Hong Kong’s drawn-out show trial of Jimmy Lai — which is, of course, really a Beijing production — has now resulted in a guilty verdict that the businessman and democracy advocate should wear as a badge of honor.
Lai was charged with colluding with foreign powers under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, which was deliberately written vaguely so as to imperil any critic of the gathering repression in the city. The law is being applied ex post facto. Lai’s real crime was publishing Apple Daily, the city’s largest newspaper, which sought to hold Beijing to account for its promises to respect Hong Kong’s traditional freedoms.
He has been kept in inhumane conditions, especially for a 78-year-old diabetic. For most of his five years in prison he has been in solitary confinement in a tiny cell, without access to independent medical care or to Communion. (Lai is a Catholic convert.) His daughter reports that his health is failing.
The U.S. has sought Lai’s freedom in talks with China. The U.K. has, in contrast, been shockingly indolent about the plight of a British citizen. (The Vatican has been AWOL.) There may now, however, be a new opportunity to press for his freedom. By persecuting Lai, Beijing has made its point about the price of dissidence in Hong Kong. Let it now deport Lai to live the rest of his days in peace in a free country.