China's Supreme People’s Court issues rules for determining whether to give prisoners a sentence reduction or parole release if they have failed to pay fines that were part of their sentence; Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal says courts have no jurisdiction over the city’s National Security Committee; Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announces that 49 countries have joined the effort to craft voluntary international rules for artificial intelligence; South Korea’s legislature orders an independent investigation of the fatal 2022 Halloween stampede in Seoul; a Taipei courts hears final arguments in the case of a transgender man trying to legally change his gender without undergoing surgery.

The Chinese government orders Apple to remove WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China; a Hong Kong judge agrees to hear arguments about the constitutionality of new restrictions on journalists accessing the government’s vehicles registry; a Japanese court rejects the claim by death row inmates that same-day notification of execution is unconstitutional; South Korea's government offers to compromise on the pace of increasing medical school admissions in order to end a two-month doctors' strike; Taiwan’s Vice President-elect Hsiao Bi-khim expresses confidence that Taiwan will soon achieve 50 percent female representation in its legislature.

A Chinese court for the first time sentences a domestic abuser to prison for violating a constraining order; Hong Kong's legislature unanimously approves a national security law that imposes severe penalties for treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets, sabotage, and external interference; a Japanese district court rejects the claims of some mercury pollution victims; South Korea suspends the licenses of two doctors as it tries to end a month-long strike by interns and residents; Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare offers proposals for reforming the foster care and adoption system following the death of a 1-year-old from alleged abuse.

China's legislature opens its annual plenary session but its premier will not meet the media; Hong Kong’s legislature begins discussing a draft security law; six Japanese couples seek to have the requirement that married couples share the same family name be declared unconstitutional; South Korea’s Constitutional Court upholds the constitutionality of the 52-hour work week; laws designed to make it easier for victims of sexual harassment to file reports and receive support take effect in Taiwan.

China’s central government warns localities against imposing excessive fines and fees to compensate for falling tax revenues and shrinking income from sales of land use rights; eight defendants in Hong Kong plead guilty to plotting to plant bombs during the city’s 2019 protests; Japan’s immigration authorities seek to revoke the status of foreign permanent residents who repeatedly don’t pay taxes or break the law; South Korea threatens legal action against striking doctors; China’s coast guard boards a Taiwanese tour boat near Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands in the latest tension-raising incident in the Taiwan Strait.

A UN working group examines China’s human rights record during its fourth Universal Periodic Review; Hong Kong’s chief justice says threats of sanctions against Hong Kong judges are “repugnant to the rule of law”; a Japanese court sentences a man to death for carrying out a 2019 arson attack that killed 36 people in an animation studio; a South Korean court rules that a ban on rallies near the presidential office is unlawful; the Taiwanese government considers legalizing assisted reproduction for same-sex couples and single women.

China’s Supreme People’s Court recommends overhauling the system of collateral consequences for persons convicted of crimes; the 2024 agenda for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council includes a Safeguarding National Security Bill to supplement the existing National Security Law; Japanese prosecutors make their first arrests in an investigation into alleged financial reporting crimes by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s largest faction; South Korea’s Supreme Court orders Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. to compensate the victims of forced labor during the Japanese colonial era; Taiwan Vice President Lai Ching-te wins the presidential election with 40% of the vote in a three-way contest, but the opposition takes over the legislature.

China releases 12 typical cases on the construction of a barrier-free environment; the University of Hong Kong cancels a talk by Jimmy Lai’s British lawyer; Human Rights Watch issues a report criticizing the treatment of women imprisoned in Japan; South Korea’s sentencing commission considers increasing the punishment for stalking crimes; Taipei prosecutors decline to prosecute Elon Musk for smoking marijuana in a 2018 online video.

The deeply indebted real estate company China Evergrande Group discloses that its founder and chairman has been criminally detained; Hong Kong demands more transparency from virtual assets trading platforms following fraud allegations at JPEX; Japan’s Supreme Court considers whether to eliminate the surgery requirement for changing one’s legal gender; South Korea’s Constitutional Court declares unconstitutional a ban on sending anti-regime leaflets across the border into North Korea; Taiwan’s highest administrative court rules that surgery should not be required to change one’s legal gender.