Hong Kong’s Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Faces Life Sentence
Synopsis
A Hong Kong court convicted former newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai on Monday of national security charges in a trial seen as a test of the city's judicial independence. The 78-year-old founder of the now-closed Apple Daily faces possible life in prison for running a pro-democracy newspaper and criticising Beijing. Judges said he was the mastermind behind conspiracies to collude with foreign forces. Lai has spent over 1,800 days in prison, much in solitary confinement. His supporters expressed dismay but no surprise at the verdict
On Monday, ex-Hong Kong newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai was convicted of national security charges. The trial, which was seen by a large number of people as a demonstration of how the freedoms of Hong Kong are being tightly limited under the rule of China, was regarded as a kind of proof. One might say that Jimmy Lai was in a way put in a position where he could be sentenced to life in prison. The 78-year-old self-made billionaire could be jailed for the rest of his life for the out-of-the-ordinary democracy newspaper that he was running and for his anti-Beijing stance.
Lai was the founder of Apple Daily, a widely read tabloid newspaper that frequently criticised the Chinese Communist Party before authorities compelled it to shut down in 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges but was found guilty of two crimes under the national security law and sedition.
Judges Call Lai 'Mastermind' Behind Conspiracies
Delivering their verdict, judges said: "There is no doubt that Lai had harboured his resentment and hatred of the PRC (People's Republic of China) for many of his adult years."
As a demonstration of his alliance with foreign powers, they referred to the ex-President's frequent meetings with U.S. Politicians in Laos throughout Donald Trump's term. The majority of these meetings happened before the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong. Lai met with then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and tried to meet Trump himself.
The judges likewise went through his WhatsApp messages with democracy participants and Apple Daily executives. They also looked at a New York Times op-ed that he wrote in May 2020, where he explained ideas for punishing China for the human rights violations in Hong Kong, among other things, by cutting off student visas to the children of Chinese government officials.
His requests for US officials to take action against China "would be analogous to the situation where an American national asks for help from Russia to bring down the US Government under the guise of helping the State of California," the judges said.
Lai had been calm when the verdict was read. He waved at his wife and son at the beginning but did not react to the guilty verdict. He removed his glasses and wiped his face before being led out of the court.
From Factory Worker to Publishing Giant
Lai rose from factory labourer to clothing tycoon and founded Apple Daily newspaper in 1995, two years before Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule. He and his newspaper were at the forefront of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. A vocal supporter of Trump, Lai visited Washington during the 2019 mass protests, meeting Pence and other US politicians.
"Mr President, you're the only one who can save us," Lai told CNN in 2020, weeks before his arrest, speaking to Trump. "If you save us, you can stop China's aggressions. You can also save the world."
Lai testified at trial that he, in fact, never spoke with Trump. Trump did raise Lai's case when he met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in October, an administration official said. Trump thinks that Lai should be released.
More than Four Years Imprisoned
Prosecutors accused Lai of using the Apple Daily to call for sanctions against Hong Kong and China during the 2019 protests and in the period following the passage of the national security law. His arrest under the Hong Kong security law was a police operation in late 2020. More than 1,800 days after being locked up in a maximum-security prison, which has been most of the time in solitary confinement, he was kept in a cell for a significant part of that time. In 2022, a court decided that he should serve five years and nine months for fraud, a charge that he vehemently denied.
Supporters of Lai, most of them were queuing outside the court overnight for seats, said that they were stunned by the decision, but at the same time, they considered it a matter of fact. Many of them loudly announced that they would no longer trust the Hong Kong judicial system. Many said they no longer trust Hong Kong's judicial system. "I've got no anticipation that Jimmy Lai will be released," one woman told CNN, calling the city's transformation "too sad."
The leaders of Hong Kong and China say the law "restored stability" after the protests in 2019. Critics say that it brought Beijing's authoritarian rule to Hong Kong. All trials related to national security adhere to specially selected judges in place of juries, breaking from Hong Kong's common-law tradition.
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