Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai found guilty in landmark security case

Jimmy Lai Photographer: Chan Long Hei/Bloomberg

Former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was found guilty of endangering national security in a landmark trial, a verdict that could fuel tensions between China and the US.

The city’s High Court on Monday convicted Lai, 78, on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces — a crime punishable by life in prison under the China-imposed National Security Law.

The founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily was also convicted of conspiring to publish seditious materials between 2019 and 2021, before his outspoken tabloid was forced to shutter. That colonial-era offense carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

Lai, who has spent more than 1,800 days in a maximum-security prison — most of it in solitary confinement — will learn his fate at a sentencing hearing on a later date.

The ruling — delivered by three national security judges hand-picked by the city’s Beijing-backed leader, John Lee — comes after a marathon trial that started two years ago and spanned over 150 days. Like all national security cases, it was heard without a jury in a significant departure from Hong Kong’s common law tradition.

The case has come to symbolize President Xi Jinping’s resolve to rein in the once free-wheeling financial hub, where mass street protests in 2019 posed the biggest challenge to Beijing’s rule since the handover of the former British colony in 1997.

It could also raise political tensions abroad. President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to “save” Lai and appealed to Xi to free the tycoon in trade talks in October, Reuters reported. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called the release of Lai, a British citizen, a priority.

The closely-watched trial has also drawn criticism from rights groups, which condemned it as politically motivated. Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong have decried “foreign interference” and insisted that Lai was given a fair trial.

Lai’s health has deteriorated significantly in prison, with severe weight loss and failing hearing and vision, according to his family. He also suffers from diabetes and heart palpitations, and started wearing a heart monitor at the final stage of the trial in August.

The high-profile conviction comes weeks after Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in almost eight decades stoked public anger to a level unseen since the 2019 protests, prompting authorities to crack down on calls for official accountability. Legislative elections shortly after drew the second-lowest turnout rate on record, indicating a lack of public trust in an overhauled system that mandates loyalty to Beijing and excludes pro-democracy candidates.

Lai, a self-made tycoon, arrived in Hong Kong as a 12-year-old stowaway from China and made his fortune in textiles. After founding the Apple Daily in 1995, he became a prominent supporter of the city’s pro-democracy movement and a fierce critic of the Chinese Communist Party. Long a thorn in Beijing’s side, he now joins a lengthy list of former lawmakers, activists and journalists who have been convicted under the security law.