China releases a draft Private Economy Promotion Law for public comment, after several difficult years for the country's private sector; Hong Kong's top court hears arguments over whether same-sex couples should enjoy the same inheritance rights as heterosexual married couples.; Japan enacts a law that offers an apology and compensation to victims of forced sterilization; a South Korean woman sues the government and others for facilitating the overseas adoption of her kidnapped daughter; China detains four Taiwanese employees of Foxconn
Legal scholars in China generally refrain from criticizing official policies in public. Qin (Sky) Ma writes that scholars’ response to the feared shutdown of the China Judgments Online (中国裁判文书网) at the end of 2023 was a noteworthy deviation from the norm. It showed that the space for critical discourse, though constrained, is not entirely closed and that strategic engagement by scholars can have impact.
A December 18 deadline looms for the US government to decide if it will allow or block Japanese company Nippon Steel from buying once-mighty, now troubled U.S. Steel. Bruce Aronson writes that the Japanese government and business community are deeply concerned by the prospect of a rebuff on national security grounds. With the presidential election over, it’s time for Americans to focus on the possible harms to US-Japan relations and US outgoing investment if Washington blocks the deal.