Jimmy Lai’s 1,000 Prison Days The publisher’s bravery has exposed China’s false promises to Hong Kong.
Jimmy Lai marks his 1,000th day in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison on Tuesday, an ignominious anniversary that should remind the world of Mr. Lai’s bravery and China’s disdain for international treaties and the rule of law.
Mr. Lai is the founder and owner of the pro-democracy paper Apple Daily, which the Hong Kong government confiscated without due process. What makes his sacrifice so compelling is that Mr. Lai could have avoided a prison cell by fleeing to one of his homes abroad.
China and its Hong Kong factotums have sought every way possible to target Mr. Lai for daring to advocate for freedom for Hong Kong’s people. The 75-year-old has been convicted for his peaceful participation in three protests, including a vigil to commemorate the Chinese victims of the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square.
He was also convicted on business fraud charges the U.S. State Department has rightly denounced as “spurious.” But his biggest trial, on national-security charges that could carry a life sentence, is scheduled for December. The government has denied Mr. Lai his choice of lawyer in the case.
Everyone in Hong Kong knows he will be found guilty—an example of how Hong Kong is following China’s dictates despite the promise Beijing made to Britain of autonomy for 50 years after 1997 in a formal treaty. The real question is how a city that holds political prisoners can purport to be a world financial center.
Mr. Lai is one of what the Hong Kong Democracy Council says have been 1,647 political prisoners since the start of the 2019 protests. While a financial center depends on the free flow of information and rule of law, in today’s Hong Kong people can be arrested for expressing the wrong opinion. Yuen Ching-ting was a 23-year-old student who in June was charged with posting seditious pro-independence posts on Facebook while studying at her university in Japan.
Sebastien Lai points out the contradictions his father’s case represents. “By sending 500 policemen to raid the biggest newspaper in the city, Hong Kong has made truth criminal,” he told us. “A financial center can’t stand on a foundation of lies and crackdowns on the free flow of information.”
Jimmy Lai risked arrest and prison by staying in Hong Kong, and in so doing he has exposed those lies. The longer he remains behind bars the more powerful his witness becomes. And the more Hong Kong’s reputation for adherence to the rule of law fades into distant memory.
Comments are closed.
