Jimmy Lai conviction confirms China’s grip on Hong Kong

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was convicted yesterday of publishing seditious material and “colluding with foreign forces,” and now faces possible life in prison. His only real “crime” was criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (ccp) and its unlawful repression of Hong Kong. Thus, the verdict confirms that the ccp now rules Hong Kong as fully and repressively as the mainland. When Britain handed Hong Kong over to Chinese rule in 1997, the ccp pledged not to interfere with its economic, political and judicial autonomy for at least 50 years. But in the early 2000s, the regime began a creeping oppression that culminated in the 2020 passage of a national security law permitting the ccp to prosecute any Hong Konger seen as insufficiently submissive to the Party. The conviction rate in ccp courts is higher than 99.9 percent. Lai’s conviction exemplifies China’s use of politicized law to crush dissent and signals that the world is sliding into a darker, more authoritarian era.