Son of jailed Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai urges Australia to get tough on human rights
Jimmy Lai’s son has urged Australia to take a tougher stance against Hong Kong’s growing disregard for human rights.
The son of jailed Hong Kong newspaper published Jimmy Lai has urged Australia to take a tougher stance against Hong Kong’s growing disregard for human rights, as the US Congress seeks to apply similar pressure the UK.
Appearing before the US Congressional Executive Commission on China in Washington on Thursday (Friday AEST), Sebastien Lai said he was “disappointed” with how the UK, the former ruler of Hong Kong, had not “taken a stronger stance” to see his father freed.
Jimmy Lai, 75, one of Hong Kong’s most successful entrepreneurs, was imprisoned in late 2020 after facing numerous charges under the island’s new National Security Law foist on the island by the Chinese Communist Party after waves of pro-freedom protests in 2019 and 2020.
“My father is in prison for telling the truth. He has faced what can only be described as lawfare. He was first sent to prison for lighting a candle at a vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre,” his son told the hearing.
Mr Lai’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, which had 8 million unique page views a day at its height, and 4,000 employees, was shut down by authorities in June 2021.
“I will initiate a letter today to the [UK] Prime Minister and to high officials but especially the prime minister appealing for a full-fledged effort to help your dad Jimmy Lai,” Republican congressman Christopher Smith told the hearing.
“I also think they should join us robustly in asking that he and five prisoners be named, including Joshua Wong, be awarded the Nobel Peace prize,” he added.
After the hearing Mr Lai urged the Australian government, which signed a free trade deal with Hong Kong in 2020, to “take a leadership role in the region” on promoting human rights in Hong Kong.
“The crackdown on my father and Apple Daily shows that it’s not safe to do business in Hong Kong – and Australian businesses should be alert to the risk,” he told The Australian.
Foreign minister Penny Wong visited Beijing last year, the first official government visit by an Australian minister in three years, and protested China’s detainment of Australian journalist Cheng Lei and writer Dr Yang Hengjun.
The CECC has asked the Biden administration to sanction Hong Kong’s national security judges personally for their role in ignoring freedoms China had promised the UK under the terms of the 1997 handover, which were meant to last until at least 2047.
“Having undermined the integrity of democratic institutions such as the press and civil society, the NSL regime has become a tool for political repression that has far-reaching effects on freedom in Hong Kong and globally,” it said in a new report released to coincide with the hearing.
The number of political prisoners in Hong Kong has exploded from 26 in 2014 to 1,459 (including one as young as 13), mainly as a result of arrests made during and after the pro-democracy protests, the CECC heard.
Jennifer Robinson, Australian human rights lawyer in Washington with the younger Lai as part of her international advocacy to secure Jimmy Lai’s release, said it “was definitely not business as usual in Hong Kong” and Mr Lai “should be released immediately”.
“The deterioration of the rule of law and human right situation in Hong Kong is shocking”.
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