Точка Синхронізації

A Beijing-backed court in Hong Kong sentenced 78-year-old democracy advocate and former media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison on charges of foreign collusion and sedition on Friday, marking the harshest punishment administered since the 2020 enactment of China’s National Security Law. The conviction of the Apple Daily founder serves as the definitive signal of the central government’s determination to dismantle the city’s pro-democracy movement and silence critics of the Chinese Communist Party. The sentencing has drawn immediate international condemnation, as it targets one of the most prominent remaining voices of dissent in the financial hub. Jimmy Lai, a British citizen who built a media empire that became the cornerstone of liberal sentiment in Hong Kong, had been in custody since December 2020. The prosecution largely centered on his editorial decisions and meetings with foreign officials, which the court categorized as illegal interference and a threat to national stability. Prosecutors argued that Lai used his media platform to incite public hatred against the government and solicited foreign sanctions during the 2019 mass protests. Human rights organizations, however, maintain that the proceedings were a sham intended to criminalize legitimate journalistic activity and political expression. In a discussion following the verdict, former U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns and other observers noted that this 20-year term is effectively a life sentence for the septuagintarian. The severity of the punishment highlights the total transformation of Hong Kong’s legal landscape, shifting from a British-style common law system toward the mainland’s prioritize-security model. With the shuttering of Apple Daily and the imprisonment of its founder, the era of a free and boisterous press in Hong Kong appears to have reached a definitive end, leaving a vacuum in the city's civil society and further straining relations between Beijing and Western democratic powers.