China issues ethical guidelines for human genome research; the Wall Street Journal fires one of its Hong Kong-based reporters following her election to lead the Hong Kong Journalists Association; a married transgender woman in Japan challenges the law preventing her from legally changing her gender unless she divorces her wife; South Korea's Supreme Court rules that persons in same-sex relationships can register their partners as dependents in the national health insurance system; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court temporarily suspends controversial legal revisions that empower lawmakers to require government officials and citizens to testify at investigative hearings.
USALI Research Scholar Chi Yin on NPR
USALI Research Scholar Chi Yin Analyses China's Non-Prosecution Practices
U.S.-Asia Law Institute Research Scholar Chi Yin published an article, China's Non-Prosecution Mechanism: a Raft in China's Healthcare Anticorruption Campaign? in Thomson Reuters (Practical Law).
This Week in Asian Law
China’s Supreme People’s Court issues typical cases involving the interpretation and application of foreign law; the Hong Kong Court of Appeal allows a former radio presenter and democratic activist to appeal legal questions related to his sedition conviction; the Hiroshima High Court in Japan approves the legal gender change of a transgender woman even though she did not undergo gender confirmation surgery as currently required by law; the Seoul Metropolitan Government holds a forum on human rights abuses in North Korea in an effort to spur international cooperation to bring about change; a district court in Taiwan orders the detention of a prominent politician while he is investigated on suspicion of corruption.
This Week in Asian Law
The UN Human Rights Council approves China’s Universal Periodic Review report but Western governments express frustration; a Hong Kong court continues holding pre-sentencing hearings for the 45 democratic politicians and activists who were convicted or pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit subversion; Japan’s Supreme Court declares the former Eugenics Protection Law unconstitutional and orders the government to compensate plaintiffs who were forcibly sterilized; a South Korean court gives a 15-year prison term to the man who stabbed opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in the neck during a campaign event; Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang Party says mainland Chinese contractors should be allowed to carry out government-funded infrastructure projects on Taiwan’s outlying islands.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s Communist Party strips the last two defense ministers of party membership for accepting bribes and other corrupt behavior; the Chinese legislature drops a proposal to punish wearing clothing that hurts the feelings of the Chinese people; Hong Kong police charge a man with sedition for writing graffiti on seat backs in public buses; Japan charges two US Air Force servicemen with sexual assault in separate incidents; South Korea’s Constitutional Court throws out a law that automatically pardons property crimes against immediate family members; Taiwan President Lai Ching-te petitions the Constitutional Court to review controversial legislation passed by the opposition that gives the Legislative Yuan new powers to investigate the executive branch. Read more.
This Week in Asian Law
China says that persons deemed to be advocating Taiwan separatism could receive the death penalty; a Hong Kong court sentences 17 people to prison for their roles in a standoff between police and protesters at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2019; Japan’s top court recognizes a transgender women’s parental rights with respect to a child conceived using her frozen sperm but born after her transition; the South Korean Supreme Court declines to halt the government’s plan to increase the number of medical students; Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan reaffirms a set of amendments that controversially expand its investigatory powers. Read more.
This Week in Asian Law
A Chinese court sentences feminist activist Huang Xueqin and labor activist Wang Jianbing to prison for inciting subversion against the state; a Canadian judge resigns from a part-time position on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal; a Japanese court begins hearing a lawsuit by five women who say they have been unconstitutionally blocked from choosing sterilization surgery; South Korea’s main opposition leader is indicted on bribery charges; Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party says it will appeal to the public for support as it seeks to undo a legislative power grab. Read more.
This Week in Asian Law
China's Supreme People’s Court releases typical cases involving criminal punishment for cheating on exams ahead of the annual national college entrance exam; two senior British judges resign from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal; Japan’s legislature approves a new child support fund aimed at boosting births by sharing the costs of child rearing; South Korea suspends a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on lowering front-line military tensions as North Korea sends garbage-filled balloons across the border; Taiwan's Constitutional Court says the current height requirements for police and firefighters are unconstitutional because they exclude women more often than they exclude men. Read more.
