Lai is a danger to a repressive regime

It is tempting to argue that China must be a weak country to arrest a leading publisher in Hong Kong for his advocacy for democracy. But Jimmy Lai is a man of courage with the most dangerous idea for a repressive regime: people ought to be free to speak their minds.

Of course, Lai is internationally known and has met leading political figures in the US. He had a successful business career in China before launching Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper in 1995 and becoming an outspoken advocate for democracy and a free press.

Lai reportedly became a publisher and democracy advocate after students, workers and everyday Chinese citizens led the pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989 that was crushed. Lai is exactly the type of political and business leader who might have helped China make the turn away from communism.

Hong Kong has been a beacon of hope in the region for decades. It thrived under British rule by embracing a free economic system, and attracted droves of people from China. The city remained such a beacon even after it was handed back to China in the 1990s as the government initially embraced a “one country, two systems” model.

For years Beijing has ramped up pressure, most recently with a new national security law to clamp down on dissent. How it intended to use that law always seemed obvious, but was made plain by the arrest of Lai, paraded through his own newsroom in handcuffs. It’s hard to imagine any motive other than to intimidate the press.

As Lai wrote this year in The Wall Street Journal, the more President Xi Jinping “pursues his authoritarian agenda, the more distrust he will sow at home and abroad. Far from transforming Beijing into the world’s leading superpower, his policies will instead keep China from taking its rightful place of honour in a peaceful, modern and integrated world.” /August 11