MPs have condemned the “show trial” of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, which began in Hong Kong on Monday, as the UK government continues to be barred from assisting the British citizen.
Mr. Lai, 76, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, is accused of “collusion” with foreign forces under a draconian National Security Law that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed on Hong Kong in 2020.He’s also accused of taking part in a conspiracy to publish “seditious” publications under a British colonial-era sedition law.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Mr. Lai has been in prison since December 2020 and has since been sentenced over convictions including fraud and participating in illegal assemblies.
Hong Kong authorities have rejected Mr. Lai consular access because the Chinese regime refused to recognised his British citizenship.
They have also overruled a High Court decision to allow British lawyer Timothy Owen to represent Mr. Lai, citing national security reasons.
Asked about the trial on Monday, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, minister for both the Indo-Pacific and sanctions, said the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will “continue to press for Mr. Lai’s release with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.”
“As the Foreign Secretary [David Cameron] has made clear, Mr. Lai’s prosecution is politically motivated. He has faced multiple charges to discredit and silence him. As an outspoken journalist and publisher, he has been targeted in a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association,” Ms. Trevelyan said.
The minister told MPs diplomats from the UK’s consulate general attended the trial on Monday, and that the FCDO will continue to call for Mr. Lai’s release throughout his trial, which is expected to last some 80 days.
Ms. Trevelyan also said the FCDO will “continue to press for consular access to Mr Lai, which the Hong Kong prison authorities have repeatedly refused.
“China considers anyone of Chinese heritage born in China to be a Chinese national. It does not recognise other nationalities and therefore considers Mr. Lai to be exclusively Chinese,” she told parliament.
The minister reiterated that Hong Kong’s National Security Law is “a clear breach of the Sino-British joint declaration, the legally binding UN-registered treaty that China willingly entered into.”
Conservative MP Bob Seely and Brendan O'Hara, Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for foreign affairs, said the trial of Mr. Lai is a “show trial.”
Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, criticised the UK government for being slow to publicly state Mr. Lai’s citizenship.
The Hong Kong resident “is and has always been a full British citizen and he has never held a Chinese passport, and therefore he should have been publicly recognised by the government some time ago,” he said.
Sir Iain also called on the government to protect other individuals “targeted through the evidence at Jimmy Lai’s trial.”
“I must tell the government that an individual already known to me and some others is being used in the persecution of Jimmy Lai. We know that he has been tortured to give evidence, so, clearly, his evidence cannot be relied on,” he said, urging the government to work with allies in protecting “UK or other citizens” who may be “targeted through the evidence at Jimmy Lai’s trial.”
He also pressured the government to sanction Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and other responsible for the National Security Law, saying, “After all, the [United States] has sanctioned ten people and we have sanctioned none.”
According to the Washington Post, Andy Li, who was accused of colluding with foreign forces with Mr. Lai and a number of others and will testify against Mr. Lai, has been “mistreated” in detention in mainland China.
Commenting on Mr. Lai’s trial on Monday, Lord Cameron said he’s “gravely concerned that anyone is facing prosecution under the National Security Law, and particularly concerned at the politically motivated prosecution of British national Jimmy Lai.”
He urged the Chinese regime to repeal the law and end the prosecution of all individuals charged under it and called on the Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution and release Mr. Lai.
On March 13, 2021, the UK declared China to be in an ongoing state of non-compliance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
