Hong Kong
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Hong Kong’s former media mogul Jimmy Lai has been found guilty of two national security charges and a lesser charge of sedition in a landmark two-year trial widely seen as a sign of the decline in Hong Kong’s freedoms under Beijing’s rule.
Mr. Lai, 78, an upstart billionaire, is one of the most high-profile critics of Beijing who was indicted under a sweeping security law imposed on the semi-autonomous city in 2020, following months of massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
He founded Apple Daily, a fiercely pro-democracy tabloid known for its harsh coverage of the Chinese Communist Party, until its forced closure in 2021.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to all charges and now faces a possible life sentence. Monday’s ruling marks an end to a tumultuous legal saga that drew condemnation from supporters and foreign leaders around the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who once vowed to “get rid of him.”
The national security law has transformed Hong Kong, with authorities jailing dozens of political opponents, forcing the disbandment of civil society groups and outspoken media outlets, and turning the once free-spirited city into a city ruled only by “patriots.”
Hong Kong and Chinese leaders said the city had “restored stability” after the 2019 protests.
Mr Lai is a British national and the British government had previously called for his release.
At a press conference in London on Monday, Lai’s son Sebastian said he was “heartbroken” about his father’s condition and called on the British government to do more to ensure his freedom.
“Now is the time to put action behind words and make my father’s release a precondition for closer ties with China,” Lai said. “I mean, how can you expect a fruitful relationship when you can’t even put a 70-year-old man in such poor health on a plane and send him back to his homeland here in the UK?”
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on Monday denounced Lai’s sentence as “politically motivated” and said China’s national security law was imposed to silence China’s critics. She later told British MPs that the Foreign Office had summoned the Chinese ambassador to emphasize Britain’s position “in the strongest terms”.
In handing down the sentence, the judges said: “There is no doubt that (Mr. Lai) harbored resentment and hatred against the People’s Republic of China for a long time in his adult life.”
They pointed to evidence of incitement and collusion with foreign powers, including Lai’s lobbying of U.S. politicians during Trump’s first term (much of it before the enactment of the security law), including meetings with then-Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and attempts to meet with Trump himself.
They also pointed to his WhatsApp messages with other democracy activists and Apple Daily leaders, as well as a New York Times op-ed he wrote in May 2020 in which he suggested ways to punish China for its crackdown on Hong Kong, including canceling student visas for children of government officials.
Urging U.S. officials to take action against China in the name of helping the people of Hong Kong “is akin to a situation in which Americans would seek assistance from Russia to overthrow the U.S. government in the name of assisting the state of California,” the judges said in their ruling.
“We are satisfied that (Mr Lai) was the mastermind behind the conspiracy” on all three charges. He added that the evidence shows that Lai’s “sole intention… was to seek the overthrow of the[Chinese Communist Party].”
The judges said his sentencing date would be announced at a later date. Conspiracy is punishable by life imprisonment under the Peace Preservation Act.
The judges had earlier warned everyone in the room to maintain “absolute silence” while the verdict was read.
Mr. Rai remained calm throughout the meeting, waving and greeting his wife and son. He was unresponsive when the sentence was announced, but removed his glasses and wiped his face before being led out of the courtroom.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors accused Lai of using his newspaper Apple Daily to call for sanctions against Hong Kong and China during the 2019 protests and after the introduction of the national security law.
He was arrested under the law in late 2020 and spent more than 1,800 days in a high-security prison, most of it in solitary confinement. In 2022, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on unrelated fraud charges.
Mr. Lai’s supporters, many of whom had been lining up all night to secure seats inside the courtroom, expressed disappointment but not surprise at the verdict, saying many no longer have faith in Hong Kong’s judicial system.
“I have no expectations that Jimmy Lai will be released,” one woman told CNN, calling the city’s transformation “so sad.”
Another supporter said he too had no hope for Lai’s release and said he was insensitive to the Chinese government’s crackdown on cities. But he said: “We’re still here… It’s not really possible to arrest us all.”
Both supporters requested anonymity.
Mr. Lai was born in mainland China, moved to British-ruled Hong Kong at the age of 12, and rose from factory worker to clothing tycoon.
He then pivoted to media, founding Apple Daily in 1995, two years before Hong Kong was handed back to China. The outspoken publisher and its newspaper were at the forefront of the city’s pro-democracy movement.
Mr. Lai, a vocal supporter of President Trump, traveled to Washington at the height of the 2019 protests and met with Mr. Pence and other US politicians to discuss the situation.
At the time, massive demonstrations sparked by the controversial bill drew hundreds of thousands of people to the streets, many of whom feared the Chinese government would violate the city’s autonomy and rare freedoms of speech, press and assembly.
“Mr. President, you are the only one who can save us,” Lai told Trump in a 2020 CNN interview, weeks before his arrest. “If you save us, you can stop Chinese aggression. You can save the world.”
Lai took the stand during the trial and said he had never spoken to Trump.
Trump brought up Lai’s case during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in October, administration officials told CNN. The official added that Trump believes Lai should be released and hopes that happens.
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, has a separate judicial system from mainland China.
Both the Chinese embassy in Washington and the Hong Kong government have warned against “external forces” interfering in internal affairs or judicial proceedings.
How this Hong Kong media mogul became a flashpoint between the US and China
Following Li’s conviction, China’s Foreign Ministry said the central government “firmly supports protecting national security and punishing crimes that threaten national security in accordance with the law.”
In a separate statement on Friday in response to a report by the US Congressional Committee on China’s human rights record, which included criticism of Lai’s imprisonment and treatment, the Hong Kong government accused US officials of trying to “use political power to obstruct (Hong Kong’s) judicial process in order to elicit the defendant’s avoidance of criminal justice proceedings.”
Critics worry that the national security law brings Beijing’s authoritarian and opaque judicial norms to Hong Kong, and all previous national security trials have been tried by specially selected panels of judges rather than juries, a departure from Hong Kong’s common law traditions.
Concerns about Lai’s health were highlighted during the final stages of the trial. His lawyer told the court that Mr Lai had been experiencing symptoms of palpitations and light-headedness. His son Sebastian said at the time that he was deeply concerned about his father’s deteriorating health conditions, including his advanced age and diabetes.
“Solitary confinement is taking a toll on his body,” his daughter Claire Lai wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post last Tuesday, arguing that the family knew little about the medical care he was receiving because outside doctors were not allowed to examine him.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Friday that Lai had received “appropriate and comprehensive” medical services while in custody and that the prison had arranged for Lai to have “daily medical check-ups.” “There were no complaints regarding the medical services he received,” the newspaper said.
He added that he was placed in solitary confinement “at his own request.”
