Jimmy Lai’s 20-year prison sentence under Hong Kong’s national security law (NSL) is severe and, given he is 78 years old, amounts to an effective life sentence. But in the light of the judges’ remarks when they found him guilty and during a mitigation hearing last month, it was not surprising.
A self-made millionaire who owned Apple Daily, a tabloid newspaper that championed democracy in Hong Kong, Lai was convicted on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign powers to endanger national security and one of publishing seditious material. The prosecution said he encouraged the United States, Britain and others to sanction Hong Kong and Beijing over the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations and the imposition of the NSL in 2020.
The sedition charge related to 161 opinion pieces published in Apple Daily that were critical of the Chinese Communist Party and the government in Hong Kong. The panel of three judges shaved a little off the sentence on each count because of Lai’s age, health and voluntary solitary confinement, but he is not due for release until he is 96 years old.
The NSL, a law drafted in Beijing, has non-negotiable sentencing bands and the judges concluded that Lai’s conspiracy offences fell into the “grave” category carrying a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. But because Hong Kong has a common law system, they are also obliged to apply the common law sentencing principles of retribution, deterrence and prevention.
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Human rights groups condemned the sentence and Britain’s foreign secretary Yvette Cooper called for Lai’s release on humanitarian grounds. Democratic senator Jeff Markey called for the closure of Hong Kong’s economic and trade offices in the US and the European External Action Service said Lai should be released immediately.
Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson told them all to get lost, describing Lai as “the principal mastermind and perpetrator behind the series of riots that shook Hong Kong” in 2019.
“Jimmy Lai is a Chinese national. The judicial case is purely an internal affair of [Hong Kong]. We urge relevant countries to respect China’s sovereignty, respect the rule of law in Hong Kong, not make irresponsible remarks on [Hong Kong’s] handling of the case, and not interfere in Hong Kong’s judicial affairs and China’s internal affairs in any form,” spokesperson Lin Jian said.
The US has lost any authority it may ever have had to lecture others about democratic standards and due process and Britain’s criminalisation of pro-Palestinian demonstrations undermines its liberal credentials.
In the meantime, Hong Kong’s authorities have reassured the financial services industry that if they stay out of politics, they have nothing to fear from the national security law, and the industry is content to keep its head down and to carry on making money.
