Hong Kong’s biggest and most consequential national security case came to an end this week with the High Court finding former media boss Jimmy Lai guilty on all charges.
The businessman-turned-opposition-activist faces a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment after a panel of three judges convicted him on two charges of colluding with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print seditious articles.
They ruled that he had used his now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper and international connections to push for foreign intervention and sanctions against the local and central governments.
Legal experts in Hong Kong have pointed out that the trial was conducted by the book to give Lai a fair hearing, with the proceedings carried out in open court over 156 days, including 52 days dedicated to the defendant’s testimony.
During that time, Hong Kong judges faced unprecedented interference in their work, with Western governments openly trying to intimidate them with threats of sanctions.
As expected, the inconvenient facts spoiling their narrative have been ignored by China’s critics who continue to politicise the ruling and misrepresent Lai as some sort of martyr for democracy and press freedom.
Western governments, led by the United States, are demanding his immediate release, while local and Beijing authorities have rejected their “despicable” interference and unsubstantiated claims about the “end of the rule of law” in Hong Kong.
Not only has the trial demonstrated Hong Kong’s strict adherence to the rule of law, observers have argued, but the fact that Beijing did not exercise its power under the national security law to transfer the case to mainland China clearly demonstrates that the “one country, two systems” policy is alive and well.
China’s enemies will no doubt continue to look for ways to “punish” Hong Kong, but nothing really drastic is expected, given the current geopolitical climate in which US President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to make nice with Beijing for the sake of business and other interests.
You can find our complete coverage of the Jimmy Lai trial at SCMP.com. |
