China’s phony conviction of Jimmy Lai is a warning

For Americans wondering astir the aboriginal of China and its narration with the West, the latest verdict successful the Jimmy Lai lawsuit proves an ominous harbinger of Hong Kong’s continued descent towards authoritarianism. Lai, the self-made billionaire, media entrepreneur and pro-democracy activistic has been held captive of the Chinese Communist Party for 5 years nether Hong Kong’s National Security Law. He was yet convicted Dec. 14 connected trumped-up charges of sedition.    

This verdict, handed down successful 855 pages of meaningless gobbledygook, is Lai’s 2nd condemnation during his state-sponsored persecution since Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests. Lai was antecedently recovered blameworthy of lease violations successful transportation with Apple Daily, his fashionable erstwhile paper that was closed by the Chinese authorities successful 2021, and sentenced to 69 months successful prison. The latest charges, for which Lai volition beryllium sentenced successful aboriginal January, transportation a punishment of 10 years to beingness successful prison.   

Of course, these nuances and timelines are meaningless; Lai has been imprisoned since December 2020, with his lawsuit delayed, extended, postponed, appealed and different stage-managed successful accordance with the wishes of the CCP. Lai was besides denied the lawyers of his choice. Hong Kong volition apt propulsion the publication astatine him successful January, and Lai – already successful failing wellness owed to the seemingly inhumane conditions of his solitary confinement – volition look eventual decease successful prison. It’s a grim day contiguous for Lai, who turned 78 recently.  

TRUMP PRESSES XI ON JIMMY LAI’S RELEASE AS FAMILY CALLS CASE A LIFE-OR-DEATH EMERGENCY

How did we get here? Lai knows why, describing himself arsenic a "troublemaker, but 1 with a bully conscience." "The constitution hates my guts," Lai says, and you’d person to accidental he’s earned that hatred from a enactment successful Beijing and present Hong Kong that doesn’t tolerate dissent. Having participated successful Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests successful 2019, supported the Umbrella Movement successful 2014, and expressed nationalist interest successful the aftermath of 1989’s Tiananmen Square massacre, Lai has agelong been a thorn successful the broadside of the CCP.   

Jimmy Lai taking a photograph with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (Fox News)

Lai’s irreverent, pro-free-speech publications, Apple Daily and Next Magazine, often reported unwelcome facts, challenged the presumption quo and asked hard questions of Chinese officialdom amid increasing authorities censorship. It was Lai’s courageous, decades-long committedness to antiauthoritarian values that led my organization, The Fund for American Studies, to grant him successful 2022 with the Kenneth Y. Tomlinson Award for Courageous Journalism.

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Among each his causes, Lai’s astir beloved was the extortion of his adopted city, Hong Kong. Having escaped determination arsenic a kid aft increasing up successful 1950s mainland China, Lai knew firsthand that Communist regimes deprive their radical of cardinal freedoms. Despite China’s pact statement with the UK and the CCP’s "one country, 2 systems" commitment, which guaranteed Hong Kong’s autonomy until astatine slightest 2047, Lai foresaw that the CCP would accelerate its eventual takeover of Hong Kong.   

The mainland’s creeping authoritarianism is wherefore my enactment ended its programme astatine the University of Hong Kong aft 2019. We foresaw the coming crackdown successful Hong Kong, and this week’s verdict is 1 much nail successful the coffin of Hong Kong’s erstwhile internationally respected ineligible system. In a chilling coincidence, Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, the city’s largest absorption group, besides voted to disband connected the eve of the verdict. Unfortunately, our worries (and Lai’s) astir Hong Kong’s aboriginal person been proven true.

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Where bash we spell from here? First, Western leaders indispensable proceed to question Lai's merchandise connected humanitarian grounds. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to sojourn China adjacent month, and his authorities has said that freeing Lai (who is simply a British citizen) is simply a priority. This week, President Donald Trump besides asked Chinese person Xi Jinping to escaped Lai. With Lai’s ceremonial condemnation present public, it whitethorn unfastened up abstraction for a diplomatic resolution. Now is the clip to ramp up the unit for his release.  

Second, the West indispensable stay vigilant successful the look of China’s continued belligerence toward its neighbors and its suppression of values specified arsenic state of speech, spiritual liberty and property freedom. These are values nether siege worldwide. Journalists, spiritual figures and ideology advocates person been killed oregon imprisoned for exercising these rights. Jimmy Lai is an illustration of unthinkable bravery and committedness to antiauthoritarian values, but his imprisonment is besides a sobering informing of the dangers of authoritarianism.