For decades, Jimmy Lai, a media mogul, used his wealth and editorial office in Hong Kong to criticize Beijing's authoritarian excesses and give a voice to those who hoped for democracy in China.
When a Hong Kong court sentenced him to 20 years in prison yesterday, it became clear that disobedience now carries the same price as on the mainland.
The landmark ruling caps a years-long effort by Beijing to dismantle the influence of the self-proclaimed “rebel” who it claims orchestrated pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong nearly seven years ago. Critics say Beijing has found Mr. Lai guilty before he could even receive a fair trial.
Known for his boxer's build, sharp tongue, and uncompromising nature, Lai used his wealth to financially support the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, while his tabloid "Apple Daily" stood behind liberal causes and never shied away from criticizing the government - until it was shut down in 2021, after police raids.
The raids came after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong and arrested Lai shortly afterwards, accusing him of colluding with foreign forces and sedition.
Speaking before his arrest, Lai told Reuters that he would "continue to fight until the last day."
Laj (78) has been in detention for more than five years, much of that time spent in solitary confinement, and his health has deteriorated.
Even in a hypercapitalist city full of self-made millionaires, Jimmy Lai's rags-to-riches story stands out. He fled poverty-stricken China as a boy as a stowaway and worked his way up the ranks in the city's garment factories. This led him to launch his own casual clothing brand in 1981, which made him his first fortune.
Lai's story of rags to riches, to defiance, is emblematic of Hong Kong - a former British colony that was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 - a city that has long prided itself on its resilience, enterprise and nurturing of Western liberal values.
But by applying punishments usually reserved for dissidents in China to a local media tycoon and his editors, Beijing has, critics say, further accelerated the erosion of a political arrangement that was supposed to preserve Western freedoms in Hong Kong.
“The sentences handed down to Lai and his colleagues are very harsh, even by mainland Chinese standards,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times. Pearson noted that only one other Chinese dissident has received a longer prison sentence than Mr. Lai: Ilham Tohti, an economics professor who advocated for the Uighur minority in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2014.
Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades, is waging a far-reaching crackdown on any vestiges of dissent in the country. Not only human rights activists have been targeted, but also business tycoons, intellectuals and party leaders, some of whom have been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison.
Although Hong Kong has a separate legal system from mainland China, the trial against Mr Lai has shown how those lines often blur when it comes to national security laws in the city, Ms Pearson added.
"These national security law trials ultimately serve a political purpose - to quell dissent and send a message to anyone who dares to criticize the Chinese Communist Party," she said.
The family says the verdict is essentially a life sentence for Mr. Lai, who is 78 years old and in poor health. “This is a heartbreakingly cruel sentence,” his daughter, Claire Lai, said in a statement. “If this verdict is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars.”
In the courtroom, Mr. Lai did not seem surprised when the verdict was announced. Dressed in a white shirt and white jacket, Lai smiled and waved to his wife. He made a heart sign with his hands to his supporters. In many ways, he acted like a man resigned to a predetermined verdict.
Legal experts and human rights groups say Mr. Lai had no chance of a fair trial. National security cases are heard by judges chosen by Hong Kong's leader, rather than juries. The city's Communist Party-owned media also declared Mr. Lai guilty long before the trial even began.
Western governments have called for the release of Mr. Lai, a British citizen, and have described his trial as politically motivated. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he raised Mr. Lai’s case during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing last month. Speaking at a hearing in the British parliament last week, Lai’s son Sebastian Lai criticized Starmer’s government for not making his father’s release a condition of his visit to China.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday called on Hong Kong to release Lai on humanitarian grounds, citing his worrying health condition. Cooper said the case was being discussed at the “highest levels” between the British and Chinese governments following Starmer’s visit, and that the two countries would “expeditiously engage further” now that Mr Lai has been sentenced.
US President Donald Trump said he had asked Mr Jinping to consider releasing Mr Lai. Beijing has dismissed calls for Mr Lai's release as "gross interference" in China's internal affairs.
Beijing's national security agency in Hong Kong has criticized Western critics for calling for Lai's release "under the pretext of 'human rights.'" Meanwhile, Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive John Lee, said in a statement that the verdict was "deeply satisfying." He called Li's crimes "heinous and utterly despicable."
Lai's only chance for freedom lies in his exile to another country, perhaps for health reasons, Mark Clifford, president of the Hong Kong Freedom Committee Foundation and author of a book about Mr. Lai titled "The Troublemaker," told The New York Times.
"China needs to understand that Lai is a bigger problem in prison than he is outside," Clifford added. He said Lai's imprisonment was making it harder for the United States to mend ties with China. "Sending him into exile would be in everyone's best interest."
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