Canada – The Globe and Mail, September 25, 2024
If the Communist Party of China had its way, no one would be talking about Jimmy Lai, because he is the living contradiction of Beijing’s lies about Hong Kong.
Mr. Lai, who is 76, has been held in solitary confinement in Hong Kong for three years and nine months. His cell is inhumanely hot in summer, and he is allowed only 50 minutes of exercise a day.
His trial on charges filed under Hong Kong’s repressive National Security Law has lasted more than 160 days and won’t resume until mid-November. There are grave concerns about his health, and that, if and when he is convicted by Beijing’s hand-picked judges in a what amounts to a modern-day communist show trial, he will be sentenced to die in prison.
His crime? Publishing a newspaper called Apple Daily that promoted democracy in Hong Kong, until authorities arrested him and forced the closure of his business.
Mr. Lai’s arrest and trial have been condemned around the world. Both houses of Canada’s Parliament have called for his release and the end of his prosecution. But the Canadian government itself has yet to do so. It has also failed to acknowledge what has become obvious: that Hong Kong is now indistinguishable from mainland China when it comes to silencing regime critics.
The National Security Law (NSL) that Beijing forced on Hong Kong in 2020, combined with the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance that Hong Kong enacted in March, means “risk factors that were formerly limited to mainland China are now also a concern in Hong Kong and could affect commerce, trade, and seemingly routine individual commercial activities in Hong Kong,” the United States government warned a business advisory this month.
