Hong Kong Court Sends CCP Critic, Pro-Democracy Publisher Jimmy Lai To Prison For 20 Years

Pro-democracy newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong on Monday under a national security law imposed by Beijing and widely used to crack down on critics of the Chinese Communist Party. 

Lai, a 78-year-old Chinese-born British citizen and media tycoon, was convicted in December 2025 of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and to publish seditious material. His newspaper, Apple Daily, was published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021, when authorities froze its assets and arrested top executives, forcing it to shut down.  

China governs Hong Kong as a special administrative region, but Beijing has tightened its grip in recent years, imposing the law used to prosecute and sentence Lai.

Lai was accused of supporting the massive pro-democracy protests that broke out in Hong Kong in 2019 and has been detained since his arrest in August 2020, spending more than 1800 days in solitary confinement. He was held under the 2020 National Security Law, which punishes speech or conduct that the government claims threatens its authority. 

“We welcome the court’s heavy sentence of 20 years for Jimmy Lai. It highlights his role as the mastermind and behind-the-scenes manipulator,” Hong Kong police official Steve Li after the sentencing on Monday. 

The New York Times reported that Lai smiled and waved to supporters in the courtroom gallery after his sentencing. Six former Apple Daily employees were also sentenced Monday, receiving prison terms ranging from six to ten years.  

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Lai’s prosecution was “politically motivated” and that he was punished for expressing his viewpoints. 

“For the 78-year-old, this is tantamount to a life sentence. I remain deeply concerned for Mr Lai’s health, and I again call on the Hong Kong authorities to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family,” she said. 

Claire Lai, Jimmy Lai’s daughter, called the sentence “heartbreakingly cruel.” 

“If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars,” she said. 

Sebastian Lai said that his father had “decided to dedicate his life to defending the freedoms of Hong Kong”.

“For that heroism, he’s being punished, he’s essentially getting a death sentence for that,” he told the BBC. “Surely a man who has given so much for liberty, for freedom, deserves a bit of it himself.”

The State Department condemned the sentencing and called for Lai’s release. 

“The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case. It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, casting aside the international commitments Beijing made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,” Marco Rubio said. “After enduring a trial lasting two years, and detention in prison for more than five, Mr. Lai and his family have suffered enough.  The United States urges the authorities to grant Mr. Lai humanitarian parole.”

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), the chair of the House Select Committee on China, said that the sentencing was the “latest stain on the human rights record of the Chinese Communist Party.” 

“Lai and his Apple Daily colleagues are being punished for exposing the truth about the CCP’s attacks on the rights of Hong Kongers,” he said. “President Trump made it abundantly clear to General Secretary Xi in October that Lai should be freed and allowed to leave Hong Kong to be with his family.”