On Monday, Jimmy Lai, the heroic freedom fighter and my dear friend, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Hong Kong court. He’s 78. This amounts to a life sentence.
For more than three decades, Jimmy has been a leading voice in the struggle for a free, democratic Hong Kong. Chinese control over Hong Kong has steadily increased since Britain ceded the territory in 1997. In the final weeks before Jimmy’s arrest about six years ago, I had several moving conversations with him over Zoom. Everybody knew—but he better than anyone—that he would soon be arrested for his public criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “Why don’t you, a wealthy British citizen, try to leave Hong Kong?” I asked him. “I cannot do it,” he replied. “I will not betray my people. They listened to me and they trusted me—I will not leave them.”
Jimmy fulfilled his duty toward his people, and to the entire free world, to the end. It’s cost him everything. Now, the question is: Will the free world fulfill its duty toward him?
