(Bloomberg) -- Jimmy Lai, the biggest target in Hong Kong’s crackdown on dissent, will take the stand to defend himself against national security charges that could silence the 76-year-old for the rest of his life.
Foreign governments will be watching as the former titan of Hong Kong’s newspaper industry on Wednesday delivers his first public comments in nearly four years. Since Lai was denied bail and detained in December 2020 for national security crimes under a China-imposed measure, the only words he’s said in court are “not guilty.”
The trial of Lai — essentially for acts of self-expression once openly permitted in the former British colony — resumes one day after judges jailed dozens of prominent former activists, including Joshua Wong, in their most forceful use yet of the Beijing-drafted law. The US and Australian governments condemned the sentences.
By putting dozens of influential lawmakers, journalists and scholars behind bars, authorities have crushed the space for dissent in the once free-wheeling Asian city. A record exodus of foreign judges from Hong Kong’s top court over that crackdown has raised concern about the rule of law, crucial to the city’s allure as a finance hub.
Lai’s prosecution has been a point of friction between President Xi Jinping’s government and some of its biggest Western economic partners. US President-elect Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to ask China’s most-important man to free Lai, while British leader Keir Starmer voiced concerns about his case during a leaders’ meeting this week at the Group of 20 summit in Brazil.
Lai has been kept in solitary confinement since December 2020, according to a team of international lawyers advocating for his freedom. The UK has called for his release and demanded consular access, saying Lai is a British citizen. Hong Kong authorities deny Lai has been mistreated and claim he chose the isolated cell.
The ruling Communist Party is unlikely to bow to international pressure. Beijing accuses the former media mogul of being a traitor who colluded with China’s top rival, the US, to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials. His pro-democracy Apple Daily was effectively shuttered by Hong Kong authorities in a sweeping crackdown after it backed protests in 2019 against China’s tightening control.
The former textile tycoon is accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. He’s also been accused of conspiracy to publish seditious material under a colonial-era law the government has revived.
Relentless Critic
For as long as he’s had a public platform, Lai has been a critic of the Chinese government. He famously insulted former leader Li Peng by calling him the “son of a turtle egg,” and his tabloid backed mass protests in 2014 and 2019 calling for greater democracy. Beijing branded those movements “color revolutions” designed to topple the government.
Lai fled communist China on a boat when he was 12. The refugee from the southern province of Guangdong amassed a fortune as a retail mogul before founding one of the city’s most popular tabloids. He chalked up that success to freedoms he enjoyed in Hong Kong, and said he founded the newspaper just before the city’s return to China in 1997 to defend those rights.
That mission thrust his publication into the spotlight in 2019, as its front pages implored residents to fight for liberties not enjoyed in mainland China. After Beijing imposed a national security law the following year, such clarion calls became illegal. Lai was arrested and the paper shuttered.
His lawyers have argued that the government failed to provide evidence that Lai’s conspiracy plot remained in place after the national security law came into effect in 2020. Prosecutors rebutted the claim, saying the testimonies from Lai’s associates showed the offending acts didn’t stop after the legislation was enacted.
A guilty verdict and a potential lengthy sentence could worsen Hong Kong relations with the US and other Western governments that have called for his release.
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