a Christian broadcaster that aired anti-gay programs; Taiwan’s government issues its first report on implementing the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

A Chinese court exonerates a man who served 22 years in prison for a murder he did not commit; the Hong Kong government asks China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee to decide whether foreign lawyers may represent defendants accused of violating the National Security Law; the Tokyo District Court rules that Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional; South Korea’s Supreme Court rules that transgender people cannot be denied the right to change their legal sex status solely because they have underage children; Taiwan’s voters reject a constitutional amendment that would have lowered the voting age from 20 to 18.

China’s Supreme People’s Court issues rules governing the operations of collegial panels; Hong Kong’s High Court rejects the government’s effort to block a UK barrister from representing Jimmy Lai in his upcoming national security trial; Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announces plans to legislate high-pressure fundraising by churches; South Korean labor experts say Twitter’s layoffs in that country are open to legal challenge; Taiwan’s premier says the government will step up its response to cryptocurrency crimes.

The UN Human Rights Council declines to debate the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region; a Hong Kong man pleads guilty under the new anti-doxxing law; Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency moves to restrict high-pressure solicitation of donations by religious organizations; South Korea gives refugee status to a couple threatened with honor killing in Pakistan; Taiwan advances judicial cooperation agreements with the Caribbean island nation Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

China abstains from a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine; Hong Kong’s Cardinal Zen goes on criminal trial on charges of not properly registering a humanitarian relief fund; a court in Japan denies long-term residency to the American spouse in a same-sex marriage; South Korean prosecutors seek to arrest the former deputy secretary general of the main opposition party on corruption charges; Taiwan gives police more flexibility to discharge their firearms in the line of duty.

A Chinese court hands down suspended death sentences to a former justice minister and vice public security minister; police arrest the head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association for refusing to show police his ID; the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea discuss the dispute over compensation for Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II; South Korean authorities come under pressure to better protect women from stalkers after a murder; Taiwan’s judicial authorities prepare name lists of persons eligible to serve as citizen judges beginning in January.

China releases draft revisions to its 2017 Cyber Security Law; Hong Kong requires new trade unions to pledge not to threaten national security; Japan acts to protect freelance workers; South Korea’s Constitutional Court reconsiders the constitutionality of the 1948 National Security Act; Taiwan seeks to bar persons who have committed sexual offenses against children from becoming citizens.

Human Rights Watch reports massive DNA collection in Tibet; five Hong Kong speech therapists are convicted under a sedition law for publishing a controversial set of children’s books; Japan’s Olympic Games bribery scandal widens; North Korea passes a law to harden its nuclear status; South Korean prosecutors bring charges against the main opposition party leader as his party pushes criminal investigations of the president and first lady; a court in Taiwan awards an elementary student state compensation for a school’s inappropriate punishment.