For Americans wondering about the future of China and its relationship with the West, the latest verdict in the Jimmy Lai case proves an ominous harbinger of Hong Kong\u2019s continued slide towards authoritarianism. Lai, the self-made billionaire, media entrepreneur and pro-democracy activist, has been held prisoner of the Chinese Communist Party for five years under Hong Kong\u2019s National Security Law. He was finally convicted Dec. 14 on trumped-up charges of sedition. <\/p>\n
This verdict, handed down in 855 pages of meaningless gobbledygook, is Lai\u2019s second conviction during his state-sponsored persecution since Hong Kong\u2019s 2019 pro-democracy protests. Lai was previously found guilty of lease violations in connection with Apple Daily, his popular former newspaper that was closed by the Chinese government in 2021, and sentenced to 69 months in prison. The latest charges, for which Lai will be sentenced in early January, carry a penalty of 10 years to life in prison. <\/p>\n
Of course, these nuances and timelines are meaningless; Lai has been imprisoned since December 2020, with his case delayed, extended, postponed, appealed and otherwise stage-managed in accordance with the wishes of the CCP. Lai was also denied the lawyers of his choice. Hong Kong will likely throw the book at him in January, and Lai \u2013 already in failing health due to the apparently inhumane conditions of his solitary confinement \u2013 will face eventual death in prison. It\u2019s a grim birthday present for Lai, who turned 78 recently. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How did we get here? Lai knows why, describing himself as a ‘troublemaker, but one with a good conscience.’ ‘The establishment hates my guts,’ Lai says, and you\u2019d have to say he\u2019s earned that hatred from a leadership in Beijing and now Hong Kong that doesn\u2019t tolerate dissent. Having participated in Hong Kong\u2019s pro-democracy protests in 2019, supported the Umbrella Movement in 2014, and expressed public concern in the aftermath of 1989\u2019s Tiananmen Square massacre, Lai has long been a thorn in the side of the CCP. <\/p>\n
Lai\u2019s irreverent, pro-free-speech publications, Apple Daily and Next Magazine, frequently reported unwelcome facts, challenged the status quo and asked hard questions of Chinese officialdom amid growing state censorship. It was Lai\u2019s courageous, decades-long commitment to democratic values that led my organization, The Fund for American Studies, to honor him in 2022 with the Kenneth Y. Tomlinson Award for Courageous Journalism.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Among all his causes, Lai\u2019s most dear was the protection of his adopted city, Hong Kong. Having escaped there as a child after growing up in 1950s mainland China, Lai knew firsthand that Communist regimes deprive their people of fundamental freedoms. Despite China\u2019s treaty agreement with the U.K. and the CCP\u2019s ‘one country, two systems’ commitment, which guaranteed Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy until at least 2047, Lai foresaw that the CCP would accelerate its ultimate takeover of Hong Kong. <\/p>\n
The mainland\u2019s creeping authoritarianism is why my organization ended its program at the University of Hong Kong after 2019. We foresaw the coming crackdown in Hong Kong, and this week\u2019s verdict is one more nail in the coffin of Hong Kong\u2019s once internationally respected legal system. In a chilling coincidence, Hong Kong\u2019s Democratic Party, the city\u2019s largest opposition group, also voted to disband on the eve of the verdict. Unfortunately, our worries (and Lai\u2019s) about Hong Kong\u2019s future have been proven true.<\/p>\n