Sunday, December 11, 2022

The persecution of, and punishments imposed on, the now 75-year-old Jimmy Lai continue apace :(

A measure of how how things are and have changed in 
Hong Kong: the "yellow" restaurant and the newspaper it was 
 
 
Yesterday, the presiding judge sentenced Lai to five years and nine months imprisonment and Wong -- who had previously been allowed out on bail -- to 21 months in jail for what lawyer Kevin Yam stated "in most developed economies would be treated at most as a civil rental dispute".  As some news reports also noted: "Along with the jail sentence, Lai was also fined 2 million Hong Kong dollars (US$257,000) and disqualified as a company director for eight years."
 
It's good to see that this travesty of justice made the international news, and good to see outlets like CNN take the opportunity to point out the following with regards to what's happening in Hong Kong and Jimmy Lai:
Since the security law was imposed by Beijing in 2020, in response to massive anti-government protests, authorities have cracked down on dissent.
Activists, protesters and journalists have been jailed, civil society crippled, and a number of independent news outlets shuttered.

Lai, 74, is one of the most high-profile critics of Beijing charged under the law and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on charges of colluding with foreign forces. He also faces one charge under a colonial-era sedition law, and was sentenced to 13 months in prison in 2021 for participating in an unauthorized protest.

His pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily was among the newspapers forced to shut down since the implementation of the law, after police raided the newsroom and authorities froze its assets.
Still, the best commentaries and points made about this latest example of lawfare in Hong Kong actually are over on Twitter.  For example, a member of the Hong Kong Twitterati who goes by Meowgan has noted that Lai "got longer jail time than two other cases this week. A woman who was found guilty of abusing children at a foster care center (15 months) and a woman who tried to murder their partner. (4 years). So, a lease violation is a bigger crime than hitting kids or stabbing someone" as far as the Hong Kong courts seem to be concerned.
 
For the record: Jimmy Lai turned 75 this Thursday (December 8th).  And a reminder: he's been someone the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have sought to punish for decades now.  As the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, outlined in a BBC interview back in December 2020: "Jimmy Lai is somebody who escaped from Communism in China, swam when he was a young man, when he was a boy to get to Hong Kong. He's been a tremendously successful businessman, and [the CCP] closed down, first of all, his chain of shops in China, and now they've attacked him personally because he's been running a newspaper which speaks out in favour of freedom."

In retrospect, it can seem rather amazing that the Chinese Communist regime took so long to subject Jimmy Lai to its particular brand of justice.  Sadly, the writing was on the wall from 2020 on (and particularly what has come to be looked upon as Hong Kong's second, scarier handover).  And while it's a testimony to Jimmy Lai's courage and belief that God and justice -- as well as history -- remain on his side that he elected not to flee Hong Kong and continue fighting, even from behind bars -- as has been the case for some time now, the truth of the matter is that, more and more, this harsh persecution of him by the authorities is hard to watch, never mind for him to experience. :(

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