Why A U.S. Member Of Congress Should Adopt Jimmy Lai

Over the weekend, the Hong Kong court handed down a five years and nine months sentence to former Apple Daily founder and long-suffering political prisoner, Jimmy Lai. The harsh sentence was over a fabricated fraud charge related to Lai’s now shuttered press outfit. There can be no question that the Hong Kong court’s treatment of Jimmy Lai is unjust and unreasonable. Lai should not spend another day behind bars, much less nearly six. To respond, a U.S. member of Congress should adopt Jimmy Lai as a political prisoner and step-up U.S. advocacy to ensure Lai’s release.

The sentence lobbed against Lai over the weekend is just the latest in a string of false charges intended to keep the former media tycoon locked behind bars. In fact, Lai is slated to stand trial again, this time under the National Security Law (NSL) – passed in July 2020 in response to pro-democracy protests in 2019 and 2020 in the city-state. The charges Lai faces under the NSL could land him in prison for life.

Lai’s NSL trial is slated to begin on Wednesday, December 14 after it was delayed due to a deliberation over whether Lai, a British citizen, could be represented by British lawyer Timothy Owen in Hong Kong court. It has not yet been determined whether he will be permitted to continue with his UK representation – a decision that will be made by authorities in Beijing. The delay also prompted questions over whether Lai would be tried in Beijing instead of in Hong Kong.

Lai has long stood as a beacon of liberty. His fastidious commitment to freedom of the press and access to accurate information made him a target of authorities after the city-state devolved from a freedom-loving global financial center into one controlled in no-small-part by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

A failure to act swiftly now is of immense consequence to Jimmy. While Lai was previously adopted as a Religious Prisoner of Conscience by U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom former Commissioner, Johnnie Moore, he has not yet been adopted by a member of Congress. Through the Defending Freedoms Project (DFP) run by the congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, members of Congress can adopt political prisoners from around the globe. According to the DFP website, not a single Hong Konger has been adopted by a member.

If adopted, the member can raise the profile of Lai’s case by holding hearings in Congress, issuing letters to the Secretary of State and other relevant bodies within the U.S. Department of State, and negotiating, as well as coordinating the prisoner’s release with other governments, like the UK, to increase the likelihood that a political prisoner garners the attention necessary to secure his or her release, or at the very least, reduce the sentence. Past efforts to secure the release of political prisoners through congressional advocacy have been successful; at least eight political prisoners from China have been released after getting adopted by a member of Congress.

There can be no question that Lai is a worthy cause – or that he requires support from the international community in his time of need. A member of Congress should adopt him swiftly and make it a top priority, not only to advocate for Lai’s release, but also to press for a more robust response from the U.S. government to deteriorating conditions in Hong Kong. In addition to adopting Lai as a political prisoner, the U.S. government should issue targeted sanctions against members of the CCP and Hong Kong judiciary guilty of undermining the rule of law in the city-state. It should also raise the cases of Lai and others in every single meeting between high-level U.S. officials and Chinese and Hong Kong counterparts.

Jimmy Lai and Hong Kong deserve justice. They cannot count on the Hong Kong government to deliver it. It’s past time for the U.S. and other free nations to step up.