The world will hear more about this law starting Monday, when Lai’s sham-trial is slated to finally begin, presumably in Hong Kong where he has spent the past three years in solitary confinement for convictions on lesser trumped-up charges. The trial is expected to take 80 court days, with opening statements alone lasting a week.
But don’t hold your breath for news alerts. China has been known to pack courtrooms with spectators, leaving no seats for the media. (Developments will be posted online at SupportJimmyLai.com.) Beijing is well aware that the West will be watching this landmark trial. Britain, where Lai is a citizen, and the people of Hong Kong surely will be hypervigilant as Lai is expected to take the witness stand.
To those unfamiliar, Lai, a bon vivant who made his billions in fashion retail, was the founder and publisher of Apple Daily, the island’s most popular, pro-democratic newspaper. That is until 2020, when some 400 Chinese police descended on the property, arresting editors and others and, in short order, shutting the paper down.
Lai was subsequently arrested on a variety of bogus charges, including a minor lease violation that was conjured into a fraud charge, for which he was sentenced to more than five years in prison. He is currently serving this sentence with 23 hours a day in solitary. His trial next week will focus on three charges under the national security law, which made secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers punishable by life in prison. The definitions of the above are basically whatever Chinese officials want them to be. The law also specified that trials could take place in China.
One of the charges against Lai is colluding with foreign forces. This basically refers to his visits to the United States, where he met with such dignitaries as Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. Jim McGovern, Sen. Todd C. Young, Rep. John Lewis and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. He’s also charged with sedition because his newspaper has criticized China’s increasing crackdowns on Hong Kong’s freedoms. For these “crimes,” Lai has received several journalism awards.
Needless to say, the charges against Lai disregard China’s promise, when it took over from Britain in 1997, to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy for 50 years.
“Chortle, chortle,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping might respond, if, indeed, he chortles.
Hong Kong’s 26 years under China’s rule has been marked instead by crackdowns, protests and a growing freedom movement. Lai, who committed millions of his own dollars to the pro-democracy movement, was often front and center.
In June 2020, he was charged with “incitement to knowingly take part in an unauthorized assembly” for lighting a candle in Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil. He wrote to the court: “If commemorating those who died because of injustice is a crime, then inflict on me that crime and let me suffer the punishment of this crime, so I may share the burden and glory of those young men and women who shed blood on June 4 to proclaim truth, justice and goodness.”
A fearless fighter and a man of deep faith, Lai could have fled at any time before his arrest but refused to abandon Hong Kong to save himself. A convert to Catholicism, he may well consider his tribulations in consonance with the sacrifice often required in the pursuit of truth. Some of his friends with whom I’ve often spoken suggest that Lai may see his confinement in terms of a monastic life. He spends his days studying theology and sketching religious drawings, they say.
This isn’t to suggest that he is happy about his plight, only that at 76 and diabetic, he has found a spiritual path to consolation. In this, he’s also in danger of becoming a martyr, the single outcome China should want to avoid. Yet Hong Kong officials can’t help boasting that they have a 100 percent conviction rate under the national security law. If Lai is convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years to life. Should the worst happen and he dies in prison, it will hardly be the last China hears of its most-famous opponent. As a symbol of freedom — and of what Hong Kong once was — Lai would be more dangerous to China dead than alive.
China has other options….
Read More: Opinion | Chinese tycoon Jimmy Lai gets his 80 days in court