Ian Vásquez
Ian Vásquez is the director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. His articles have appeared in newspapers throughout the United States and Latin America, and he is a columnist at El Comercio (Peru).
A Hong Kong court last week convicted Jimmy Lai, the territory’s most prominent champion of democracy and basic human rights, of breaching national security. The sham trial and conviction confirm Hong Kong’s tragic descent into tyranny.
Hong Kong was long one of the freest places on earth, and Jimmy Lai, age 78, both symbolizes and cherishes the freedoms that transformed the city from poverty to prosperity in a couple of generations. Lai fled communist China to Hong Kong as a boy and became a successful and wealthy entrepreneur, which he recognized was possible due to the territory’s strong rule of law and high degree of economic and personal freedoms.
Lai’s appreciation of the role of freedom for human dignity and progress led him to criticize the regime in Beijing – something that, in turn, forced him to sell his successful clothing retail chain that did business on the mainland. He then founded Apple Daily in 1995, which quickly became the city’s most successful newspaper, among other factors, because of its defense of Hong Kong’s freedoms and its criticisms of the Chinese Communist Party.
Hong Kong’s freedoms have been slowly encroached upon since the early part of the past decade. But they were decidedly squashed with the imposition of the draconian national security law in 2020 that violated Beijing’s treaty commitment to uphold Hong Kong’s autonomy. The law enabled authorities to shut down Apple Daily and undermine freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the rule of law. It was under that law that Lai was convicted, after having been in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, since the end of 2020.
Lai could spend the rest of his life in prison. His real crime was standing up for free speech and basic rights, calling for democracy, and bringing prominent attention to Beijing’s abuses. His fight for freedom is all the more impressive as he could have easily left Hong Kong but chose to stay, knowing full well the consequences he would face.
As Mark Clifford, a former business associate of Lai’s, writes in the New York Times, “Mr Lai is the most consequential dissident in China since Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died in a Chinese prison in 2017.” Clifford rightfully calls on President Trump and the leaders of other leading democracies to do what they can to free Lai, as Trump has previously said he would try to do. Doing so could avoid the embarrassment China would again face if the now-ailing Lai were to die in prison.
Because of his courageous battle for free speech and against tyranny, Jimmy Lai has been recognized by numerous prestigious press associations and other organizations. In 2023, the Cato Institute honored him with the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, our most prestigious recognition.
This article was originally published by the Cato Institute’s Cato at Liberty blog and was republished by the Foundation for Economic Education.
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