Underlining its unrepentant disdain for human rights and its international treaty obligations, China will try a Hong Kong dissident journalist in a no-jury trial.
As reported by the Hong Kong Free Press on Wednesday, Jimmy Lai will stand trial on charges of “conspiring to commit collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, and to print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display and/or reproduce seditious publications.” Beijing’s particular fury rests on Lai’s former publication of the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper (full disclosure: I previously wrote a column for that newspaper). Apple Daily was forced to close in June 2021 after authorities arrested its senior leadership and seized its accounts. This crackdown is part of China’s repression of Hong Kong under its Orwellian “national security law.”
The decision to try Lai without a jury follows a similar action on Tuesday involving another set of dozens of democracy activists.
The Hong Kong Free Press notes that jury trials have been an instrumental part of Hong Kong’s justice system for 177 years. Nevertheless, Beijing’s shameless immorality and utter disingenuousness here is truly something to behold.
Take the statement of Hong Kong Justice Secretary Paul Lam on why Lai’s no-jury trial is necessary. It’s not because Beijing doesn’t want the world to see how it regards free speech or treats its citizens. Of course not. No, Lam says it’s because the court must guard against the “involvement of foreign elements,” ensure the “personal safety of jurors and their family members,” and mitigate the “risk of perverting the course of justice if the trial is conducted with a jury.”
This legal excrement would be hilarious were the stakes involved not so serious. But it says much about communist China’s conception of justice that it views “perverting the course of justice” as directly tied to a jury’s involvement in deliberating said justice.
There are two lessons for the world here.
First off, we must note that this trial is in obvious and patent breach of China’s treaty commitments under the Sino-British joint declaration. Governing Britain’s transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China, that binding international treaty obliges China to respect Hong Kong’s democratic rule of law until at least the year 2047. For communists who can’t do math, that’s 25 years from now. This is a lesson for governments tempted to strike major agreements with China on matters of import, such as those involving trade, climate change, and security. Put simply, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s word is provably untrustworthy.
Second, as with China’s broader destruction of Hong Kong democracy (for example, Beijing’s filtering out all candidates for office except those who bow in obedience to the God-Emperor Xi), this scandal proves the Communist Party’s disdain for those values that most of us hold most dear: freedom, individual rights, and the right to pursue happiness. Contrary to its claims, China does not seek the give and take of “win-win cooperation” with the world. Instead, it stands ready to subjugate anyone who stands in its way.
Tolerating this injustice in their slathering pursuit of communist gold, American businesses such as Coca-Cola, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi-Cola, and Walmart (and the most pathetic of all, Intel) shame themselves and their country.
