Jimmy Lai fled Mao’s China for Hong Kong as a twelve year old and started work in a garment factory. From that tough beginning he rose to become a successful businessman, later diversifying into the media. A staunch advocate of democracy, he has been a fierce critic of the Beijing regime for decades, a position that he did not abandon (far from it) after China’s takeover of Hong Kong and ever tightening repression in the territory, repression that is further evidence of Beijing’s contempt for political freedom, the people of Hong Kong, and international law.
In 2020 Lai was arrested, and since the end of that year he has been held in solitary confinement. He is 78 and in poor health. In December last year he was convicted of two counts of collusion with foreign forces and of seditious publication, charges relating to articles published in Apple Daily, the newspaper he founded. He has now been sentenced to 20 years in prison, effectively a death sentence, a horror that, although not unexpected, is yet another reminder of the nature of the Chinese state and a warning to those in the West who believe that they can safely cozy up to it.
President Trump has in the past called for Lai’s release. He should do so again.