Twenty years. For a 78-year-old man, that’s essentially a death sentence dressed up in legal language. Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy media tycoon who built an empire from nothing and dared to speak truth to power, has been handed the harshest punishment yet under Hong Kong’s national security law. His crime? Meeting with American officials and running a newspaper that championed freedom.
Hong Kong’s leader called the sentence “deeply gratifying.” Let that sink in for a moment. A government official expressing deep gratification over sending an elderly man to die in prison for journalism and advocacy. This is where we are now.
The Man Who Dared to Remember Tiananmen
Lai’s journey reads like something out of a novel. He arrived in Hong Kong at 12 as a stowaway on a fishing boat, fleeing mainland China with nothing. He worked his way up from menial jobs to founding Giordano, building a multi-million dollar clothing empire. He had made it. He could have stayed quiet, enjoyed his wealth, and lived comfortably.
But then came Tiananmen Square in 1989. The crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing changed everything for Lai. He couldn’t unsee what the Chinese government was capable of doing to its own people. That’s when he pivoted from business mogul to democracy activist, launching Apple Daily and Next magazine as weapons against authoritarianism.
“I got everything I have because of Hong Kong,” he told the BBC in his last interview as a free man in 2020. “If this is payback time, this is my redemption.”
A Trial That Was Anything But
The case against Lai supposedly hinges on meetings he had with Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo during the 2019 protests. He spoke to American officials about what was happening in Hong Kong. That’s it. That’s what got him 20 years.
When Lai testified in November, he insisted he never used foreign contacts to influence policy, only to relay information about the situation. But in the new Hong Kong, even talking becomes conspiracy. The judges condemned his “serious and grave criminal conduct” and declared his actions belonged to the “most serious” category of crimes.
Outside the courthouse on Monday, supporters had camped for days just hoping to see him one last time. Inside, Lai wore a white jacket and black glasses, smiling brightly at his family before nodding calmly as his fate was sealed. Some members of the public sobbed. His wife Teresa fought back tears.
The International Response That Means Nothing
Countries are “expressing concern.” The UN human rights chief is “calling for release.” The UK government, where Lai holds citizenship and where his family now lives, has done essentially nothing meaningful. His son Sebastien told the BBC that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recent visit to China was a wasted opportunity, and honestly, what else can you call it?
“The sentence signifies the total destruction of the Hong Kong legal system and the end of justice,” Sebastien said. He’s been raising his father’s imprisonment with the UK government repeatedly. His father is still in prison.
China’s foreign ministry couldn’t care less about international pressure. They call it an internal affair and insist the sentencing demonstrates Hong Kong’s rule of law. It demonstrates something, alright. Just not rule of law.
Rights groups are using words like “draconian” and “egregious.” Jodie Ginsberg from the Committee to Protect Journalists called it “the final nail in the coffin for freedom of the press in Hong Kong.” She’s calling on the international community to step up pressure if we want press freedom respected anywhere in the world.
What This Really Means
Six other former Apple Daily executives and two activists were also sentenced on Monday, with terms ranging from just over six years to 10 years. This isn’t about one man. This is about sending a message so loud and so brutal that everyone else shuts up permanently.
The 2019 protests terrified Beijing. Millions of Hong Kongers took to the streets demanding freedom, and China’s response was the national security law, a sledgehammer designed to pulverize any remaining democratic aspirations. Hundreds have been arrested under it. Jimmy Lai is just the most prominent victim.
Human Rights Watch’s Elaine Pearson put it bluntly: Lai’s case “shows the Chinese government’s determination to crush independent journalism and silence anyone who dares to criticise the Communist Party.”
Lai has already been in jail for more than five years from earlier convictions for fraud and unauthorized assemblies. Now he’ll likely spend whatever time he has left behind bars. For what? For believing Hong Kong deserved the freedoms it was promised. For thinking a free press mattered. For refusing to bow.
If the international community actually cared about press freedom and human rights beyond press releases and carefully worded statements, an elderly journalist wouldn’t be dying in prison for the crime of journalism while the world watches and does nothing.
