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Chinese and East Asian law

Inheritance in China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, from imperial houses to family companies.

70 storiesThe law overview

How does chinese and east asian law decide who inherits?

A dead star's image is protected only where an heir registers it and sues; elsewhere others register it first. A trust that lets trustees decide whether a beneficiary is ready can keep one heir from his money for decades.

Stories
70
Years
50 BCE to 2024
Main regions
East Asia, North America, Europe
Main subjects
Asian dynasties, Divorce and feuds, Business dynasties
Updated
30 October 2026

Every chinese and east asian law story, newest first

  1. 2024Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou's three other children froze $1.8 billion in Hong Kong to claim trusts he wrote by handcaixinglobal.com and 2 more
  2. 2024The Māori King's council passed over the son who had stood in for him and named his youngest child queen at his funeralteaonews.co.nz and 2 more
  3. 2023LG's chairman adopted his nephew as heir; his widow and daughters sued to undo the share split and the adoption, and lost both in 2026The Korea Times and 3 more
  4. 2023Abby Choi's former husband and his father and brother are on trial for her murder over a flat she had put in her father-in-law's namethestar.com.my and 2 more
  5. 2022Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju's family paid inheritance tax with 29.3 percent of his holding company, and the government could not find a buyerKorea JoongAng Daily and 2 more
  6. 2021South Korea could not collect 86.7 billion won of Chun Doo-hwan's forfeiture after he diedThe Korea Herald and 8 more
  7. 2021An 88-year-old Shanghai man signed his 3 million yuan home over to the fruit seller who cared for him, a court later declared him incapable, and the gift still stoodbjnews.com.cn and 2 more
  8. 2020Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee's heirs paid 12 trillion won in inheritance tax, the largest in Korean historykhan.co.kr and 3 more
  9. 2020Lotte's 93-year-old founder fired his younger son, the shareholders kept the son, and a court put the father under guardianshipThe Korea Herald and 2 more
  10. 2020Hanmi Pharm's founder died owing a family tax bill of 500 billion won, his widow and daughter agreed to merge with OCI, and his sons stopped it at a shareholder voteThe Korea Times and 8 more
  11. 2020Stanley Ho sued 11 defendants, including 2 of his wives and 5 of his children, hours after saying on television he would not sue his familyhkexnews.hk and 15 more
  12. 2019Korean Air's "nut rage" heiress joined an activist fund to oust her brother, and lost the shareholder voteThe Korea Times and 2 more
  13. 2019Goo Hara's mother left when she was a child and claimed half her estate; Korea changed its inheritance lawsoompi.com and 3 more
  14. 2018Sun Hung Kai's chairman was removed by his mother and brothers, who said he was mentally ill, and cut from the family trustfamilybusinessmagazine.com and 2 more
  15. 2016Thailand's new king changed the law to put the Crown Property Bureau's billions in his own nameReuters and 2 more
  16. 2016Evergreen's founder left his whole personal fortune to his youngest son, the three older half-brothers removed him from the airline, and the courts upheld the willtaiwannews.com.tw and 3 more
  17. 2016Douyin creators sold AI videos of dead actor Qiao Renliang saying he had not really left, and his father asked who gave them the rightsixthtone.com and 2 more
  18. 2015A Korean court ordered SK Group's chairman to pay his ex-wife 1.38 trillion won, and the Supreme Court threw it outBBC and 3 more
  19. 2015Samsung's founder's eldest son sued his brother Lee Kun-hee for 4.1 trillion won in shares and lostThe Korea Times and 2 more
  20. 2014After the Sewol sank with 304 dead, the man prosecutors called its real owner fled, was found dead in a plum field, and the state went after his family's assetsThe Korea Herald and 3 more
  21. 2013A Chinese couple died in a car crash five days before their embryos were to be implanted, and four years later a surrogate from Laos gave birth to their sonblogs.loc.gov and 2 more
