China’s Education Ministry issues new rules to eliminate unauthorized off-campus tutoring; the head of the Hong Kong Bar Association says any US sanctions against local judges could harm the city’s legal system; a district court in Japan says same-sex couples are not entitled to spousal benefits from a government employer; a South Korean court jails the vice president of a Korean chip company for leaking semiconductor technology to China; Taiwan’s Central Election Commission clarifies the rules for independent candidates in the January 2024 presidential election.

China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee releases draft revisions to the Public Security Administrative Punishments Law; Hong Kong police allege that a Cantonese language-promotion group violated the National Security Law by publishing a fictional essay describing a decline in the city’s freedoms; investigators report that the late founder of Japan's biggest boy band talent agency, Johnny Kitagawa, sexually abused boys for decades; South Korean right-wing groups sue e-commerce giants Naver and Coupang and two online vendors for selling T-shirts featuring the smiling face of North Korea’s leader; Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan says courts are trialing the use of generative AI to draft judgments.

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.