Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai’s 20-year sentence on Monday ended one of the longest political trials in history, a multiyear spectacle that showed how Hong Kong’s vague and sweeping national security law can be weaponized to find anyone guilty of something.
The trial, in the end, proved the wealthy media entrepreneur guilty of nothing more dangerous than practicing journalism. Instead of rebelling, he used his publications, like Apple Daily and Next Magazine, to fight for the democracy that China pledged to Hong Kong but never fully delivered. The heavy sentence confirms China’s betrayal of Hong Kong, a former British colony that had been promised freedom to run its own affairs under Deng Xiaoping’s “one country, two systems” formula after the 1997 handover.
