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.