Free Jimmy Lai

Tomorrow will see the closing arguments in the sham trial of Hong Kong democracy activist and British citizen Jimmy Lai. The 77-year-old has been kept in solitary confinement since December 2020. His preferred foreign lawyer, Tim Owen KC, was barred from representing him under new requirements of Hong Kong’s “National Security” Law, and the Department of “Justice” has systematically denied him his choice of counsel. Until December 2024, Lai was not even permitted visits from his family; the communists now allow him thirty minutes a month, through a glass screen.

Before the fist of the CCP fell on Hong Kong, Lai ran Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper and outspoken critic of Beijing. He joined the anti-extradition protests and funded opposition groups in his fight for freedom.

His “crimes” under the Hong Kong “National Security” Law — which, in violation of international law to which the UK is a signatory, made toilet paper out of “One Country, Two Systems” and was imposed on Hong Kong without so much as a whimper from Whitehall — include “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” and “unauthorised assembly.”

Lai is a British citizen, though you wouldn’t know it from the UK government’s response. There have been no sanctions, no Magnitsky lists — nothing beyond a handful of platitudes for domestic audiences. His case went unmentioned in talks over the “Mega-Embassy” — a proposed gargantuan CCP compound in the heart of London, likely to be approved in the coming weeks despite local opposition and security concerns raised by senior White House officials. During trade negotiations with China in January, Starmer did briefly note the UK was “concerned about reports of Jimmy Lai’s deterioration,” but stopped short of calling for his release — before promptly signing a trade deal for solar panels produced by Uighur slave labour in Xinjiang internment camps.

There are obvious reasons why we’ve heard barely a peep from Labour or the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation on the egregious detention of Jimmy Lai: Comrade Starmer is ideologically wedded to the socialist authoritarianism of the CCP. We’ve seen his crackdown on dissent, his internet censorship via the Online “Safety” Act, (𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟯𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁, 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝗽𝗺) and the presumption of innocence whored to State suspicion with the rollout of facial recognition cameras on our high streets. The legislation enabling this Orwellian nightmare — and the Tories are equally to blame — is virtually a carbon copy of CCP laws, insidiously wrapped in references to “safety” and “protecting children.” Starmer needs the CCP on side; they have a near-monopoly on solar panels and facial recognition systems — the perfect tools for building a Surveillance Net Zero State.

While Lai languishes behind bars, the next statement from Labour on China will not be a call for his release. It will be the approval of the CCP mega-embassy beside the Tower of London, as Starmer continues to model the type of authoritarian socialism he wishes to impose here.

The Libertarian Party calls for the immediate release of Jimmy Lai and the refusal of the mega-embassy proposal on grounds of human decency and national security.