Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Jimmy Lai Fights the CCP for Access to Human Rights Lawyer
Jimmy Lai Fights the CCP for Access to Human Rights Lawyer
Apr 2, 2025 12:03 AM

The embattled published and entrepreneur continues his fight for justice—and the counsel he previously had been allowed.

Read More…

Sitting in a prison cell, stripped of both legal counsel and liberty, 75-year-old entrepreneur and publisher Jimmy Lai has likely been tempted to give up the fight against the Beijing and its years-long effort to curtail civil and human rights in Hong Kong. Yet the democracy advocate, imprisoned since December 2020, continues to take on Xi Jinping’s regime for his right to a fair trial.

The first step for Lai in seeking justice is to get his counsel back: veteran U.K. lawyer Timothy Owen, a specialist in human rights and international law. Hong Kong has repeatedly petitioned Beijing to block Owen’s admission in the Lai case, saying that non­–Hong Kong lawyers threaten the country’s ability to try individuals under the sweeping National Security Law (NSL), which Beijing itself implemented in Hong Kong in 2020.

Last December, Beijing ruled that the authority to permit lawyers like Owen to participate in trials involving violations of the NSL lies with Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee. Lai, who has been charged with two counts of conspiracy and one count of collusion, recently sent a petition of his own to Hong Kong with a simple message: don’t let Beijing’s hostility on this issue determine the fairness of my trial.

The Hong Kong High Court had previously allowed Owen to participate in Lai’s trial, and thus Lai’s team likely sees this as a precedent by which to fight for Owen’s return. Although Lai’s trial began last December, it was adjourned after one day, until September 2023. Lai will remain in prison until then for all three of the NSL charges against him, as well as an unrelated fraud conviction in relation to the publication of his pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, shuttered in 2021.

The Hong Konger, the Acton Institute’s new documentary, tells the story of Jimmy Lai’s heroic struggle against authoritarian Beijing and its erosion of human rights in Hong Kong. It is currently being screened in cities around the world.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Gregg: Europe’s Not-So-Revolutionary Youth
The European Union’s finances are in a dismal state, and are requiring governments to revaluate the “welfare state.” Samuel Gregg articulates in his article appearing in The American Spectator, “Europe’s Not-So-Revolutionary Youth,” that a youth movement called les indignés or los indignados, depending on where you are, is resisting the reforms being proposed: This time, however, things are different. With barely-disguised reluctance, governments across Western Europe are proceeding with relatively minor reforms aimed at reducing the European welfare state’s costs....
Vatican banker: Western economies risk ‘continual decline’
On NewsMax, Edward Pentin reports that “the president of the Vatican Bank has said that emerging economies may be the only countries experiencing economic growth over ing decades, while Western nations are crippled by lack of productivity, petitive labor markets, and aging populations.” Ettore Gotti Tedeschi said the “next decades risk seeing exclusively the growth of emerging countries, and not just because of their low cost of production but also due to their advanced technological level and capacity to create...
Beginning of the End of Corn Ethanol?
Ethanol subsidies, once considered a sacred cow, are facing the possibility of being axed from the budget. The Senate cast a deciding vote, 73-27 in repealing the 45 cent per gallon subsidy to refiners for blending gasoline with ethanol, and the 54 cent per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Cutting the ethanol subsidy and repealing the tariff still face an uphill battle as it must pass the house and get the signature of President Obama, who has vowed not to...
The Diabolic Comedy
Jeffery C. Pugh has landed every blogger’s dream: the book deal for a best-of collection of his musings. Devil’s Ink: Blog from the Basement Office is an answer to the question “What if Satan kept a blog?”—one of several (the opportunity to pun is apparently irresistible) all of which immediately parison with C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. Pugh anticipates parison in his book’s preface, saying he offers “another way of looking at evil,” a modern way that reflects how the...
Valedictory: Sacrifice and Financial Success
Earlier this month, I spoke at mencement of Trinity School at Meadow View, a truly impressive private high school school in Falls Church, Va. Most impressive was the valedictory address given by the graduating senior Beau Lovdahl, who is on his way to Princeton in the fall. The story he relates here underscores the philosophy of the Acton Institute in many ways and I wanted to share it with PowerBlog readers. I hope you enjoy reading it. Beau Lovdahl Valedictory...
Gregg: Social Contracts, Human Flourishing, and the Economy
In a new article on Public Discourse, Samuel Gregg explores social contract theory and how that may apply to the current budget battles: In very broad terms, social contract theory is a way of understanding the relationship between governments and the people. It holds that, having agreed upon the need for a government, individuals create a state on the basis of mutual promises. This permits the state to claim that its authority is based on a delegation of people’s rights...
The Poor as Neighbors: Option & Respect
R.R. Reno at First Things has written a moving meditation on the preferential option for the poor: “In the Gospel of Matthew we find Jesus warning us about how our lives will be judged. His words are pointed. We are to feed the hungry, e the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoner. For what we do to the poor and the destitute—“the least of these my brethren,” says Jesus—we do to the Lord himself. It’s a sobering warning,...
Fighting Hunger Together
Bread for the World CEO David Beckmann once said, “We can’t food-bank our way to the end of hunger.” As I said then, if “changing the politics of hunger” means that more people are getting food assistance from the government rather than food banks munity efforts, count me out. But on a more hopeful note, this story from NPR tracking how Walmart has partnered with Feeding America, the largest food bank network in the nation, to get food that would...
The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Judy Hill and High Cotton Ties
A few weeks ago I made a phone call to Judy Hill at High Cotton Ties simply because I had a strong feeling she had pelling witness to offer about entrepreneurship, vocation, and creativity. Picking up the phone was a wise decision. She agreed to an interview for readers of the PowerBlog. I had ordered a few bow ties from High Cotton Ties and was extremely impressed with the unique design and high quality. I had no idea of any...
Key to Economic Flourishing
It is nice to know that we here at Acton have friends in high places. This article at Catholic Exchange by George Weigel points out that Blessed John Paul II had some keen insights into what makes economic life flourish: “John Paul taught that what the Church proposes is not simply the free society, but the free and virtuous society. It takes a certain kind of people, possessed of certain virtues, to make free politics and free economics work toward...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved