OPINION:
Jimmy Lai, 77, sits in solitary confinement in Hong Kong’s high-security Stanley Prison. His window is boarded up, and the scorching-hot cell lacks air conditioning. Last year, Hong Kong authorities rejected Mr. Lai’s motion for appeal. His crime? Practicing journalism.
Mr. Lai founded Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s only mass-circulation Chinese-language newspaper. Its editorial position supported China’s official “one country, two systems” policy toward the island.
In 1984, Beijing and Britain agreed on that constitutional principle for Hong Kong: There would be only one China, but each region would retain its own governmental system and conduct its own legal and economic affairs.
In 2000, after pro-democracy protests broke out on the island, the Chinese Communist Party retaliated by having Hong Kong adopt the National Security Law. This statute betrayed the original agreement by criminalizing free speech in Hong Kong under the heading of subversion, secession, treason and “external interference.”
Apple Daily’s headquarters were raided, and Hong Kong authorities froze its and Mr. Lai’s assets. The political prosecution of Mr. Lai began.
The Washington Times met with Mr. Lai’s son, Sebastien, who is lobbying the Trump administration for his father’s release. Jimmy Lai has been a British citizen since he was 12, entered Hong Kong as a stowaway on a boat, and his health is fading. He is diabetic and has lost a significant amount of weight since his imprisonment, at times requiring a heart monitor. He is also a grandfather who has never met his 1-year-old granddaughter.
Sebastien Lai is concerned his father will die in prison, thousands of miles from his family, which is in Britain. Mr. Lai’s sham trial ended in August, and the forthcoming verdict is obvious given Hong Kong’s 100% conviction rate in national security cases.
Before Mr. Lai’s imprisonment, he met with the top foreign policy officials in President Trump’s first-term Cabinet to advise them of Hong Kong’s plight. He urged China to return to its 1984 promise of “one country, two systems.” He solicited foreign leaders to write columns in his paper and publish editorials on the island’s behalf.
For that, he was accused of two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” Beijing charged him with being the “mastermind” behind the Hong Kong protests of the Chinese Communist Party.
So far, world leaders have pleaded for Mr. Lai’s release, but Beijing has ignored them. Sebastien Lai hopes Mr. Trump’s second-term persuasion will produce different results.
As Mr. Trump meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week and is set to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, Sebastien Lai is sanguine that his father’s name might be mentioned.
Before Mr. Trump won his second term, he vowed to free Mr. Lai. “One-hundred percent I’ll get him out. He’ll be easy to get out,” Mr. Trump said in a podcast. By August, Mr. Trump’s trademark confidence seemed to fade.
“I didn’t say 100% I’ll save him. I said 100% I’m going to be bringing it up, and I’ve already brought it up, and I’m going to do everything I can to save him,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show” in an interview. He added that Mr. Xi won’t be “thrilled.”
As Mr. Trump negotiates with China over trade, tariffs and TikTok, Mr. Lai’s fate hangs in the balance.
If Mr. Trump can secure Mr. Lai’s release, it would be a major international and humanitarian coup. We at The Washington Times are rooting for his success.
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