Amid the widespread anti-zero-COVID protests in mainland China, political and judicial persecution in Hong Kong continues in the criminal court, where key pro-democracy figures and journalists are facing national security trials that could result in life in jail.
Jimmy Lai is one of the most well-known defendants outside Hong Kong, and his trials have become symbolic of the crackdown on freedom of speech by Beijing. As the owner of the famous liberal newspaper Apple Daily, Lai has been seen as a committed advocate for the city’s universal suffrage, promised in the Basic Law of Hong Kong, a mini-constitutional document signed off by the Chinese state.
