The CCP’s Evildoing Crowns Jimmy Lai

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrives at Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal.

[People News] Recently, Jimmy Lai was charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” Three judges designated under the National Security Law—Du Limin, Lee Siu-lan, and Li Yuntong (please remember these three names)—handed down the verdict, finding all charges proven. The case has drawn widespread international attention. The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as political leaders from many countries, have issued strong condemnations.

The Jimmy Lai case has become an international case. In my view, it suffers from three major defects.
First, interference by the administrative authorities in the judicial system. From the very beginning of the case, the shadow of the Chinese Communist Party was everywhere. In order to punish Jimmy Lai, the case was deliberately dragged out for as long as five years. The manipulation of the trial process by the CCP Central Committee, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, the Central Liaison Office, and the Hong Kong National Security Committee is self-evident.

Second, the court did not allow a jury. This is a complete destruction of Hong Kong’s traditional rule of law, carried out by the National Security Law to facilitate government convictions. The key purpose of abolishing juries is distrust of jurors. Jurors cannot be bought—bribing jurors is itself a crime—but judges can be bought. The government can engage in private dealings with judges, offering high office and generous rewards, while judges repay this by obeying orders. In this way, even the greatest miscarriage of justice can be made to stand.

Third, the violation of the principle of non-retroactivity in the implementation of the National Security Law. Before the law was enacted, Carrie Lam publicly stated that there would be no retroactive effect, and the National Security Law itself explicitly states that it does not establish retroactivity. Yet the judgment in the Jimmy Lai case is lengthy, with judges indiscriminately piling together so-called evidence from before and after the law took effect, making it impossible for the public to distinguish which evidence predates the law and which comes afterward. As a result, all the “evidence” is used to convict.

Jimmy Lai made multiple trips to the United States, meeting with members of Congress and senior government officials to call attention to Hong Kong’s human rights and autonomy issues. All of this occurred in 2019, while the National Security Law only formally came into force on June 30, 2020. If there is no retroactivity, Jimmy Lai did not violate a single Hong Kong law. In other words, the so-called charge of subversion of state power is entirely fabricated out of nothing.

Any law regulates behavior after it comes into effect. Before a law exists, how could anyone know what constitutes a violation and what does not? No one can possibly comply with a law that is unknown at the time—this is basic common sense. The CCP enacts a National Security Law and then demands that Hong Kong people automatically comply with its provisions before even knowing its details. Is this not absurd? If there is no retroactivity, then where do Jimmy Lai’s so-called “crimes” come from?

In short, the entire trial of Jimmy Lai is a vivid demonstration of party supremacy over law and the party’s manipulation of law under CCP authoritarian rule. From this case, people around the world can clearly see what the CCP’s so-called rule of law is really worth. The CCP believes it can deceive the world, but in reality it is only exposing its own shamelessness and barbarity before the people of the world.

To say that Jimmy Lai “incited” Hong Kong people to resist is an insult to Hong Kong people themselves. Are Hong Kong people unaware of their own situation? As early as June Fourth, 1989, Hong Kong people stood up to support the Beijing student movement. Long before Next Digital was founded, Hong Kong people opposed Tung Chee-hwa’s Article 23, leading to a march of half a million people. Every time the CCP has encroached on Hong Kong, Hong Kong people have refused to yield even an inch. Who does not worry about their own future and that of their children and grandchildren? Who does not understand that without resistance, there is no future? Jimmy Lai merely understood Hong Kong people’s concerns and demands and therefore stood up to speak for the citizens. Hong Kong people’s understanding of universal values was not inspired by Jimmy Lai; on the contrary, it was Jimmy Lai who was inspired by Hong Kong people.

Jimmy Lai’s conviction is, in fact, a sign of the CCP’s desperate struggle as it approaches a dead end. On the day of the verdict, various central CCP departments and Hong Kong government agencies were urgently pushed out to express support for the judgment, clearly revealing the CCP’s guilt and fear.

Never before has there been a case where, after a verdict, the government mobilized such massive official propaganda. A court judgment is a judgment—what does it have to do with administrative authorities? What does it have to do with the heads of all these departments? Starting with John Lee, the entire Hong Kong government, including all bureau chiefs, came out in full force, shouting themselves hoarse, speaking with one voice and one tone. Are they afraid that Hong Kong people will oppose the verdict? Are they worried that the court lacks sufficient authority and needs the administrative branch to reinforce it? Or are they afraid that the SAR government’s performance will be deemed inadequate and that Xi Jinping will hold them accountable, costing them their official positions?

For most Hong Kong people, Jimmy Lai’s conviction is no longer shocking; everyone was psychologically prepared for it. Hong Kong’s rule of law has fallen to this point, and people long ago stopped harboring illusions. For the CCP, this is the worst news and the deepest threat. You are powerful and cruel; we are helpless when power tramples justice. But if you trample justice, you cannot expect public recognition. You must understand that Hong Kong people harbor resentment in their hearts, and one day there will be reckoning. It is not that retribution will not come—it is that the time has not yet arrived.

Like Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong people are powerless in the face of such a black-and-white-reversing verdict. The CCP treats the people as its enemy, and party discipline tramples human nature; this cannot be changed overnight. But there is one thing the CCP will never understand: history is the truly strict judge. Right and wrong in the human world are not determined by people, still less by a single party. Today’s right and wrong are judged by tomorrow; the right and wrong of humanity are judged by history. A party may stand above the people, but the people determine history, and the judgment of history is the ultimate judgment.

From this perspective, today the CCP finds Jimmy Lai guilty, locks him in its prison, strips him of his freedom, persecutes and humiliates him. Yet Jimmy Lai’s character is not diminished in the slightest. On the contrary, because he upheld his moral principles and went through fire and water for the public good, his noble character shines all the more brightly. By convicting him, the CCP has objectively crowned Jimmy Lai, ensuring that he will be recorded in history by his very “charges.”

The CCP is forever digging its own grave. I believe that Jimmy Lai will live to see the day the CCP collapses. On the day the CCP falls, we will surely go to the prison gates to welcome Jimmy Lai back. We must rebuild a free Hong Kong, and it cannot be done without Jimmy Lai present.

(From the author’s Facebook)
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