Jimmy Lai has endured more than 140 days of hearings since November 2023, when his trial for violations of Hong Kong’s National Security law began following a postponement of almost a year.
Hong Kong’s authorities are drawing out legal proceedings against Hong Kong businessman and freedom advocate Jimmy Lai to send a message on behalf of Beijing’s Chinese Communist Party that democratic activism won’t be tolerated.
Lai, the founder of popular independent media outlets Apple Daily and Next Digital, has already been convicted four times in the past four years on spurious charges related to violating an office lease agreement and organizing and participating in public demonstrations, including a candlelight vigil marking the anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s massacre of student demonstrators on June 4, 1989, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
There is little reason to believe that Hong Kong’s court will issue a fair ruling on Lai’s case. Hong Kong’s secretary for security has publicly boasted about the government’s 100% success rate in prosecuting charges under the National Security Law. But the four sentences handed down to Lai, who is 77 and diabetic, have already taken a heavy toll on his health.
During his presidential campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump stated he could “100%” secure Lai’s release from prison, and, in February, the U.S. State Department called for Lai’s unconditional release on the social media platform X. The Trump Administration shouldn’t delay in following up on the president’s promise – as well as obtain permission for Lai to seek medical treatment.
The People’s Republic of China has increasingly cracked down on freedom, democracy, and accountability in the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region in the decades since the United Kingdom handed over control of the territory to China in 1997 – despite Beijing’s promise to maintain “One Country, Two Systems.”
In between trials and scheduled hearings, Lai has been subjected to extended periods of solitary confinement for over 23 hours per day. He has also been denied fundamental religious freedoms during his imprisonment. Prison authorities have banned him from receiving the Catholic sacrament of Communion during occasional visits by a priest. The current charges he faces under the National Security Law carry up to a life sentence in prison.
The George W. Bush Institute previously highlighted Lai’s imprisonment in its Struggle for Freedom series, and Strategerist podcast.
Hong Kong’s National Security Law has had a profoundly chilling effect on free speech in the city since it was adopted in 2020. Last year, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed an ordinance under the law adding five new “endangering national security” offenses to four preexisting ones. The April 2024 ordinance also allows individuals to be prosecuted for some activities outside Hong Kong’s borders.
Researchers have tracked almost 300 individual arrests between July 2020 – when the National Security Law was implemented – and July 2024. Another 158 have been charged and 77 convicted.
In November 2024, Hong Kong’s High Court issued prison sentences of four to 10 years to a group of 45 pro-democracy advocates who had participated in an informal primary ahead of the city’s anticipated 2020 Legislative Council elections. Among them, legal scholar Benny Tai was accused of coordinating activity the state labeled as “subversion.” He received the harshest sentence at 10 years, while democracy activist Joshua Wong got four years and eight months on top of another prison term he was already serving.
Lai’s son, Sebastien, urged the international community to secure his father’s release during a public speech in February, citing Jimmy Lai’s fragile health and the harsh conditions of his imprisonment.
During the Geneva Human Rights and Democracy Summit, Sebastien Lai recalled his father’s remarkable declaration of faith under pressure while at a tense public hearing: “In the end of the day, the truth will come out in the kingdom of God, and that is good enough for me,” Jimmy Lai said at the time. “But he needn’t wait that long.”
