A report published by China’s Supreme People’s Court says the crime of picking quarrels and causing trouble (寻衅滋事行为) has been abused; Hong Kong’s High Court proposes to delay former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai’s national security trial until December; Japan considers requiring background checks for sex crimes for job candidates at schools and nursery schools; the UN Security Council hears criticisms of North Korea’s human rights abuses but takes no action; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court says cases that ping-pong between the Supreme Court and lower courts may continue to be assigned to the same Supreme Court judge for greater efficiency.

A Chinese court sentences well-known citizen rights’ activist Hao Jinsong to nine years in prison; Hong Kong police question more family members of exiled pro-democracy activists; Japan’s Supreme Court vacates a lower court decision that would have barred employers from rehiring retirees at steeply reduced salaries; South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds the constitutionality of changes in the way proportional representation seats are allocated to parties in the National Assembly; a Taiwan court concluded the first criminal case decided by a mixed bench of professional and lay judges since the Citizen Judges Act took effect on Jan. 1.

The Cyberspace Administration of China releases draft regulations to reduce violent information online; Hong Kong authorities issue arrest warrants and offer bounties for eight exiled activists; another former member of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee admits to bid-rigging; South Korean district courts reject efforts by a government-affiliated foundation to pay compensation to forced labor victims on behalf of Japanese companies; Taiwan’s government begins drafting a law to regulate artificial intelligence.

China releases draft rules to restrict mobile phone file sharing; Hong Kong’s highest court overturns the conviction of an investigative journalist who accessed auto license plate information through a public database; another Japanese district court criticizes the law’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages; South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission will investigate 237 more international adoption cases from the past; Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen apologizes twice in a week over sexual harassment allegations involving prominent members of her Democratic Progressive Party.

China’s Coast Guard Bureau issues procedural rules for handling criminal cases; a Hong Kong resident seeks judicial review of the city’s new real-name registration requirement for mobile phone SIM cards; Japan’s Supreme Court takes responsibility for lower courts discarding important trial records; South Korean lawmakers require themselves and high-ranking officials to report any crypto holdings; the World Health Organization decides not to invite Taiwan to attend the annual World Health Assembly in Geneva.

China arrests a ChatGPT user for generating and spreading fake news about a nonexistent train crash; Hong Kong gives the chief executive the power to veto the admission of foreign attorneys in national security cases; Japan’s lower house approves a bill allowing immigration authorities to deport failed asylum seekers; South Korean police seek to charge suspects in a massive rental fraud scheme with organizing a criminal group; Taiwan upgrades its Environmental Protection Administration to ministry status.

China expands the reach of its counter-espionage law; Jimmy Lai continues his legal fight to be represented in court by a British barrister; Japan prepares to lift COVID-19 vaccination requirement for anyone entering the country; Korean prosecutors charge Daniel Shin, a co-founder of Terraform Labs, in connection with the collapse of his firm’s TerraUSD and Luna crypto currencies; a Taiwan-based publisher is detained in China on suspicion of endangering national security.

US federal prosecutors charge two men in connection with an alleged Chinese police outpost in New York City; Hong Kong’s Justice Department seeks the ability to appeal acquittals in national security cases; a court orders the Japanese government to pay damage to a Kurdish man for excessive use of force by immigration detention center staff; South Korea’s government seeks to help the victims of home rental scams recover their security deposits; Taiwan debates giving more functions to its Interior Ministry.

China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that authorities have detained a Japanese businessman on suspicion of espionage; the UN Human Rights Office urges Hong Kong to release lawyer Albert Ho on bail due to his poor health; LGBTQ activists urge Japan to enact an anti-discrimination law before hosting the G-7 summit in May; South Korean prosecutors arrest a former military commander for allegedly planning to declare martial law and suppress protests in 2017; Taiwan takes steps to make corporal punishment by parents illegal.