For decades, Hong Kong mourned when the mainland could not. Its huge annual Tiananmen vigil kept alive the memory of the 1989 pro-reform protests in Beijing, and of the massacre that suppressed them. Along with Macau, it was the only place in China where the anniversary could be publicly marked and the truth preserved. But the crackdown on the 2019 uprising in Hong Kong has crushed the freedoms that the region once enjoyed. That year’s vigil was the last. On Friday, two leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance, which organised the commemoration,…
Tag: Jimmy Lai
Five booksellers arrested in Hong Kong police raids in latest crackdown on ‘seditious’ materials
Hong Kong authorities have raided two bookstores and arrested five people on suspicion of selling allegedly seditious publications, according to local media reports, in the latest step targeting independent booksellers. Videos and photos from multiple media outlets on Wednesday showed officers wearing vests marked with “police” seizing boxes from the building that houses Have A Nice Stay, a bookshop founded by former journalists. AFP reporters saw officers also lead away a woman in handcuffs to a van. A few streets away a similar scene played out, with boxes taken from…
Donald Trump does ‘not feel optimistic’ for Jimmy Lai after speaking with Xi Jinping
Donald Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but was told it “is a tough one”. Family and supporters of the 78-year-old British citizen had hoped the US president could help secure his release. Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February under a security law imposed by Beijing. The media tycoon, who was an influential figure in the former British territory’s pro-democracy movement, was arrested in 2020 in a crackdown after massive anti-government protests. Lai’s…
Trump’s lack of focus on human rights in China is big departure for US diplomacy
Asked before he departed for Beijing if he would raise with the Chinese president the case of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy activist jailed in Hong Kong, Donald Trump said: “I’ll bring him up.” But, the US president added: “It’s like saying to me, ‘If Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out?’ It might be a hard one for me.” Trump was referring to James B Comey, a former FBI director and a frequent target of Trump’s ire. Trump’s flippant attitude towards human rights comes as no surprise.…
What was actually achieved at Trump and Xi’s ‘stalemate summit’ in Beijing?
Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing – the first US presidential visit in nearly a decade – wrapped up with much fanfare but little clarity about what was actually achieved. Trump said on Friday he and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. But he didn’t provide much detail on what those solutions were. “My guess is that despite all the ceremony and summit theatrics, that at the end of the day, this summit will not be that…
Trump China visit live: Rubio hoping for ‘positive response’ to appeal for release of Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai
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Jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai wins free speech award in Germany
The jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster said on Thursday that Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on 23 June at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle’s director general, Barbara Massing, praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk”. “With Apple Daily, he gave…
Hong Kong bookstore staff arrested for allegedly selling ‘seditious’ Jimmy Lai biography, broadcaster reports
Hong Kong police arrested a bookstore owner and three shopkeepers on Tuesday for allegedly selling “seditious” publications including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, broadcaster TVB reported. The owner of the Book Punch store, Pong Yat-ming, and three staff were accused of selling copies of The Troublemaker, a biography of Lai by one of his former business directors, Mark Clifford, TVB reported. Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was sentenced to a 20-year jail term in February for collusion with foreign forces and sedition…
Jimmy Lai will not appeal conviction, paving way for political negotiations over release
Jimmy Lai, the prominent pro-democracy activist who was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong, has said he will not appeal his conviction. The decision marks the end of a years-long legal saga for the 78-year-old critic of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), and opens the door for political negotiations to his release. A member of Lai’s Hong Kong legal team said: “We can confirm we have clear and definitive instructions not to lodge an appeal against conviction or sentence.” Lai, a British citizen, was sentenced in…
Jimmy Lai’s fraud conviction overturned by Hong Kong court in rare legal win for activist
A Hong Kong appellate court on Thursday overturned fraud convictions against the media mogul Jimmy Lai, a rare victory in the prominent pro-democracy activist’s legal battles. Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist party who founded the now defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because weeks ago he was sentenced to 20 years after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law. It is more than five years since he was arrested under the law, which was used in a years–long crackdown on…