Former Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen is among the world leaders calling for the release of pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai from jail in Hong Kong, where he is standing trial on national security charges that are widely viewed as politically motivated.
“They should release him,” Tsai told VOA about Jimmy Lai. She made the statement shortly after she delivered a speech at the Forum 2000 democracy conference in the Czech capital Prague on Monday. It was Tsai’s first international trip since leaving office in May.
Tsai’s call for Lai’s release comes just weeks before Lai’s trial is set to resume on November 20, when he is expected to take the stand for the first time.
Lai, the founder of Hong Kong’s now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, has been held in solitary confinement since late 2020. The 76-year-old British national is standing trial on charges of collusion with foreign forces and sedition. The charges, which Lai rejects, are widely viewed as politically motivated.
The British government recently asked to defer Tsai’s visit to the United Kingdom due to concerns that her visit would anger Beijing, according to media reports. British Foreign Minister David Lammy is expected to visit China next week in his first trip to the country as foreign secretary.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Guardian: “Ministerial travel will be confirmed in the usual way. We do not comment on speculation.”
Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien told VOA he hopes Lammy will raise his father’s case with the Chinese government during his upcoming visit.
“I’ll expect him to raise the case,” Sebastien said. “At the end of the day, this is about saving my father’s life, and the foreign secretary is in a unique position to do that.”
Although the United Kingdom has called for Jimmy’s release, the British government has faced criticism from rights groups and activists who say it isn’t doing enough to advocate on behalf of Jimmy, who is a British national.
“They’ve only been in power for four months,” Sebastien said, referring to Britain’s new Labour government. “Dad’s been in jail for four years. So it’s not an excuse.”
Sebastien spoke to VOA at Forum 2000, which he attended to advocate for his father’s release. “Getting as much global attention on my father to put pressure on the government of Hong Kong so that they can’t keep essentially persecuting my father,” Sebastien said.
Lai’s plight has come to symbolize the rapid deterioration of press freedom and other civil liberties in Hong Kong since China’s harsh national security law came into effect in 2020.
Lai’s trial, which began in December 2023, was originally estimated to last around 80 days.
Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy’s international legal team, said he was concerned the trial could be delayed again. “It doesn’t seem, to us, likely to finish anytime soon,” Price told VOA at Forum 2000.
Price added that Lai’s trial highlights the lack of rule of law in Hong Kong.
“The proof about the rule of law in Hong Kong is in the pudding. If you’re shocked that there are 1,500 political prisoners in Russia, a country of 150 million people, you’d be staggered to learn that there are more political prisoners in Hong Kong,” Price said.
The Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council estimates that there are more than 1,800 political prisoners in Hong Kong, which has a population of about 7.4 million.
“That itself is symptomatic of the total destruction of the rule of law,” Price said.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau acknowledged receipt of VOA’s email requesting comment for this story but did not provide a comment by time of publication.
But in an October email to VOA, a Hong Kong government spokesperson denied that civil liberties and the rule of law have declined there. The spokesperson added that “rights and freedoms are not absolute” anywhere in the world.
“In particular, journalists, like everyone else, have an obligation to abide by all the laws. Their freedom of commenting on and criticizing government policies remains uninhibited as long as they do not violate the law,” the spokesperson said.
Hong Kong authorities have also previously denied that Jimmy’s trial is unfair.
Also at Forum 2000 in Prague, Miriam Lexmann, a Slovakian Member of European Parliament, told VOA that the European Union should do more to push for Lai’s release.
“It’s very important to talk about Jimmy Lai because it represents the case of Hong Kong very clearly. And what is absolutely vital now is that we address the issue of Hong Kong as Europeans,” said Lexmann, who also serves as co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC.
IPAC is a coalition of global lawmakers that is focused on relations with the Chinese government.
Lai’s case is especially important, Lexmann said, because he could have left Hong Kong, but he decided to stay in order to stand up for freedom.
“He decided to stay and suffer just to show the case of what’s going on in Hong Kong,” Lexmann said. “We have a moral responsibility to help those who fight for freedom worldwide.
With his father’s trial set to resume shortly, Sebastien says now is an especially important time for governments to place more pressure on Hong Kong and China to release the publisher.
“We do see this as a critical time to raise attention for my father’s case,” Sebastien said. “My goal is to release him as soon as possible because at his age, he could die at any moment.”
