The crackdown in Hong Kong continues and this week the Chinese government set an example of the area’s most prominent political prisoners.
Publisher Jimmy Lai is back in jail after the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal revoked his bail. Mr. Lai, a longtime democracy advocate and critic of the Communist Party, is facing multiple charges for participating in last year’s protests in Hong Kong, and authorities have also charged him under the new National Security Law, effectively denying dissent. prohibits.
The maximum sentence is life, and there is no guarantee that the Chinese authorities will see Mr. Do not extradite Lai to the mainland. A lower court infuriated Beijing last week when it issued bail and Mr. Lai allowed him to await his trial under house arrest, as long as he refrained from giving interviews, posting on social media, or making public statements.
The prosecution quoted Section 42 of the Security Act, which stated that no bail can be issued “unless the judge has sufficient grounds to believe that the suspected or accused person will not continue to commit acts that endanger national security”. Mr. Lai is not such a threat. He has bravely chosen not to flee despite holding a British passport, and China wants to set an example for him to quell all criticism.
Meanwhile, a court in mainland Shenzhen has handed down harsh sentences for 10 Hong Kongers who were arrested while fleeing to Taiwan by boat. The authorities did not want to introduce these thwarted refugees to the lawyers hired by their families, and on Wednesday the court sentenced the ten to seven months to three years, almost certainly to be spent in China’s opaque and infamous prison system.