Canada, National Post, September 21, 2024
Jimmy Lai could well have decamped to Canada as the Chinese Communist Party started strangling Hong Kong’s freedoms four years ago.
The publisher of the fiercely independent, pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper — effectively shut down by the government three years ago — owns hotels in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., and has a twin sister and other family members here, son Sebastien noted this week on a stopover in Toronto. Sebastien himself says he has fond memories of visiting Canada as a child. This is where he learned English and attended summer camp in Ontario cottage country.
But instead of fleeing the enclave when Beijing imposed a widely criticized national security law (NSL), arrested pro-democracy politicians and otherwise clamped down on free-wheeling Hong Kong, the elder Lai decided to stay.
The tycoon hoped to spare the paper’s journalists persecution by offering himself up as the face of Apple Daily, says Sebastien.
“He stayed to act as a lightning rod for these people. He knew that the Hong Kong government wanted heads, so to speak, or people in prison,” the son said in an interview.
“On one hand, I’m incredibly proud of him. I can’t really imagine how hard it is, the strength it takes to do this for 30 years, when you could very well argue that he could have had a much more comfortable life just bending the knee.”
The result of Lai remaining was shocking, but somewhat predictable. The publisher was arrested when 200 police officers raided Apple Daily in 2020 and has spent most of the last four years in prison, the most prominent victim of the crackdown. He’s in the midst of a trial on charges under the national security law, though it appears his chief offence was merely to loudly criticize Hong Kong’s rulers.
To make matters worse, said Sebastien, the 77-year-old is being kept in conditions that would seem more suited to the most dangerous of criminals — solitary confinement, sweltering temperatures, lack of daylight, no independent medical care for his diabetes. The devout Catholic has been denied the opportunity to take Communion, he says.
And there are signs Jimmy’s health has recently taken a turn for the worse, to the point he has been unable to attend some court appearances, said his son.
Sebastien is worried his father will not survive the ordeal, even if the court metes out less than the life sentence allowed under the NSL. He has been unable to talk to him in four years.
“He’s practically being baked alive. It breaks my heart,” said Sebastien. “He’s an elderly man now, but given the conditions, it wouldn’t be surprising if he just passed away in jail … It’s not easy to know that your father could die at any moment and that he would never get that time (in jail) back.”
