Sir Keir Starmer has landed in China for the first trip to the country by a UK leader in eight years, telling reporters that he will “raise the issues that need to be raised” with president Xi Jinping.
The prime minister has come under pressure from human rights groups to press for the release of British national Jimmy Lai, a former media tycoon and pro-democracy activist.
Mr Lai is facing a life sentence in prison after a Hong Kong court found him guilty of national security offences last December. He has already spent five years behind bars for his role in Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.
Sir Keir told reporters on his flight: “In the past on all the trips I’ve done, I’ve always raised issues that need to be raised. But part of the reason for engaging with China is so that issues where we disagree can be discussed.”
Mr Lai, 77, who founded the Apple Daily newspaper, which was forced to close after a police raid and asset freeze in June 2021, pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
But after a two year trial, three judges handed down a guilty verdict, with Judge Esther Toh saying Mr Lai’s actions left “no doubt” that he had “harboured resentment” for the Chinese government.
She said that the court was satisfied that Lai was the “mastermind” of conspiracies against the Chinese government and that his evidence was at times contradictory, inconsistent and unreliable.
Who is Jimmy Lai?
Born in mainland China, Mr Lai fled to Hong Kong aged 12 by stowing away on a fishing boat, where he began work as a child labourer in a garment factory.
He built his fortune through fashion empire Giordano, before becoming an outspoken democracy advocate following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters fighting for political reforms in Beijing were killed.
In 1994, Mr Lai become a full British citizen. Despite having never held a Chinese or Hong Kong passport, he is regarded as a Chinese citizen by Hong Kong authorities.
Mr Lai began the producing Chinese-language and pro-democratic newspaper Apple Daily before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China, as he aimed to maintain freedom of speech in the territory. The paper was openly critical about the Chinese government.
Why was he imprisoned?
A known pro-democracy campaigner, Mr Lai was known to Chinese authorities ahead of the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, prompted by Beijing’s growing crackdown on wide-ranging freedoms through the national security law.
Mr Lai described the legislation as “a death knell for Hong Kong”, and his Apple Daily newspaper was critical of the reforms while being supportive of the protestors.
On 10 August 2020, Mr Lai was arrested alongside his sons on the accusation of collusion with foreign forces and fraud. Later that year he became the first high-profile figure to be charged for allegedly conspiring and colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security, under the new legislation.
He has since been charged and banned on separate cases of unlawful assembly and other crimes relating to pro-democratic protests in Hong Kong.
Lai’s declining health
Mr Lai has spent much of his imprisonment in solitary confinement – and his son has been outspoken about fears over his health.
The millionaire’s son, Sebastien Lai, claimed last year that his father, who suffers from diabetes, had lost a significant amount of weight and that he had been denied independent medical care.
Mr Lai’s lawyer, Robert Pang, told the court that he had experienced some episodes where he felt that he was collapsing and had heart “palpitations”, prompting the court to adjourn proceedings and order that he be provided with a heart monitor and medication.
The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a US-based, non-profit advocacy organisation, said Mr Lai was an iconic figure in the battle between those who uphold democratic values and Hong Kong’s authoritarian government.
Responding to his conviction in December, its UK and Europe director Mark Sabah said: “The trial against Jimmy Lai has been a grotesque exercise in legal subversion and chicanery – a show trial masquerading as justice. But what’s actually been on display is the complete and total destruction of Hong Kong’s reputation as a global legal centre.
“Jimmy Lai is a British citizen. His release should be a condition of prime minister Keir Starmer’s planned trip to Beijing in January.”
“My father has been treated inhumanely,” his son, Sebastien Lai, previously told The Independent. “But he is defiant and strong. It is ridiculous that in his display of bravery, the prime minister [Sir Keir] will not meet with me,” he added.