  22. 2013China's courts jail grave robbers who sell women's corpses as "ghost brides" for sons who died unmarriedmadeinchinajournal.com and 2 more
  23. 2010A man says he found the only other copy of the Korean alphabet's founding book while cleaning his house, and the state that owns it cannot find itThe Korea Herald and 2 more
  24. 2009A Doosan heir exposed his brothers' slush fund to win the chairmanship, was cast out of the family, and died by suicideKorea JoongAng Daily and 2 more
  25. 2009Kumho's board fired one founding brother, the group split in two, and the brothers sued each other for yearsKorea JoongAng Daily and 2 more
  26. 2009David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok closet in 2009; Thai police said suicide, the family's pathologist said accident, and his widow sued the film companyabcnews.com and 3 more
  27. 2008Choi Jin-sil's ex-husband regained rights over her children the day she died, and a fan stole her ashes from her graveThe Korea Times and 6 more
  28. 2008British and French troops looted the Summer Palace in 1860; Yves Saint Laurent's estate auctioned two of its bronze heads, and the winning bidder refused to payvisualizingcultures.mit.edu and 4 more
  29. 2007Nina Wang won her kidnapped husband's estate in Hong Kong's top court in 2005, then her feng shui adviser was jailed for forging her willlegalref.judiciary.hk and 8 more
  30. 2005The Rong family's mills passed to the state in the 1950s, and the son who stayed became China's vice president and his son a billionairevoanews.com and 4 more
  31. 2003Anita Mui put her estate in a trust to keep it from her mother; the mother sued for 20 years, went bankrupt, and died in 2026 after Mui's ashes went missingtaipeitimes.com and 5 more
  32. 2001Hyundai's founder split his empire between feuding sons, and the heir he chose jumped from his office during a corruption probeKorea JoongAng Daily and 2 more
  33. 2000A Hong Kong buyer asked twice whether anything had happened in the flat; a boy had fallen to his death from its balconyvlex.hk and 3 more
  34. 1996Kim Kwang-seok's daughter, heir to his song copyrights, died in 2007, and her mother told no one for ten yearsThe Korea Times and 3 more
  35. 1996Samsung's heir and his three siblings bought Everland bonds at 7,700 won a share in 1996, two executives were convicted, and their father was cleared on that chargeKorea JoongAng Daily and 3 more
  36. 1994A Yuen Long woman's brother drove her from their father's house, and village women made Hong Kong let daughters inherit New Territories land in 1994varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk and 2 more
  37. 1993Walt Disney's twin grandchildren split over a $400 million trust after the trustees paid one twin and refused the otherazcourts.gov and 4 more
  38. 1990Sun Hung Kai's eldest son was kidnapped for a record ransom, then removed as chairman by his mother, who controlled the family's shareshkexnews.hk and 3 more
  39. 1989The Dalai Lama named a six-year-old as Panchen Lama in 1995; the boy disappeared within days and China installed another boy chosen from a golden urntashilhunpo.org and 4 more
  40. 1987A doctor fled south in 1950 with one daughter, and 59 years later his four children left in North Korea sued their half-siblings for his estatenkeconwatch.com and 2 more
  41. 1973A Chinese fast-food chain used a Bruce Lee figure as its logo for 15 years, and his daughter sued for 210 million yuangulfnews.com and 3 more
  42. 1970A Korean family gave away 300 years of wealth to found a college, and the government merged it and named Park Chung-hee its founderimaeil.com and 5 more
  43. 1967China's last emperor kept his title and palace after abdicating, and soldiers blew open his ancestors' tombsWikipedia (English) and 2 more
  44. 1959Thailand executed Si Quey in 1959 and a hospital museum displayed his embalmed body as a "cannibal" for 60 years before he was crematednationthailand.com and 2 more
  45. 1949Landlord Liu Wencai died before land reform reached him, his manor became a museum of his crimes, and in 1988 its "water dungeon" was relabelled an opium storedeniseyho.com and 2 more
