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Judges in the Chinese Communist Party-run city of Hong Kong are now considering their verdict in the high-profile prosecution of Jimmy Lai. A publisher and pro-democracy activist, Lai has been imprisoned for five years now.
The crime of which he is accused?
Supposedly breaching Hong Kong’s national security law by advocating democracy in the former British colony. Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper was a regular thorn in the side of Hong Kong authorities — for full disclosure, I once had a column for Apple Daily — bringing attention to corruption and advocating the democratic rule of law that China committed to upholding when it took possession of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom on July 1, 1997. I sat down with the head of the “Free Jimmy Lai Campaign,” Jimmy’s son, Sebastien Lai, last week. You can watch our discussion above.
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Still, with President Donald Trump set to visit the United Kingdom on his second state visit this week, there is a new opportunity for the president and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to make progress on Lai’s plight. The British government has tentatively raised its concerns with China over Lai’s treatment — Lai is a U.K. citizen and does not have Chinese citizenship — and Trump has repeatedly said he wants to “save” Lai. The two leaders could issue a joint statement calling on Beijing to show mercy on Lai as a sign of good faith in relation to other policy issues, or as a gesture to the Catholic Church — Lai is Catholic. Trump and Starmer could add that they will take more coercive action if Lai’s situation is not resolved.
That more forceful approach could, for example, include introducing new sanctions against major British and American businesses that invest heavily in Hong Kong. These corporations include HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Johnson and Johnson, Google, Meta, Uber, Visa, and Sun Life. Aside from HSBC, all of these corporations pay large annual fees to sit at the “leadership table” of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Disregarding their own corporate human rights commitments, these businesses often fete CCP officials in return for corporate favoritism. But neither they nor Beijing want Lai’s plight to serve as an obstacle to their continued, lucrative transactions. Appropriately applied pressure from both the U.S. and the U.K. could be employed to facilitate Lai’s freedom.
Other targets of new U.S. or U.K. pressure could be individual servants of the CCP’s injustice. Take the example of Lord David Neuberger, a former U.K. Supreme Court president. Neuberger receives a $51,300 monthly stipend for traveling to Hong Kong to serve as an appeals court judge. He and other foreign judges like him are put up in five-star hotels free of charge. As I’ve previously noted in relation to Neuberger, the added benefit of British Airways first-class return flights to Hong Kong means he can “enjoy starters such as the Smoked chalk stream trout, Avruga caviar, creme fraiche, and sorrel. He could revel in main courses including Chicken Milanese with truffle emulsion and a fried egg. The finest offerings of wine and champagne are also available.” This is a man who has sold his soul and his legal training in order to feed gluttonously at the Chinese Communist Party trough.
If the U.K. refuses a joint pressure campaign toward Beijing for fear of harming its pro-trade agenda with China, Trump should warn that he’ll review the recent U.S.-U.K. trade agreement — Starmer’s government has moved closer to China, against the interests of the U.S.-U.K. special relationship. This is a critical concern being that the U.S. anticipates a significant likelihood of military conflict with China over Taiwan by the year 2030.
We must emphasize that Lai’s imprisonment is patently unjust. Under the Sino-British joint declaration, a binding international treaty, China committed to upholding Hong Kong’s democratic character and rule of law until the year 2047. Breaking their word, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the CCP show how they detest Lai and his followers for their courageous stance in support of human freedom. Instead, they want to see Hong Kong turn into just another Chinese city — a place where political corruption, falling living standards, and incessant surveillance online and on the street are the norm. That Lai’s case is being ruled upon by court judges rather than a jury of his peers is only further evidence of the CCP’s fixation on control.
Lai’s supporters rightly haven’t given up hope that a solution might be found to his unjust predicament. While any agreement would have to be compatible with overriding U.S. national security concerns, the breadth and complexity of the U.S.-China relationship mean that there is room for a deal to be made.
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But the urgency in reaching an agreement to see Lai freed is real. The 77-year-old is suffering from various serious ailments. Prison conditions in Hong Kong are especially awful, designed to subject prisoners to both physical suffering and psychological degradation. After five years of this treatment, Lai is not doing well.
Were this just another political prisoner, of which there are tragically hundreds of thousands more in China, Lai’s plight might not rise to the importance of presidential action. But what makes Lai different is that he represents a generation of Hongkongers who spoke out for freedom against great personal risk. Lai has been imprisoned for too long. Trump and Starmer should take action to relieve this good man of his suffering.