Jimmy Lai is escorted into a Correctional Services van outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, in February, 2021.STR/Getty Images
Under an international standard for acceptable treatment in prison, a set of rules named for Nelson Mandela, being in solitary confinement for longer than 15 days constitutes torture.
As of Friday, Hong Kong political prisoner Jimmy Lai has been tortured for 1,610 days.
Every additional day he remains behind bars is an affront to the conscience. And it is a terrible risk to a 77-year-old who has diabetes. It’s time for the Government of Canada to act.
Both the Senate and the Commons have urged China to release Mr. Lai, an entrepreneur, publisher and democracy advocate. The Commons had been moving to extend him honourary citizenship.
Rather than support that move, the Liberal government is blocking a vote on honourary citizenship. That is exactly the wrong direction on the part of the executive.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is leading a new government and playing host this week to the G7 summit. He has an opportunity to capitalize on both.
First, the government of Canada should call clearly and unequivocally for Mr. Lai’s release from prison. And Mr. Carney should leverage his leadership of the G7 meeting to build consensus around a strong statement of support for Mr. Lai calling for the same.
Such a statement would be a powerful message that, even in a world of fraying alliances, there are ethical principles that bind free nations together. And it would be a reminder to China that just because the United States is upsetting the international order that does not mean other countries will give it a free pass to oppress.
It’s true that Canada and other countries are seeking new partners in the wake of Donald Trump’s upheavals. But trade deals and foreign relations are two-way streets. Making clear to Beijing that it must release Mr. Lai before any new international partnership is the proper sequence, his legal team told The Globe and Mail editorial board this week.
Mr. Lai came to Hong Kong from what was then Canton as a 12-year-old stowaway on a fishing boat. He began work as a child labourer and built a garment empire. He launched the popular tabloid Apple News, which advocated for free speech, and backed the city’s pro-democracy movement.
In 2020, he was illegitimately charged with treason, accused of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under a draconian national security law that criminalizes democratic dissent. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.
Mr. Lai has been in solitary confinement since late 2020 and his family has voiced concerns about his worsening physical state.
On a purely practical level, Beijing has good reason to let him go free. Doing so would be a low-cost way to remove an irritant in foreign relations. The pro-democracy movement that shook Hong Kong in 2019 is a shell of its former strength and Mr. Lai’s family says he is willing to go into exile. In effect, Beijing would be getting rid of a problem.
Releasing not just Mr. Lai but also other political prisoners would help Beijing make the case that Hong Kong is a place where rule of law matters. This reputation is clearly important to China. It recruits leading foreign jurists to sit on its top court and announced last month a new international court of mediation that it hopes will compete with the International Court of Justice.
Beijing is right to worry about Hong Kong’s reputation. The city’s former stability and access to mainland China made it a global financial powerhouse, motivating the ruling party to overlook its relatively free status. That changed with the democracy crackdowns.
Canada now has an official travel advisory warning about “the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” Expatriates and young people are voting with their feet and Hong Kong is no longer the great city it once was.
Beijing can start reversing Hong Kong’s decline by releasing Mr. Lai, which would be a tacit admission that the authorities overstepped. This would help reassure investors and residents they won’t be arrested for political reasons or have their companies seized. True, China would be doing the right thing for the wrong reason – but the result would still be just.
Mr. Lai has been tortured for 1,610 days. Not one more day should be added to that horrifying tally before Mr. Carney and the G7 shine the light of justice on his case.