Free Jimmy Lai

By having its kangaroo court in Hong Kong convict media magnate Jimmy Lai of trumped-up national security charges, China has reminded the world it’s still a communist dictatorship where human dignity, let alone human rights, have no place in the regime’s considerations.

Taiwan, take heed: China’s communist leaders would also destroy your island and take away your freedom.

China destroyed Hong Kong, even though it promised the former colonial power, Britain, and the world, it would respect its separate system for 50 years after Britain handed the city to Beijing in 1997.

The conviction of Lai under the national security law that Red China imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 is a sham. President Trump should work to reverse this verdict through diplomatic channels and next time he meets China’s dictator Xi Jinping, in an encounter expected to take place next year.

The U.S., in fact, is directly implicated in the case.

The 800-page verdict by three judges selected by China’s satrapy in Hong Kong said that Lai had extended a “constant invitation” to the U.S. government to bring down the Chinese government.

Lai denied all charges.

Indeed, after the law took effect, Lai even stopped calling for sanctions on China to make it comply with its promises to Britain. But the verdict said Lai persisted in his supposed collusion, “continuing though in a less explicit way.”

After the verdict, China‘s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office rubbed salt in the wound by calling Lai a “running dog” and a “lackey,” of outside forces. This showed once again, by using language straight out of the Cultural Revolution, that shiny new buildings may litter Shanghai, and the roads of China’s cities may now be cluttered with cars, not bicycles, but China’s leadership today continues to be Maoist.

“For a long time, Lai opposed China at every turn, colluded with foreign and external forces, and committed all manner of wrongdoing against Hong Kong and the country,” said the statement.

Lai’s 30-year-old son Sebastien told reporters in London that “In the 800-page verdict they have there is essentially nothing, nothing that incriminates him. This is a perfect example of how the national security law has been molded and weaponized against someone who essentially said stuff that they didn’t like.”

“This verdict proves that the authorities still fear our father, even in his weakened state, for what he represents,” said Lai’s daughter Claire in a statement.

“We stand by his innocence and condemn this miscarriage of justice.”

Jimmy is a Roman Catholic, a kind, generous, intensely intelligent man who is a democrat to the core.

He used his Apple Daily newspaper to print the truth even after 1997. I know he was warned repeatedly by those close to him to flee Hong Kong. He refused because he is also the most courageous man I know.

And I do know him.

Jimmy has been a friend for three decades. I used to visit his house in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Peninsula often when I was in Hong Kong with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, enjoy his generosity, and especially the Cantonese cuisine of his personal chef.

Sebastien, then a young child, used to run around mischievously while the adults talked.

That is what I treasured and miss the most: our long talks about politics, philosophy, and devotion to God. He once said to me, “liberty is like oxygen, you take it for granted until someone takes it away. Then you do everything you can to regain it.”

 I can tell you that Jimmy is an extraordinary person, well worth trying to save.

Lai Chee-ying washed up on the British colony as a stow away from his native Canton in 1959, when he was only 12. From nothing, he built a business empire.

He first started in the garment industry, with the Giordano clothing retailer he founded. China then forced him to get rid of it.

He also founded Next Magazine, in 1990, which later became Next Media, parent company to Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper.

Apple refused to buckle to China’s communists.  They continued to print the truth, which is why this good man—a diabetic who just turned 78—is in solitary confinement, his fingernails reportedly changing color and falling off, as his health rapidly deteriorates.

Think about that next time China’s propagandists, and its running dogs right here in this country, in sports, the entertainment industry, and media, try to tell you that China is a normal country.

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