Media mogul Jimmy Lai has been in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison in Hong Kong for four and a half years.Tyrone Siu/Reuters
The European Union is increasing pressure on China to immediately release jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, as Prime Minister Mark Carney faces renewed calls to join the U.S. and Britain in calling publicly for him to be freed.
Earlier this month, senior members of the EU’s diplomatic service called for the immediate release of Mr. Lai at a formal meeting with officials from China’s ministry of foreign affairs about human rights.
The EU also raised concerns about China’s “repressive use of national security legislation which continues to undermine human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Hong Kong, according to a report about the 40th human-rights dialogue between the EU and China in Brussels on June 13.
Mr. Lai has been accused of breaching the Beijing-imposed national-security law and has been in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison in Hong Kong for four and a half years.
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Ostensibly intended to target secession, subversion and terrorism, Hong Kong’s 2020 national-security law contains vaguely defined offences that Amnesty International has said mean “virtually anything could be deemed a threat.”
The publisher of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper has close family in Canada and owns a string of hotels, restaurants and spas in Ontario.
The report about the dialogue says “the EU called for the immediate and unconditional release of British citizen and media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai and of barrister and human rights defender Chow Hang-tung.”
Ms. Hang-tung was imprisoned for organizing vigils to commemorate the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The EU urged China to end practices such as arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and torture and also raised “China’s increasingly frequent use of transnational repression practices to pressure and control Chinese overseas nationals,” according to the report of the meeting.
At a Canada-EU summit in Brussels this week, Mr. Carney agreed to deepen Canada’s co-operation with the EU. Human-rights advocates expressed hope that the Prime Minister will echo the EU’s public call for Mr. Lai’s release.
“Prime Minister Carney just announced a strategic partnership with the EU, saying the agreement is ‘rooted in shared values and the rules-based international system.’ Jimmy Lai is the personification of these shared values, and one of their greatest defenders,” said Brandon Silver, director of policy and programs at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
“The EU has publicly called on Beijing to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Lai, and we trust that Prime Minister Carney will join our new strategic partner in doing the same.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson declined requests to comment.
The White House this month renewed calls for Mr. Lai to be freed.
“As President Trump has said, Jimmy Lai should be released and he wants to see that happen,” Anna Kelly, deputy White House spokesperson, said in a statement.
Australia’s foreign affairs department expressed continuing concern for the Hong Kong businessman.
“As the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said, Australia is deeply concerned by Hong Kong’s widespread application of national security laws to repress civil society and prosecute journalists such as Jimmy Lai,” the department said in a statement.
The British High Commission in Ottawa renewed calls for Mr. Lai to be freed earlier in June.
The trial of Mr. Lai is due to resume in August. Prosecutors have tried to paint Mr. Lai as the architect of widespread anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019, and accused him of leading a campaign to get foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong and Chinese officials.
Earlier this month, MPs from all political parties backed moves to award Mr. Lai honorary Canadian citizenship in a renewed effort to apply pressure on Hong Kong authorities to release him.
But the government House Leader told Liberal MP Judy Sgro she could not press ahead as planned and table the House of Commons motion calling for the award of honorary citizenship to Mr. Lai.
Ms. Sgro has now placed a motion calling for Mr. Lai to be granted honorary citizenship on the House of Commons order paper, hoping it will be picked up by an MP and presented after Parliament returns from its summer recess.
MPs are selected through a ballot to present “private members” business in the House of Commons, but only those at the top of the list tend to get the parliamentary time to present it.
Ms. Sgro said she is persevering with securing a vote in the Commons to award Mr. Lai honorary citizenship, including by asking the Commons foreign affairs committee to draw up a report for a later vote.
David Matsinhe, director of policy, advocacy and research with Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, called on the Canadian government to speak out in support of Mr. Lai and other jailed pro-democracy advocates.
“With the anniversary of Hong Kong’s National Security Law just days away, it is high time for Canada to act in defence of justice, rights and dignity on the global stage by joining the chorus of international voices calling for the release of criminalized pro-democracy activists Jimmy Lai, Chow Hang-tung, Leung Kwok-hung and Owen Chow,” he said.
“Canada must never be silent about the human rights of criminalized Hong Kongers, let alone when international outrage over their treatment is growing.”