Ministers are being urged to stand up to Beijing and “call unconditionally and loudly” for the release of a British businessman awaiting trial in Hong Kong.
Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old billionaire founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, faces a life sentence under three charges including “collusion with foreign forces”.
Campaigners say he was targeted as part of efforts by China to severely restrict press freedom in Hong Kong.
Fiona O’Brien, UK bureau director at Reporters Without Borders, told the Daily Express: “It is deeply disappointing that the UK government has been virtually silent about his detention over the past two years.
“China’s lawfare in Hong Kong is in complete disregard for the Sino-British joint declaration of 1984.
“The UK has a duty to be much, much more robust in its denunciation of what is happening in Hong Kong instead of pretending – as Beijing wants it to – that it is business as usual.”
Mr Lai was born in China and arrived in Hong Kong aged 12 as a stowaway on a fishing boat. He worked in garment workshops before founding his first clothing brand in 1981, which grew into an Asia-wide empire.
The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre cemented Mr Lai’s commitment to democracy and press freedom. A year later he launched a magazine, followed by Apple Daily in 1995.
The newspaper was one of the few mainstream Chinese-language media outlets critical of Beijing. Mr Lai became one of the Chinese state’s fiercest critics, using his powerful platform to fearlessly advocate for democracy. He once told the BBC: “I’m a born rebel.”
The media mogul faced a backlash and threats from pro-Beijing supporters which led to his home being firebombed.
In 2020 a new national security law was imposed by China. Within months, Apple Daily’s offices were raided and Mr Lai and senior staff were arrested.
Ms O’Brien said the law had been used to “give the semblance of legality to the arrest, detention and sentencing of independent journalists”.
She added: “The imprisonment of Jimmy Lai on a range of ludicrous charges is emblematic of a much wider, and so far largely successful, effort to silence Hong Kong’s free press.
“Mr Lai is a man of great integrity and courage who has spent much of his life holding power to account, which is why the authorities fear him.
“The fact that he could now die in jail is deeply concerning, and a sign of China’s determination to stifle the fundamental human right to free expression.”
Apple Daily published its last print edition in June 2021. Mr Lai has spent more than two years in prison, and has already been sentenced for attending “unauthorised” pro-democracy protests and two counts of alleged fraud.
He now faces a life sentence under two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign countries and one count of collusion with foreign forces. He also faces two years in jail for one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications.
The tycoon, who is a naturalised British citizen, is due to stand trial on September 25.
Ms O’Brien said: “We want to see the UK government call unconditionally and loudly for the release of Mr Lai and all jailed journalists in Hong Kong.
“The UK should do all that it can to pressure the Hong Kong authorities to end the intimidation and harassment of journalists, and to protect the free press – as enshrined in Hong Kong’s own basic law.”
Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed over to the People’s Republic of China in 1997 under a promise that it would be governed autonomously for 50 years under the principle of “one country, two systems”.
The country once had a thriving media landscape but independent voices have increasingly been censored.
During the 2014 Umbrella Movement pro-democracy protests – named for the umbrellas protestors used to shield themselves from pepper spray and tear gas – journalists were targeted by police and pro-Beijing supporters for the first time.
Hong Kong has plummeted down RSF’s World Press Freedom Index – from 14th place in 2002, to 148th last year.
At least 28 journalists have been prosecuted under the national security law and other similar restrictions in the past three years.
Ms O’Brien said the detention of Mr Lai and other journalists was having “a devastating chilling effect on the press in Hong Kong”.
She added: “Hong Kong used to have one of the most vibrant media scenes in the region, but independent journalism has now been virtually paralysed.
“At least seven independent media – including Mr Lai’s own Apple Daily – have closed down, hundreds of journalists have gone into exile, and those who remain are unable to report or publish freely.”
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong is holding an inquiry into media freedom in Hong Kong, examining the case of Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily. Its report is expected to be published on Monday.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We have been clear that the Hong Kong authorities must end their targeting of pro-democracy voices, journalists and publishers, including Jimmy Lai.
“We regularly raise our concerns with the Chinese authorities and the Foreign Secretary raised Lai’s case at the UN Human Rights Council in February. We remain committed to supporting rights and freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong.”
