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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
This week’s conviction by a Hong Kong court of media tycoon Jimmy Lai was deeply disturbing, even if it was sadly no surprise. Lai, a passionate campaigner for democracy and against the Chinese Communist party’s tightening grip over the territory, was found guilty of conspiring to collude with a foreign country and to publish seditious materials, charges he denied.
The verdict was in many ways an inevitable consequence of the sweeping political crackdown imposed by China on Hong Kong after mass anti-government demonstrations and civil unrest there in 2019 and 2020. The High Court judges left no doubt about the consequences for Hongkongers of standing up to Beijing. Lai’s “deep resentment and hatred for the Chinese Communist party led him down a thorny path”, they wrote in their verdict.
The conviction of Lai, a British national since 1996, makes for another China challenge for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who plans to make his first official visit to Beijing next month. Starmer has promised a “more sophisticated” approach to China that will stabilise ties that have “blown hot and cold”. But he must robustly stand up for a fellow citizen subjected to what his government rightly calls a “politically motivated prosecution” in a former colony that was supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy and civic freedoms for 50 years after London handed it back to Beijing in 1997.
Lai, who is 78 and now faces up to life imprisonment, has another ally in US President Donald Trump, who declared before his election that it would be “easy” to secure the former clothing entrepreneur’s release. Trump, who in office is himself trying to use US courts to pursue his political enemies, now seems less confident about his ability to help. But he said after the verdict that he felt “so badly” about it and had previously asked China’s President Xi Jinping to consider letting Lai go.
Lai’s family hope that he will be freed on grounds of ill health and allowed to travel to the UK. Xi will feel under little pressure to play along. China has already faced Trump down over its tariff war and contemptuously dismisses lectures on liberty from a one-time imperialist Britain. While many doubted Hong Kong’s future as a global financial hub after the 2020 crackdown and Covid-19 pandemic, the territory has bounced back, ranking high on IPO rankings and boasting a booming stock market.
Still, amid continuing tough negotiations with Washington over trade and technology, releasing Lai could be a useful bargaining chip for Xi, offering Trump a symbolic win at no real cost to China. Beijing should also realise that heavy-handed repression in Hong Kong risks in the long term undermining the territory’s usefulness as a financial and commercial interface with more liberal polities and economies. The low turnout for this month’s “patriots only” election to Hong Kong’s legislature hints at public discontent. The curbing of press freedom and civic organisation will make it harder to maintain honest and competent governance.
No less disturbing than Lai’s conviction was the reported arrest by Hong Kong police last month of a student who launched a petition demanding an independent investigation into the devastating fire in the Tai Po district that killed 159 people. Lai’s conviction was for overtly opposing Chinese and Hong Kong authorities and working to persuade foreign nations to impose sanctions or take other hostile action against the territory. But the student’s arrest suggests a determination to suppress even much milder expressions of dissent. Hongkongers have reason to worry about the security of their remaining liberties.
