By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-11-21 21:01:25 | Updated at 2024-11-22 01:36:54
4 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // Jimmy Lai, a media mogul and Catholic convert, testified in court this week almost four years after he was imprisoned in Hong Kong on accusations of violating China’s controversial national security law.
Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong and a hero of Catholic resistance to Communism, attended the November 20 hearing, according to the South China Morning Post.
Cardinal Zen arrived at the court alongside Jimmy Lai’s wife Teresa, shortly before Lai himself was brought in with an escort of four officers. The Lais’ daughter Claire Lai Choi also attended.
CatholicVote reported in October that Cardinal Zen “remains a prominent voice criticizing China’s repression and persecution of the Catholic Church.” An open investigation also remains ongoing against Cardinal Zen for allegedly violating Hong Kong’s national security law.
Lai’s November 19 appearance in court
On November 19, Lai, a United Kingdom citizen and founder of the independent news publication Apple Daily, gave his defense in the court. First detained by Chinese officials in December 2020, Lai could face a sentencing of up to a lifetime in prison.
Reuters reported on November 20 that Lai has previously “pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had accused and convicted Lai of committing sedition by “speaking out against the Chinese government” in his publication, as CatholicVote reported in 2023.
According to the South China Morning Post, Beijing-based foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told media reporters that “Lai is the main planner and participant in the anti-China and anti-Hong Kong incident, and is the agent and proxy of the anti-China forces.”
According to the South China Morning Post, Lai confirmed in the hearing that he is friends with former Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, with whom he enjoys discussing U.S. policy. Lai had also met then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during Lai’s 2019 visit to the United States.
Regarding the U.S. trip, in the trial Lai explained that “[h]is original purpose was to meet U.S. senators and congressional representatives there to tell them what was happening in Hong Kong and about the 2019 social movement in 2019,” the South China Morning Post reported.
Lai also rejected the notion that his actions at Apple Daily were political, asserting instead that he was reporting the facts for Hong Kong citizens. The Hong Kong government shut down the Apple Daily in 2021. Preceding this shut down, national security authorities froze the publication’s assets, and arrested several of the publication’s staff and managers, according to Amnesty International.
Lai reportedly had previous concerns about the national security law before it was set to be implemented in June 2020.
The South China Morning Post reports that during the hearing this week, Lai said, “Under the national security law, there is no way for us to run an independent media. Also, subsequent events proved that I was right.”
U.S. legislators: Lai’s trial ‘violates international law and must be widely condemned’
On November 19, the U.S. Chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China released a statement criticizing the undermining of human rights occurring in Hong Kong.
Lai’s trial and the sentencing of 47 other pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong “violates international law and must be widely condemned — including by the U.S. State Department,” Chairs Representative Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), and Senator Jeff Merley (D-Ore.), stated on November 19.
They also pointed out that the trials are occurring amid attempts to sway wealthy U.S.-based professionals to do business in Hong Kong.
“These politically motivated prosecutions are occurring at the same time that dozens of U.S. CEOs are being wined and dined by Hong Kong officials and urged to invest in Hong Kong,” they stated.
“Each of these U.S. financial titans should be asked whether the Hong Kong government’s mass detentions of political prisoners and regular bulldozing of the rule of law undermine the city’s attractiveness as an international commercial and financial center.”
Lai’s son: Father doesn’t have access to spiritual or physical support in prison
Lai’s son Sebastien has also previously raised alarms over the harsh conditions his father has been subject to in prison, saying his 77-year-old father is unable to receive the Eucharist and lacks important medical care support for his diabetes. He also said his father does not see daylight, and is subject to “sweltering temperatures” in the prison.
“He’s practically being baked alive. It breaks my heart,” Sebastien told the Canadian-based National Post in September. “He’s an elderly man now, but given the conditions, it wouldn’t be surprising if he just passed away in jail … It’s not easy to know that your father could die at any moment and that he would never get that time ([he spent] in jail) back.”
