G7 calls for Jimmy Lai’s immediate release as pressure mounts on China

Joint statement expresses concern from the likes of US, UK, Japan and Germany at ‘deteriorating rights, freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong’

The G7 nations have issued a joint statement calling on China to end the persecution of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, stepping up the international pressure on Beijing to release him.

Lai, a 78-year-old British national, faces the possibility of life in jail after he was found guilty of sedition and collusion with foreign forces earlier this week.

The founder of the now-defunct Apply Daily newspaper was arrested in 2020, not long after Hong Kong was gripped by massive anti-government protests.

In a joint statement released on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Britain and the US, as well as the EU, condemned Lai’s conviction.

“We continue to express our concerns about deteriorating rights, freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong,” it said. “Freedom of expression and opinion and media freedom are enshrined in Hong Kong’s Basic Law.

“We call on the Hong Kong authorities to end such prosecutions and to release Jimmy Lai immediately.”

China responded with a rebuke to the G7 for their “irresponsible remarks”, calling it “crude interference in China’s internal affairs and a serious violation of the basic norms governing international relations”.

A prison van believed to be carrying Jimmy Lai leaves a Hong Kong court (Reuters)

“Jimmy Lai is a mastermind and participant of a series of major anti-China riots in Hong Kong. He has committed vicious crimes and caused severe damage,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada said on Wednesday.

Lai’s conviction has drawn condemnation from various world powers even as officials in China and Hong Kong have doubled down, saying the case should send a “clear message” to the financial hub’s pro-democracy movement.

The UK government summoned China’s ambassador to lodge its protest, while US president Donald Trump expressed sorrow after saying he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about the case.

“On my instruction, the Foreign Office has today summoned the Chinese ambassador to underline our position in the strongest terms,” UK home secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament, calling it a “politically motivated” prosecution of a British citizen.

Lai’s family members have raised concerns over his deteriorating health in jail. Lai suffers from diabetes, heart issues and high blood pressure. His daughter Claire Lai recently said he had experienced dramatic weight loss, failing eyesight, and hearing and vision problems.

Jimmy Lai pictured at Stanley prison in Hong Kong in 2023 (AP)

Lai was born in mainland China and moved to Hong Kong, then a British colony, as a child, rising from factory work to become a successful clothing entrepreneur.

In the mid-1990s, he turned to publishing, founding Apple Daily, which later became one of the most influential and outspoken pro-democracy newspapers in the city.

In 1994, Lai became a full British citizen and has never held a Chinese or Hong Kong passport. Despite that, he has been regarded as a Chinese citizen by the Hong Kong authorities.

He was arrested in 2020 following mass demonstrations sparked by the controversial national security legislation, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets amid fears that Beijing would tighten its control over the city’s autonomy.

His son Sebastien Lai says that if his father were to be released today, he would no longer recognise the city. “It’s obviously no longer the sort of Hong Kong that had all these freedoms that you could associate with,” he told The Guardian.