CHINESE SHOW-TRIAL “JUSTICE:” The Railroading of Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai Continues: The charges against him are laughable, but the Chinese Communist Party is intent on keeping him locked up.
The latest show trial of Hong Kong’s most famous political prisoner will conclude this week. All that is left is the guilty verdict.
Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, stands accused of fraud. His alleged crime? Subleasing a small corner—well less than 1%—of the headquarters of his media company, Next Digital, to a Lai family company. Mr. Lai paid market rent to the publicly traded Next Digital, which disclosed the arrangement to shareholders.
The Chinese Communist Party is desperate to keep Mr. Lai, 74, in jail. A successful entrepreneur, Mr. Lai jumped into media after the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings catalyzed his interest in politics. Apple Daily became the most important pro-democracy voice in Hong Kong, and it remained so even after Mr. Lai was jailed in December 2020.
Under a sweeping national-security law imposed by Beijing, the Hong Kong government froze Apple Daily’s bank accounts, without any court order or review, forcing the shutdown of its news operations in June 2021. Hong Kong authorities also charged Mr. Lai with national-security law violations and arrested six senior staffers, including Apple Daily’s chief executive officer and editor in chief. All members of the Apple Daily Seven remain in jail, denied bail, more than a year later.
The lease violation Mr. Lai is accused of committing has always been a civil—not criminal—matter in Hong Kong. Mr. Lai’s original jailing in December 2020 came after a judge revoked bail when prosecutors argued that he should be locked up to keep him from reoffending. As if, once sprung, Mr. Lai would do something really dangerous, like sign a lease for a flower stall and instead open a coffee shop.
The fraud case would be laughable if it hadn’t resulted in Mr. Lai’s imprisonment. After bail was revoked, a judge found Mr. Lai guilty on a pair of civil disobedience charges and sentenced him to 14 months in prison. A conviction for inciting a riot came after Mr. Lai silently lit a candle to commemorate the Tiananmen Square killings.
Mr. Lai would have been eligible for release next week after serving the civil-disobedience sentences, but the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t want him to go free.
He should be out of jail today, since it’s already Tuesday in Hong Kong. Should be.
Be glad you live in America, where something like this could never happen to a critic of the people in power.