Sebastien Lai is sitting in a downtown coffee shop, on a blustery day in Taipei. The 28-year-old was only recently married, but is spending much of his time flying around the world advocating for his father’s freedom.
Days earlier, his father, Jimmy Lai, the prominent media mogul and democracy activist, went on trial in Hong Kong. Lai senior is accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the 2020 national security law, and conspiring to publish seditious material, under a colonial-era sedition law. He faces up to life in prison for the more serious charges.
The prosecution, which began under heavy security on Monday, has been widely condemned, and Lai’s son is in no doubt that this week was merely the start of a “show trial”.
“They’ve made it pretty clear. No juries, three government-appointed judges, the security minister boasting of a 100% conviction rate. So in my mind they want to keep Dad in prison for as long as they want to and they’ll just write the sentences around that.”
Lai hasn’t seen or spoken to his father in three years. The only glimpse he’s had of him has been in media images, taken by journalists with long-lens cameras over prison fences.
Jimmy Lai is a veteran of Hong Kong’s protest movements, but his son says he never supported violence. He used his newspapers to advocate for Hong Kong and its pro-democracy movement.
“There is that idea that we always thought China would liberalise economically, get freer and freer,” says Lai. “But I think Dad realised very early on, and he said in an interview, that wishful thinking doesn’t work. You’ve got to put the work in. And that’s what he did.”
Jimmy Lai is yet to enter a plea. He has been in jail since December 2020, serving a 13 month sentence for unauthorised assembly (which his son characterises as “holding a candle and saying a prayer”) and five years and nine months for a lease violation, which his supporters say was a politically motivated, trumped up charge.
“The authorities targeted Jimmy Lai for decades but it’s only over the past four years they’ve been able to weaponise the law effectively to imprison him, and shut down his newspaper,” Caoilfhionn Gallagher, a member of Lai’s international legal team, told Council on Foreign Relation forum this week. Gallagher said fraud, tax and other regulatory laws were also being used by authorities against human rights targets.
“They’re partly used because they send a message that you shouldn’t trust either the message or the messenger.”
On the first day of trial this week defence lawyers argued that the sedition charge was outside the statute of limitations and should be dropped. On Friday the judges said the charge would stay.
Speaking before that ruling, Sebastien Lai says it doesn’t matter much either way.
“To be honest it’s not that important,” he says. “This is a pretty brutal image, but I see it as they have three bullets in the chamber. The sedition charge is basically a blank one, it’s two years [in jail]. The others are real bullets.”
He draws no hope from recent cases – like the government’s attempt to ban the song Glory to Hong Kong – in which the courts have drawn a line against the crackdown on freedoms.
“It’s a nice thought that there are still people fighting back within the legal system but as long as China can go and say ‘we’re not going to let a UK barrister work on a national security case’, or ‘actually we’re going to put bounties on people’, there’s nothing you can do,” he says, referring to a hard fought battle by the government to block Lai’s chosen barrister – the UK-based Timothy Owen – from representing him, and the bounties announced for 13 activists in exile around the world.
“I don’t think any hope will come from the Hong Kong legal system, I think it will be from people holding Hong Kong accountable. Other governments holding people accountable for what Hong Kong is doing to its people.”
Just days before the trial began Sebastien Lai met with the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, who subsequently issued one of his government’s strongest statements yet on the jailed activist.
“I’m very happy that it’s finally happened and that the UK has joined the calls,” says Lai.
Nevertheless, authorities are pushing for a strong verdict. Security minister Chris Tang said in November the trial would allow the public to see how “bad” Lai’s alleged offences are.
“It’s pretty clear what Dad has done,” says his son. “If he was one of those things [authorities] say he is – someone who didn’t love Hong Kong, who was chaotic, or a spy or whatever, he wouldn’t have stayed. It’s as simple as that.”
The decision to stay could cost Lai the chance to be with his family ever again.
“Him staying in Hong Kong makes it very clear that his loyalty belongs to his principles, to Hong Kong, and to its people,” says Sebastien Lai.
“I know he’s doing this so that in the end it’s better for everyone. Not necessarily for him, but I think that’s the idea of sacrifice, of doing something that lives beyond you, right? So I’m very proud of him.”