This Week in Asian Law
China's judicial organs and Ministry of Education mark international Children’s Day with reports and guidelines about efforts to protect children’s rights; a Hong Kong court convicts 14 democrats of attempting to subvert state power by holding an unofficial primary election; the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights issues a report about rights problems in Japan; South Korea's Supreme Court upholds the conviction of a journalist who published the name and photo of an accused child abuser; Taiwan's legislature passes controversial bills intended to strengthen its power over the executive branch, but legal hurdles loom. Read more.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s Ministry of Public Security says it is taking measures to open up all of China’s hotels to foreign guests, ending a system in which hotels needed special approval to house foreigners; the Hong Kong government moves to establish control over the board that licenses social workers, calling it a national security issue; a Japanese court rejects a South Asian woman’s lawsuit against the city of Tokyo for alleged racial discrimination by the police; South Korea’s Constitutional Court holds a final hearing of claims that the government harmed citizens by failing to take more action on climate change; Taiwan’s legislature ignores demonstrators and moves closer to passing bills that would allow it to investigate executive-branch officials and demand they answer questions or face criminal penalties. Read more.
This Week in Asian Law
Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was reported missing days after her scheduled release from prison; the governments of China and Hong Kong rejected Britain’s charge that three men in London were assisting Hong Kong’s intelligence services; a Japanese court ordered a company to compensate a female employee for indirectly discriminating against women in its housing benefits policy; a South Korean court said doctors and medical students lack standing to file an administrative lawsuit against the government’s plan to increase medical school enrollments; members of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan brawled on the chamber floor after the Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party tried to force a vote on bills that would increase the legislative body’s power over the executive branch.
This Week in Asian Law
China’s Supreme People’s Court issues rules for selecting cases to include in the new People’s Court Case Database; Hong Kong's Court of Appeal grants the government’s request for an injunction to ban the song “Glory to Hong Kong”; the Japan Fisheries Agency seeks public comment on its plan to allow commercial hunting of fin whales; a South Korean court allows five transgender men to change their legal sex without surgery; Taiwan’s Executive Yuan approves four pieces of anti-fraud legislation.
This Week in Asian Law
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.
Japanese Government Honors Professor Frank K. Upham
This Week in Asian Law
China’s legislature approves a Tariff Law that reiterates China’s right to retaliate if other countries impose tariffs on Chinese goods; seven defendants go on trial in Hong Kong on charges of plotting a terrorist attack during the 2019 protests; four persons who say they were harmed by fraudulent investment ads sue Facebook Japan; South Korea’s Constitutional Court strikes down an inheritance rule that has guaranteed siblings of the diseased a minimum share of the estate; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court hears oral arguments about the constitutionality of the death penalty.
This Week in Asian Law
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.
This Week in Asian law
China’s Supreme People's Court releases the draft of its second judicial interpretation of the Marriage and Family Section of the Civil Code; the Hong Kong Journalists Association seeks judicial review of the government’s new rules for journalists seeking to access the vehicles registry; a Japanese man who was denied a survivor’s pension after his wife died claims unconstitutional gender discrimination; South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party emerges victorious in legislative elections even though its leader, Lee Jae-myung, repeatedly interrupted his campaign to attend his own corruption trial; lawmakers from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party propose measures to tighten national security..
This Week in Asian Law
The Cyberspace Administration of China updates its regulations for transferring data out of the country; Hong Kong's new surgical and hormonal requirements for gender reassignment draw criticism from the LGBTQ community; a Japanese judge is impeached for a tweet; South Korean police arrest one man and search for two others suspected of installing spy cameras inside dozens of polling stations ahead of legislative elections; lawmakers in Taiwan introduced a bill to make parental leave more flexible.
This Week in Asian Law
China initiates a complaint at the World Trade Organization over a US program that provides tax credits to electrical vehicle buyers; Australia, Britain, and Taiwan warn their citizens to exercise caution when traveling to Hong Kong lest they inadvertently violate Hong Kong’s new national security law; Japan’s Cabinet relaxes guidelines for selling defense equipment overseas; South Korean medical professors say they will reduce the hours they spend in practice to support striking junior doctors; Taiwan declares TikTok a dangerous product and considers expanding restrictions on its use.