Jimmy Lai: will Hong Kong media tycoon die in jail? – The Latest

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:09The Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of foreign collusion and sedition. He has long been outspoken as a critic of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong. He had the opportunity to leave Hong Kong many times over when it was clear that the net was closing in and he chose not to. He said, I'm a Hong Konger, I will stay here. It's definitely by far the harshest sentence that's been given out. At 78, 20 years, he'll be close to 100. So basically a death sentence. You know, the realisation that I might never see my father again.

0:43It's hit a lot harder than I thought it would. He's 78, he's lost a lot of weight, he's diabetic. He has been kept in solitary confinement for most of the past five years. People are saying it's tantamount to a life sentence, that he may die in prison. From the Guardians today in Focus, This is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoth. Well, joining me is Amy Hawkins, Senior China Correspondent. Hi, Lucy. So British citizen Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong. Just before we get into the detail of that sentence, remind us who he is and why his case is so significant. Yeah, so Jimmy Lai is a 78-year-old British citizen.

1:24Well, he once was one of Hong Kong's richest men. And he has this kind of rags to riches story of arriving in Hong Kong as a child refugee, working his way up the factory floor and then going into business and becoming a massive media mogul. And lots of people described him as the Rupert Murdoch of Asia. But unlike other Hong Kong billionaires, he was always very outspoken against the Chinese Communist Party. He has been a longtime pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong. Yeah, and he was first arrested in 2020, right, under new harsh national security, a national security law that was brought in in that time in Hong Kong to criminalise most forms of dissent.

2:02That legislation was then used against him to charge him, right? Yeah, exactly. So you might remember in 2019 and 2020, there were massive protests in Hong Kong with millions of people taking to the streets to oppose the Chinese Communist Party's rule in Hong Kong. And after many months of this, Beijing imposed a very harsh national security law in the summer of 2020. which criminalised most forms of dissent. And very soon after that, Jimmy Lai, who's kind of the most high profile voice in these protests, was arrested and charged under that law. Yeah. And you said, I mean, he is widely spoken about as being the Rupert Murdoch of Asia.

2:41Crucial to that was his role in Apple Daily, which was closed around that time in 2021. Right. But talk about how significant Apple Daily was. Yeah. So Apple Daily was founded by Jimmy Lai in the 1990s. And it was one of the most popular newspapers in Hong Kong. It was quite, in some ways, quite a salacious tabloid with celebrity gossip and everything. But it also frequently ran editorials supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong and calling for the Chinese Communist Party to not have so much influence there. And so that newspaper was hugely influential in earlier protests and in getting people out on the streets to oppose the government.

3:19And it kind of was maybe no surprise that when China brought in this very harsh national security law. One of its first targets was Jimmy Lai, the publisher of Apple Daily. And then the following year, the newspaper itself was forced to close. Yes, so Jimmy Lai is now 78. To be handed a 20-year sentence is incredibly severe. Yeah, definitely. So, you know, people are saying it's tantamount to a life sentence that he may die in prison. He's 78. He's lost a lot of weight. He's diabetic. He has been kept in solitary confinement for most of the past five years. That has been at his request. And so there's some debate over the extent to which that is seen as a punitive measure or something that he prefers.

3:59But nonetheless, the conditions in Hong Kong's prisons where it reaches, you know, more than 40 degrees in the summer, and they don't have good air conditioning, there are serious concerns about his health. Yeah. And was the length of that sentence a surprise? What is the justification as far as the leadership in Hong Kong is concerned? Yes, there haven't been that many national security cases yet. It's hard to judge, but it's definitely by far the harshest sentence that's been given out since the national security law was passed. The things he was charged with carried a maximum penalty of a life sentence.

4:32So I guess the authorities in Hong Kong have avoided the headlines saying life sentence, but for someone of his age, it is effectively the same thing. And for someone with such a huge network of support and who is so powerful, has been very wealthy, he's a billionaire. I mean, his supporters are saying he's becoming a kind of martyr figure and that his jailing is very symbolic. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, reporters at the border this morning were saying that, you know, he represents press freedom and democracy being jailed in Hong Kong. And he'd been described as a martyr, particularly because he had the opportunity to leave Hong Kong many times over when it was clear that the net was closing in and he chose not to.

5:11He said, I'm a Hong Konger, I will stay here. So he knew kind of what he was getting, what was coming. Yeah, that's right. Because around the time of the national security law, there was a visa scheme introduced by the British government. to allow people to apply for residency here and leave the country, which Jimmy Lai, as you say, notably refused to do. The response from the British government, and we'll come on because Stama was in Beijing, in China, a couple of weeks ago, right, which seems like, you know, now bad timing. But the UK government, in response to this sentence, have extended that visa scheme for Hong Kongers who might wish to leave now.

5:49Yeah, so they've extended this scheme, which is called the British National Overseas Scheme, which comes from the fact that Hong Kong used to be a British territory and so there's a historic relationship. But Jimmy Lai's supporters, I think, generally think expanding the scheme doesn't really mean anything for Jimmy Lai. Obviously, he's in prison, he can't use it, and he's a British citizen anyway. He doesn't need a scheme to come to the UK. And for Hong Kongers, it doesn't really expand it by so much that it changes the situation for many people in Hong Kong who wish to leave. But Starmer was in China a couple of weeks ago, as we say, on a trip that was designed to build economic ties with Beijing.

6:27It was something that he was asked repeatedly by journalists who were traveling with him about Jimmy Lai's case. So the timing that this came just a couple of weeks after that trip is likely to be going down badly in number 10. Yes. And, you know, the prime minister, all they would say was that he raised the case with Xi Jinping, China's leader. It's not clear kind of what, if any, pressure is being exerted beyond that. I mean, it could well be that behind the scenes, the UK government is really pressing. And he is a British citizen, we should say. Yes, so he's a British citizen. The Chinese government doesn't recognise that.

7:02They describe him as a Chinese national. But nonetheless, from the UK perspective, the British government has condemned the conviction and the sentence and called for his immediate release. The Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister's spokesperson today, you know, were both saying in very strong terms that they demand his unconditional release as soon as possible. That said, behind the scenes, it's not clear what, if any, pressure the UK can put on China to make that happen. Uimi, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me. That's it for today. Thanks to you for listening to this episode of The Latest, the new evening edition of Today in Focus.

7:35Today in Focus will be back with you tomorrow morning. We'll be back tomorrow night. This episode was presented by me, Lucy Hoth. It was produced by Bryony Moore. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin and the lead producer was Zoe Hitch.

7:54This is The Guardian.

7:59you