Jimmy Lai’s ‘Will To Do Right’ Has Been His Driving Force

On February 9, Hong Kong newspaperman Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing “seditious materials” and for “collusion with foreign forces.” At 78 years old and in tenuous health, Lai has already been in prison for more than five years — mostly in solitary confinement.

For all his suffering, Lai could have chosen a more comfortable route. Residence in Hong Kong when it was a British colony had qualified him for British citizenship, and he could easily have left for London after Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997. But Beijing had promised Hong Kong “one country, two systems” and “no change for 50 years.” Lai stayed, and he continued to stay even after the sinews of Beijing’s autocratic rule began to invade and strangle the city “to which,” says Lai, “I owe everything.”

About the Author

Perry Link

Mr. Link holds the Chancellorial Chair for Teaching across Disciplines at the University of California, Riverside.

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On February 9, Hong Kong newspaperman Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing “seditious materials” and for “collusion with foreign forces.” At 78 years old and in tenuous health, Lai has already been in prison for more than five years — mostly in solitary confinement.

For all his suffering, Lai could have chosen a more comfortable route. Residence in Hong Kong when it was a British colony had qualified him for British citizenship, and he could easily have left for London after Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997. But Beijing had promised Hong Kong “one country, two systems” and “no change for 50 years.” Lai stayed, and he continued to stay even after the sinews of Beijing’s autocratic rule began to invade and strangle the city “to which,” says Lai, “I owe everything.”