A Greek air force officer arrested on suspicion of spying for China has been detained pending trial after appearing before a military judge in a case that is seen as exposing Beijing’s determination to infiltrate Europe’s security and intelligence services. Surrounded by armed escorts, a squadron leader identified as Col Christos Flessas emerged from the court late on Tuesday after giving testimony for more than eight hours. The 54-year-old could face a life sentence if found guilty of charges that include “transmitting top secret information of a military nature” to…
Tag: Asia Pacific
The Guardian view on Jimmy Lai: what Britain’s caution says about its relationship to Beijing’s power | Editorial
If the sentence handed to the media mogul Jimmy Lai was meant to surprise, it would have been shorter. Twenty years behind bars is not a burst of rage. It is a sentence designed to make repression routine in Hong Kong. The 78-year-old founder of the shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily is now likely to die in prison after being convicted of sedition. The court was telling Hongkongers what kind of place they now live in, and signalling to foreign governments what kind of relationship Beijing expects them to accept.…
Hong Kong’s once-vibrant press stays silent or celebrates Jimmy Lai’s 20-year jail sentence
Hong Kong’s once-vibrant media outlets have responded with silence or celebration to the 20-year jail sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon and critic of the Chinese Communist party. Lai, 78, was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison after being convicted of sedition and colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s national security law. The charges were widely seen as being politically motivated and designed to silence one of Hong Kong’s most influential pro-democracy campaigners. Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy…
Jimmy Lai’s sentencing tells me this: democracy is dead in Hong Kong, and I escaped just in time | Nathan Law
Waking up on Monday morning to the news of the pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai’s 20-year prison sentence for national security offences felt surreal. I could have easily been in his position if I hadn’t fled Hong Kong right before the implementation of the notorious national security law (NSL), under which Lai has faced the harshest penalty ever given. In fact, Lai chose to stay and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong in the face of an uncertain and repressive future. Now his family fears that he…
‘A free limo is hard to turn away’: how car diplomacy turbo charges politics in the Pacific
At a ceremony in January, a shiny black luxury sedan rolled into the leafy, rain-soaked ground of Fiji’s state house. It was a gift from China to the Pacific nation’s president, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, who thanked Beijing for the “beautiful limousine”. The vehicle given was a Hongqi or “Red Flag” car, the same brand used by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, during military parades. It is an example of China’s “prestige diplomacy”, says Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the US-based Stimson Center. “This is more symbolic than substantive,”…
Jimmy Lai: will Hong Kong media tycoon die in jail? – The Latest
The media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences. His family has described the sentence as ‘heartbreakingly cruel’, given the 78-year-old’s declining health. Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, after pleading not guilty to all charges. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins – watch on YouTube The Guardian
‘Was I scared going back to China? No’: Ai Weiwei on AI, western censorship and returning home
Ai Weiwei is talking me through the decision-making process before his first visit to China in over a decade. The artist, known around the world as the most famous critic of the Chinese communist regime, had to do some fraught arithmetic before deciding to head back home. Before boarding a flight with his son, who had never met the artist’s elderly mother, Ai thought back to his time in detention when his captors told him he would spend the next 13 years in custody on bogus charges: “They said, ‘When…
Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong pro-democracy figure, sentenced to 20 years in prison for national security offences
Jimmy Lai, a once mighty media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences. The sentencing is the culmination of a years-long saga that critics say represents Hong Kong’s transformation from a mostly free city to one where dissent is fiercely suppressed by the Chinese Communist party-controlled authorities. Lai, 78, was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. The collusion convictions carry a…
Jimmy Lai sentencing: Hong Kong court to rule on pro-democracy media mogul after conviction – live updates
Hello, Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s former media mogul is set to be sentenced on Monday, following a months-long trial in which the 78-year old was convicted on national security offences. Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty last December of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, as well as one count of publishing seditious materials. At the time of his verdict, Esther Toh, one of the three government-vetted national security judges who oversaw Lai’s trial, wrote: “There is…
Treaties to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons are failing | Letters
Simon Tisdall is absolutely right (China is leading the charge to nuclear Armageddon – and Starmer barely noticed, 1 February). From our prime minister to the person in the street, no one is talking about nuclear weapons, yet nuclear weapons states are busy modernising their arsenals and, in China’s case, increasing the numbers. Treaties supposed to limit nuclear proliferation have failed or are failing. Concern about this in civil society is minimal, and in parliament only a few of us address it as a matter of urgency. I can understand…