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Earlier today, a Hong Kong national security court found Jimmy Lai guilty on all charges. The activist, publisher and business mogul now faces up to life in prison. NPR's Emily Feng spoke to his daughter shortly after the verdict.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Claire Lai's father was arrested in 2020, just weeks after Beijing pushed through the national security law. Now, more than five years later...
CLAIRE LAI: He's lost a substantial amount of weight. Like, in less than a year, he's lost over 10 kilos.
FENG: This week, the elder Lai was found guilty of publishing seditious articles and meeting with foreign officials, including American leaders, which under the national security law was considered colluding with foreign forces. For Beijing, Lai has been the, quote, "lackey" for Western countries, organizing and funding dissent in Hong Kong. And a judge on Monday said Lai had clear, quote, "hatred and resentment" for China. Lai denies this and all other charges.
JONATHAN PRICE: They had to reach back to 2017...
FENG: This is Jonathan Price, one of Lai's lawyers.
PRICE: ...To recharacterize what he was doing then - perfectly lawfully at the time - as somehow a gross violation of national security.
FENG: So for the last few years, Lai the daughter has only seen her father in court or in prison - at first, for 15 minutes a week, now an hour every month. She says her father, a devout Catholic like her, draws.
LAI: My father, he draws the crucifixion and he draws Our Lady of the Annunciation. And he started drawing the Pieta.
FENG: Though now he's forbidden from sending these illustrations out. Jimmy Lai's rise from a boy refugee to building a billion-dollar clothing brand before pivoting to media always struck her as almost miraculous.
LAI: You know, he came to Hong Kong as a boy and was guided by the Holy Spirit and just made it from rags to riches. And if he can do that, then we can fight for his freedom.
FENG: Lai is likely to be sentenced in mid-January. That's shortly before the United Kingdom's prime minister, Keir Starmer, is scheduled to visit Beijing, which Price, Lai's lawyer, says opens an opportunity.
PRICE: We fully expect this to be dealt with at the political level on a leader-to-leader basis.
FENG: Where leaders like Starmer might be able to get Lai freed despite the courts. President Trump has also said he will, quote, "do everything I can" on Lai's case. Claire Lai says she hopes to be reunited with her father soon.
LAI: You know, I hope one day I can reminisce with him over this period that took up years of his life.
FENG: But she recently left Hong Kong, her home, to move abroad.
LAI: Hong Kong has changed a lot. I mean, it's hard to think of a single industry that hasn't been affected by the national security law.
FENG: The fight for her father's freedom, she says, now lies in pressuring China from outside Hong Kong. Emily Feng, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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