The UK government is facing increasing pressure to call on China to release jailed pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai as it seeks closer trading ties with Beijing.
Media tycoon Mr Lai is currently on trial in Hong Kong facing charges under the city’s national security law, imposed by Beijing in 2020 in response to mass pro-democracy protests.
Mr Lai’s imprisonment and trial have become a sticking point for the British government in their dealings with China.
Chinese foreign secretary Wang Yi met Mr Lammy, and Sir Keir Starmer briefly, in London on Thursday, and pressure was on the UK foreign secretary to raise Mr Lai’s situation and call for his release.
Why is Jimmy Lai a British issue?
The 77-year-old has lived in Hong Kong since he was 12 years old, after stowing away on a fishing boat from China and working as a child labourer in a garment factory.
He built up fashion empire Giordano and after becoming a democracy advocate following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, he set up a magazine in Hong Kong.
Ahead of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China, he started Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in an attempt to maintain freedom of speech.
Around the same time, in 1994, he became a full British citizen.
He has never held a Chinese or Hong Kong passport but because he was born in mainland China, Hong Kong authorities deem him to be a Chinese citizen.
Mr Lai has homes all over the world, including in London, Paris, Taipei and Kyoto. But his sole passport is British.
Why is he in jail?
During the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Mr Lai’s Apple Daily adopted the position of the protesters, criticising the government.
In June 2021, Apple Daily was raided by the police, who seized documents, froze its accounts and arrested its executives, leading to its closure.
Mr Lai was arrested and charged under the newly introduced national security law with collusion with foreign forces, as well as sedition under colonial-era laws.
Read more:
Son of Jimmy Lai calls for ‘urgent’ UK intervention
Calls for Starmer to condemn pro-democracy campaigner sentencing
More than 100 politicians slam China over Lai detention
Mr Lai during a protest in 2019
He was also charged with unauthorised assembly for attending the protests, and fraud for a lease violation, which he has denied and has been condemned by the US as spurious.
The media tycoon has been found guilty of various other charges, including attending a Tiananmen vigil, which has meant he has been in a high-security jail since December 2020.
What about his trial?
In December 2023, Mr Lai’s national security law trial, where he faces charges of collusion with foreign forces and conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications, started after years of delay.
After seven months, the court refused to dismiss the charges and adjourned the trial before Mr Lai could testify.
He was kept in solitary confinement and the trial resumed in November last year, when he first took to the stand.
Jimmy Lai pictured arriving at court on 12 December 2020: File pic: AP Photo/Kin Cheung
The media tycoon has now testified for more than 40 days, facing questioning about his editorial control over Apple Daily, links to activists in Hong Kong, the UK and US and meetings with US politicians.
In December, he told the trial he believed the UK had a “moral responsibility” to lead international support of Hong Kong, but denied requesting the UK government engaged in hostile activities against China and Hong Kong.
What has the British government done?
Boris Johnson
When Mr Lai was charged under the national security law in 2020, then prime minister Boris Johnson said the UK was “deeply concerned”.
This prompted the Chinese embassy in London to express “grave concern” about the “irresponsible remarks” which they said were an “act of interference”.
However, any pressure from the government appeared to drop after that for a few years.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘This is what Hong Kong is’
A lack of engagement
A handful of “China hawks” in parliament, including former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns, Lord Alton and Labour MP Catherine West, have consistently raised Mr Lai’s case in parliament.
Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien, and his father’s international legal team called several times for a meeting with Liz Truss and James Cleverly when they were foreign secretaries but that never happened, although they did meet with a foreign minister.
James Cleverly
Rhetoric then ratcheted up, with Mr Cleverly raising Mr Lai’s case directly with Chinese vice president Han Zheng as well as at the “highest levels with the Hong Kong authorities”.
Mr Cleverly accused Hong Kong in May 2023 of “deliberately targeting prominent pro-democracy figures, journalists and politicians in an effort to silence and discredit them”, adding: “Detained British dual national Jimmy Lai is one such figure.”
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly with China’s Vice President Han Zheng
Lord Cameron and Rishi Sunak
Lord Cameron, as foreign secretary, called for Mr Lai’s charges to be dropped at the end of 2023, and for his immediate release.
In a January 2024 letter to the last governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, Rishi Sunak called Mr Lai’s trial “politically motivated” and vowed to keep raising the case with Beijing as a priority.
However, Mr Sunak dodged questions about whether he had personally raised his case with the Chinese government.
Starmer government
With a change of government, Mr Lai’s family and supporters hoped there would be a more concerted effort.
Three months after winning the general election, Sir Keir said securing the release of Mr Lai was a “priority” for his government and said it would “continue” to raise the case with China.
Sebastien Lai welcomed his words but asked the PM to “put word to action to save my father’s life and bring him home”.
David Lammy and Wang Yi in Beijing. Pic: AP
Ahead of his first trip to China as foreign secretary in October, Mr Lammy was urged by MPs sanctioned by Beijing to raise the case of political prisoners in Hong Kong, including Mr Lai.
The Foreign Office said he pressed Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Mr Lai’s detention, and Mr Lammy said he “was able to have dialogue with the Chinese on areas where we disagree, areas like Hong Kong”.
Mr Lammy then joined Chancellor Rachel Reeves on a trip to revive economic ties after “years of tension”. She said she raised Mr Lai’s imprisonment with every minister she met in China.
During the latest meeting of Mr Lammy and Mr Yi, Number 10 said Sir Keir also met him briefly and told him he wants “consistent and respectful relations” and to deepen trade relations with China.
It did not say if he brought up Mr Lai, but the foreign secretary said ahead of the meeting: “We will also discuss issues where the UK and China do not always see eye to eye. In some cases, the UK does have significant concerns.”
