January 26 - February 1, 2025

The Chinese government says it is willing to accept its citizens if they are deported by the United States as long as their nationality is confirmed; Hong Kong officials condemn as political grandstanding the US House of Representatives’ re-introduction of a Hong Kong Sanctions Act; Japanese supporters of a female prosecutor who says she was raped by a senior prosecutor present a petition calling for an independent inquiry; South Korean prosecutors indict President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection; Taiwan President Lai China-te sends a letter to Pope Francis.

China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate says it will stop using unreasonable performance evaluation indicators for prosecutors; Hong Kong’s stock market regulator announces streamlined procedures for vetting new listings in hopes of boosting the number of IPOs; US lawmakers urge Japan to strengthen restrictions on sales of chip-making equipment to China; a South Korean court orders the government to compensate an 82-year-old man for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment on spy charges more than five decades ago; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court prepares to issue a much-anticipated decision about controversial amendments passed by the legislature in May that give the legislature broad investigative powers and the authority to hold executive branch officials in contempt.

China's national legislature seeks public comments on six bills; another foreign judge announces his departure from Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeals; South Korean prosecutors decline to bring criminal charges against the president's wife for accepting an expensive gift handbag; Japan's legislature elects the new head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shigeru Ishiba, as prime minister; following a court ruling that limits use of the death penalty, Taiwan's justice minister says death row inmates will remain in prison unless the top prosecutor's office files an extraordinary appeal on their behalf.

A 10-year-old Japanese boy is fatally stabbed in China while walking to school on the anniversary of the outbreak of war between Japan and China in 1931; a Hong Kong court sentences one man to 14 months in prison and another to 10 months for displaying or writing a protest slogan; former Nissan Motor Corp. executive vice president Greg Kelly appeals his conviction for under-reporting the compensation of his boss, Carlos Ghosn; Taiwan's Constitutional Court upholds the death penalty punishment but restricts its use to the most serious crimes.

China's legislature approves an increase in the official retirement ages for men and women for the first time in 70 years; the Beijing and Hong Kong governments criticize a move by the US House of Representatives that could result in closing Hong Kong's trade offices in the United States; a Japanese court grants Japanese nationality to a child born in Japan to Afghan refugees; South Korea's Supreme Court upholds a life sentence for a man who stabbed strangers at a Seoul subway station; lawyers for former Taiwan presidential candidate Ko Wen-je say he will not appeal his detention without bail in a corruption investigation.

Chinese police detain well-known artist Gao Zhen because of his irreverent depictions of the late Chairman Mao Zedong; Hong Kong police move to quash memorials at an MTR station on the fifth anniversary of police attacks on protesters there in 2019; Japanese prosecutors indict a former lawmaker for using public funds to pay a fictitious employee; the social media company Telegram apologizes to South Korean authorities for allowing deepfake pornographic material to be shared on its messaging app; a Taiwan court orders former presidential candidate Ko Wen-je to be detained incommunicado on suspicion of corruption.

An unmarried Chinese woman loses her five-year legal battle to be allowed to freeze her eggs; a Hong Kong citizen challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s green light to build a 600-hectare tech hub adjoining Shenzhen; a Japanese court convicts a local police officer of leaking confidential information from more than 100 cases to a journalist; South Korean authorities indict the founder of the tech giant Kakao on charges of stock price manipulation; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court hears oral arguments in a challenge to a set of legislative amendments that significantly expand the power of the Legislative Yuan.

China issues detailed rules for implementing the expanded Law on Guarding State Secrets; a lawyer for former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai says he will testify in his own defense at his national security trial, which has been adjourned until November; local police in Japan conduct a massive raid and arrest 90 people on suspicion of running an investment scam; US federal prosecutors indict a North Korean military intelligence operative on charges of conspiring to hack US health care providers and military bases, among others; Taiwan’s Constitutional Court sets out procedures for upcoming hearings on controversial laws that empower the opposition-controlled legislature to question the president and require government officials and citizens to testify at investigative hearings.