MPs Call for Immediate Release of Hong Kong Democracy Activist Jimmy Lai

Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily speaks during an interview in response to the national security legislation in Hong Kong on May 29, 2020. Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Parliamentarians from around the world are calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Hong Kong businessman and British citizen Jimmy Lai.

Lai, a long-time backer of the Hong Kong democracy movement and critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is set to testify in his trial for the first time on Nov. 19.

He is being held in solitary confinement after being accused of violating the CCP-imposed Hong Kong National Security Law.

Ahead of Lai’s court appearance, shadow Foreign Office minister Alicia Kearns released a joint statement condemning the “ongoing arbitrary detention and unfair trial of Jimmy Lai, a British citizen, peaceful pro-democracy campaigner, publisher, and prisoner of conscience.”

The letter, posted on social media platform X, was signed by a growing number of parliamentarians—118 lawmakers from 24 countries and the EU, at Kearns’s latest count—which said that Lai is “being tried on trumped up charges arising from his peaceful promotion of democracy, his journalism and his human rights advocacy.”

The statement continues: “The trial itself is tainted with unfairness. It is before hand-picked judges, evidence allegedly obtained by torture is being used against him, and it has been subject to lengthy delays.”

Lai, who founded the Apple Daily newspaper, pleaded not guilty in January to charges of colluding with a foreign country and sedition. He was arrested in August 2020 and after briefly being released on bail, was returned to prison at the end of 2020 and had been in solitary confinement since. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Health ‘Deteriorating’

There have been ongoing concerns over the physical and mental wellbeing of Lai, with Kearns’s statement noting that the 77-year-old’s health “is deteriorating.”

Expressing concern over the political prisoner’s spiritual wellbeing, the statement noted, “Jimmy Lai, a practising Catholic, has been denied Holy Communion for almost a year.”

The letter’s signatories said they stand with the British, U.S., and Canadian governments; the European Parliament; five UN Special Rapporteurs; and leaders of the Catholic Church in calling for Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to release Lai and let him return home to the UK, “before it is too late.”

“The world is watching as the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in Hong Kong are eroded and undermined. We stand together in our defence of these fundamental freedoms and in our demand that Jimmy Lai be released immediately and unconditionally,” the letter concluded.

Signatories from the UK include former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, as well as Labour MPs Sarah Champion and Emily Thornberry.

Starmer Meets With Xi

The statement was published the day after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer headed to the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he raised human rights concerns with Chinese Communist regime leader Xi Jinping.

During the meeting, Starmer said that he was pleased UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “met recently to discuss respective concerns, including human rights and parliamentary sanctions, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and our shared interest in Hong Kong.”

Starmer then raised the issue of Lai, saying, “We are concerned by reports of Jimmy Lai’s deterioration and health in prison.”

Media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, arrives the Court of Final Appeal, for hearing an appeal by the Department of Justice against the bail decision of Lai, in Hong Kong, on Dec. 31, 2020. Tyrone Siu/Reuters

The last meeting between a British prime minister and Xi occurred in 2018, when Theresa May visited Beijing and heralded the “golden era” of UK-China relations.

UK-China Relations

The UK-China relationship has deteriorated in recent years, and the former Conservative leadership had been critical of the CCP’s human rights record.

China faces ongoing allegations of human rights abuses against the mainly Muslim Uyghur minority group and other religious minorities as well as the unlawful detention of Lai.

Other concerns from MPs and human rights groups include the CCP’s activities in the former British overseas territory of Hong Kong, activities in the Taiwan Straight, as well as Beijing’s backing of Russia in the Ukraine conflict.

Ahead of Starmer’s meeting with Xi, the prime minister said the new Labour government would seek a “sensible and pragmatic engagement” with the CCP. These discussions would be rooted in the UK’s national interests, particularly in terms of trade, even if it means “being frank with those whose values differ from our own.”

Commenting on the negotiations, Duncan Smith—who was sanctioned by Beijing in 2021 for speaking out against the CCP’s abuse of Uyghurs—posted on X on Monday: “Xi has no regard for the UK and is trashing all the rules-based order around the world, from human rights to the WTO, China just ignores what it is told.

“Keir Starmer is ‘kowtowing’ to the world’s greatest threat to the democratic global order.”