Hong Kong sentences pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison

BeijingHong Kong's High Court has sentenced Jimmy Lai, a leading figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, to 20 years in prison for national security offenses. It is the harshest sentence handed down in Hong Kong under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. The sentence sends a clear message that Beijing will not be lenient and will treat Hong Kongers as strictly as those in mainland China. That is to say, it will be ruthless with those who dare to challenge the state and will sentence them to long prison terms.

The 78-year-old Hong Kong media mogul listened stoically on Monday morning to the court's decision finding him guilty of colluding with foreign forces and publishing seditious material in his newspaper, theApple Daily. Jimmy Lai's family has stated that, in practice, he has been sentenced to death, given his advanced age and failing health. The court refused to consider this as a mitigating factor to reduce his sentence. Lai will not be released from prison for another 18 years, until he is 96, as he has already served two years in pretrial detention. His lawyers have criticized the trial, which was held without a jury, and declared the sentence "the final blow to the rule of law in Hong Kong." They have also appealed to world leaders to urge the Chinese government to release him. Jimmy Lai is a British citizen, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had advocated for his release during his recent trip to Beijing. US President Donald Trump had also called on Xi Jinping to release Lai. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders have joined the calls for freedom and the criticism of the persecution of press freedom. Along with Jimmy Lai, six other executives and editors of the newspaper have been convicted.Apple Daily, The sentence was between six and ten years, depending on his level of cooperation with the justice system. Lai was the founder of the newspaper, the second most widely read in Hong Kong, and was considered one of the media moguls. The former colony traditionally had a good press, similar to the British press, especially in the business sector. The Apple Daily was considered a sensationalist newspaper that closely followed scandals, but also current events and political analysis, and had a clear anti-Beijing bias.

The newspaper extensively covered the massive demonstrations that began in 2019, initially against the passage of the extradition bill, and which eventually evolved into protests in favor of democracy and even independence. The articles and editorials published in the newspaper have been deemed seditious material that incited insurrection. The judges also found it proven that Lai contacted foreign governments to impose sanctions on China for the repression of the protests.

In the Chinese state press, the only one on the mainland, Jimmy Lai has been described as a British citizen who had lived in Hong Kong since fleeing China as a child and who had become an "anti-government instigator and traitor."

Lai was considered the prototype of the admired self-made businessmen in Hong Kong. Born in Guangzhou, he arrived in Hong Kong as a child and began working in textile factories. In 1981, he founded the Giordano clothing chain, which expanded successfully throughout Asia but already had problems with the Chinese government. In the early 1990s, he began his great adventure in the media and founded theApple Daily In 1995, years before Hong Kong's handover to China.

In 2020, Xi Jinping's Chinese regime imposedthe national security lawin Hong Kong to counter the pro-democracy movement on the island, which sparked a wave of protests that were harshly repressed and followed by hundreds of arrests, media closures,imprisonment of dissidents and exilesSince then, the political landscape and freedoms in the former colony have changed drastically.Apple Daily It was shut down in 2021, along with other newspapers and websites. Public television is subject to content censorship. And most pro-democracy parties have dissolved for fear of being accused of subversive activities.

Bad example for Taiwan

From Taiwan, which closely observes the threat from Beijing, there was solidarity with Jimmy Lai and calls for an end to the persecution. But above all, the government has emphasized that the verdict demonstrates that the "one country, two systems" model is not working, as China is not respecting its promise to maintain freedoms for the people of Hong Kong.

"This is not an isolated incident or a particular case in Hong Kong, but a warning sign that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is accelerating the export of its authoritarianism," denounced Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, the body responsible for China. It warned that "the painful experience of Hong Kong" is a cautionary tale for the Taiwanese people, who could lose the freedoms they have fought so hard to achieve if they end up under Beijing's rule.