  46. 1946Thailand's 20-year-old king was found shot in his bed, and three palace servants were executed nine years laterWikipedia (English)
  47. 1941Thailand's finance ministry sued its abdicated king for 6.27 million baht in 1939 and won an order freezing everything he ownedth.wikisource.org and 4 more
  48. 1917Buffalo Bill's 1913 will gave everything to Louisa; Denver newspaper owners held his $20,000 debt, and Wyoming has claimed his body since 1917cowboystatedaily.com and 2 more
  49. 1890A widow at 19 promised to guard her family's two great bronze cauldrons, hid them through seven Japanese raids, and gave them to the statetouch.shio.gov.cn and 3 more
  50. 1875Cixi made her sister's son emperor, an official killed himself to object to the adoption, and the emperor died of arsenic in 1908zh.wikisource.org and 4 more
  51. 1873The Native Land Court declared Ōrākei inalienable, the Crown took or bought almost all of it, and 800 police and soldiers ended a 506-day occupation with 222 arrestsnvdatabase.swarthmore.edu and 2 more
  52. 1864David Sassoon's sons split his firm in two, his daughter-in-law Flora was pushed out, and his great-grandson Victor lost Shanghaismu.edu and 3 more
  53. 1807Zheng Yi's widow took command of his pirate fleets, married his adopted heir, and surrendered to the Qing in 1810 keeping her plunderworldhistory.org and 2 more
  54. 1799China's new emperor arrested his father's favourite five days after the old emperor died, let him hang himself, and seized a fortune put at up to 800 million taelsWikisource (primary text) and 3 more
  55. 1782General Chakri took Taksin's throne in 1782 while Taksin's son and heir was away at war, and dug up Taksin's body two years latervajirayana.org and 5 more
  56. 1778The future Rama I took the Emerald Buddha from conquered Vientiane, and it has stayed in Bangkok for two centuriesvajirayana.org and 2 more
  57. 1763The Jagat Seths financed the British at Plassey; six years later the Nawab had the two heads of the bank killed and their bodies thrown from a forten.banglapedia.org and 2 more
  58. 1722The Kangxi Emperor deposed his heir twice, and the son who followed him hid the next heir's name behind a palace plaquezh.wikisource.org and 4 more
  59. 1662Koxinga ordered his heir and his own wife killed over a child born to a wet nurse, and died before his generals obeyedzh.wikisource.org and 3 more
  60. 1510The eunuch who ran the Ming government was searched in front of the emperor, who found millions in silver and false sealsEncyclopaedia Britannica and 2 more
  61. 1407A royal in-law took Vietnam's throne from his own grandson in 1400, and China invaded claiming to restore the true heirzh.wikisource.org and 3 more
  62. 1406Two heirs of Majapahit went to war, 170 Ming soldiers died in the crossfire, and China billed the winner 60,000 liang of goldjv.wikisource.org and 5 more
  63. 1398The Yongle Emperor took his nephew's throne in 1402, and the deposed emperor's two-year-old son was held for 55 yearszh.wikisource.org and 3 more
  64. 1379The History of Ming says a rich man paid for a third of Nanjing's walls, offered to pay the emperor's army, and was exiled to Yunnanzh.wikisource.org and 3 more
  65. 937China's Heirloom Seal passed to every usurper for 1,100 years, and the last Later Tang emperor carried it into the firezh.wikisource.org and 4 more
  66. 705Wu Zetian deposed one son, had another forced to kill himself, made herself emperor, and was buried as an empress in her husband's sealed tombzh.wikisource.org and 5 more
  67. 649A Tang emperor sent an agent in disguise to take Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Preface from an old monk, and took it into his tombzh.wikisource.org and 2 more
  68. 626Li Shimin killed his two brothers at the Xuanwu Gate, executed their ten sons and had the throne from his father within two monthszh.wikisource.org and 2 more
  69. 60King Prasutagus left half his kingdom to Nero to protect his daughters, and Tacitus says Roman officers flogged his widow Boudica and raped his daughtersWikisource (primary text) and 2 more
  70. 50 BCECato gave his pregnant wife Marcia to the orator Hortensius, and took her back as Hortensius's rich widowUniversity of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 more