China Sentences Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai to Twenty Years in Prison

What Happened?

China has sentenced Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai to twenty years in prison for national security offenses. He had already been kept in solitary confinement since 2020.

Mr. Lai’s sentencing is the harshest under the new national security law, which was passed in 2020. Mr. Lai was a frequent critic of the Chinese government, and he often used his newspaper, Apple Daily, to direct criticism at China’s elected officials.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said, ‘I again call on the Hong Kong authorities to end this appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family,’ since Mr. Lai is also a British citizen.

Why it Matters

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentence ‘an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case,’ and called on authorities in Beijing to grant Lai ‘humanitarian parole.’ In the past several years, a series of widespread protests have rocked Hong Kong, with most of the protestors angry with the Chinese government’s efforts to control Hong Kong.

Jimmy Lai used his media resources to publicly criticize the Chinese government, which often inspired protestors to join demonstrations in Hong Kong. Under the new national security law for Hong Kong, criticizing government officials or policies is considered a criminal offense, regardless of whether the criticism has merit.

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China’s policies towards Hong Kong have been unpopular with many people who live there, and it seems clear the Chinese government is using the national security law to make criticizing the government a national security violation. By handing down such a harsh sentence to Mr. Lai, it also seems clear China’s government wants to intimidate anyone else from publicly criticizing the Chinese government.

Authoritarian regimes often label criticism of the government or elected officials as criminal or unpatriotic because they have no respect for public opinion or free speech, and because they know the only way to silence their critics is through force.

Neither China nor Hong Kong has any legal equivalent of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, so there are no legal mechanisms to prevent Beijing from passing statutes like the national security law. In the United States, such a law would violate the U.S. Constitution and would be struck down by the courts. 

Mr. Lai’s sentence will likely anger pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong, and his sentence could trigger a new wave of protests, which could lead to a violent showdown with Chinese authorities.

How it Affects You

The passage of the national security law and Mr. Lai’s imprisonment for expressing an opinion the government didn’t like are major steps backwards for China and Hong Kong. Free expression can act as a safety valve by providing unhappy citizens with a non-violent way to air their grievances.

If that safety valve is shut down, pressure can build up until it reaches the level of a violent explosion, which undermines national security far more than protests.

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