Chinese ambassador summoned by Foreign Office over Jimmy Lai verdict

The Government has summoned the Chinese ambassador over the conviction of dual-national Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai under the territory’s Beijing-imposed national security law.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the guilty verdict given by a Hong Kong court on Monday to the pro-democracy activist Mr Lai for sedition and conspiracy charges.

Ms Cooper said the court case had been brought for political purposes, as she said the national security law should be repealed.

She said she feared that any prison term would effectively be a life sentence for the 78-year-old.

It came as Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien, who appeared in the Commons gallery, said the result showed the UK Government needed to do more and “put action behind words”.

He said the Government should make his father’s release a precondition for closer UK-China relations.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Cooper said: “Jimmy Lai is a British citizen. He has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.

“This was a politically motivated prosecution, which I strongly condemn. Jimmy Lai now faces the prospect of a sentence which for a man of 78 years could mean the rest of his life in prison. I call again for Jimmy Lai’s immediate release.

“On my instruction the Foreign Office has today summoned the Chinese ambassador to underline our position in the strongest terms.”

Mr Lai had founded the now-defunct Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, and had been a persistent critic of the Chinese government.

He was arrested in 2020 under the national security law, which was brought in after anti-government protests the previous year.

Mr Lai has spent much of the time since in solitary confinement, and pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against him.

Downing Street condemned the verdict, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying: “We will continue to appeal to the Chinese government ahead of Jimmy Lai’s sentencing for his release and access to medical treatment.

“Jimmy Lai’s case has been a priority for this Government and the Prime Minister, and as the Foreign Secretary has said, we condemn the politically motivated prosecution that has resulted in today’s guilty verdict.”

The UK “cannot shy away from engagement” with China, he insisted, when asked if Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer still plans to travel to the country and meet its leaders next year.

Speaking to the Press Association, Sebastien Lai said the message from the Government was they “seem keen to do something”, but action was “the language that China understands”.

He said: “I hope that the Foreign Secretary understands that, I’m sure she does, and put actions behind words, make my father’s case a precondition of closer relationships with China.

“If we just think about this completely logically, how are we going to normalise relationships if they still have my father in prison.

“The core responsibility of government is to protect one’s people, and here you have my father, whose rights are being violated, who has been kept in limbo, finally having a verdict now after five years of solitary confinement, and he’s a British citizen.”

The more than 800-page judgment contains “essentially nothing – there’s nothing that incriminates him, there’s nothing that even under their own legal system would make him guilty”, he said.

A reporter asked if Sir Keir’s Beijing visit would be a “pivotal moment” and Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, leading Mr Lai’s international legal team, responded: “The short answer is yes.

“Closer engagement with China must come in close alignment in ensuring that our interests are protected, and we are very concerned that there has been a headlong rush into closer and closer relations without ensuring that our core interests are protected, including, in particular, a British national detained behind bars.”

Mr Lai told the briefing that he has met successive foreign secretaries and his team is speaking with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Mr Lai said his father is suffering heart issues and his nails are falling out. He said the conditions he is being kept in were affecting his health.

Dame Priti Patel, shadow foreign secretary, described Mr Lai’s case as a “political show trial” which was “an outrage to democracy, personal freedom and liberty”. She also said the case should be raised directly with President Xi (Jinping).

In the Commons, she said the Government should “send a signal of our disgust to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) by cancelling the Prime Minister’s planned visit to China next January, unless Jimmy Lai is released”.

She also called on ministers to block the “super embassy spy hub” and place China in the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs).

Ms Cooper replied: “We do not see this simply as a foreign policy matter, we see this as a matter that affects the entire Government relationship as well.

“She seems to be suggesting that we should then have no further engagement, but actually the opposite is true, and in fact, what we need to do is to ensure that we are conveying the strength of our feeling.”

A cross-party group of MPs criticised the Government for not having taken stronger action ahead of Mr Lai’s conviction.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arbitrary Detention and Hostage Affairs said: “The conviction represents a failing by the UK Government which has not unequivocally demanded his release.

“While other countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia have secured the release of their nationals from arbitrary detention in China and Hong Kong, the UK has failed to do so despite the unique relationship between the UK and Hong Kong enshrined in international obligations in the Basic Law.

“If the UK had taken faster, firmer and more fervent action to secure his release Jimmy Lai could be spending Christmas with his family where he belongs, rather than arbitrarily detained in Hong Kong.”

Amnesty International’s China director Sarah Brooks said: “The predictability of today’s verdict does not make it any less dismaying – the conviction of Jimmy Lai feels like the death knell for press freedom in Hong Kong, where the essential work of journalism has been rebranded as a crime.

“Lai has been jailed simply because he and his Apple Daily newspaper criticised the government. The activities for which he has been convicted would never have been considered crimes before the 2020 National Security Law was enacted.”

China’s embassy said the UK’s condemnation of Mr Lai’s conviction “blatantly interferes in China’s internal affairs and tramples on the rule of law, and seriously violates the basic norms governing international relations”.

An embassy spokesperson insisted that the handling of the case had been “in strict accordance with the law” and was “beyond question or reproach”.

They added: “The UK side’s attempt to interfere in Hong Kong’s judicial affairs will only further expose its sinister motive to destabilise Hong Kong, will only arouse universal indignation within the Hong Kong society, and will get nowhere.”