Police lead Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, centre, away from his home after he was arrested and charged with 'conspiracy to collude with foreign forces' in August, 2020. Mr. Lai has been in solitary confinement for almost five years.VERNON YUEN/AFP/Getty Images
Michael Kovrig – one of the “two Michaels” detained by China for almost three years – has urged Canada to work with allies to convince Beijing and Hong Kong that keeping publisher Jimmy Lai in jail is an “embarrassing admission of weakness.”
Speaking to MPs on the Commons foreign affairs committee on Thursday, Mr. Kovrig said for Mr. Lai to die in custody would be a political embarrassment to the Chinese Communist Party.
“For an elderly prisoner with medical concerns, a compassionate release on health grounds is an entirely plausible justification for release. This could be done in a face-saving, low-risk way,” he told MPs.
Mr. Lai, who is a British citizen, has been in solitary confinement in Hong Kong for almost five years. He and six senior staff members at his newspaper Apple Daily were arrested in 2020 and charged with “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” under a Beijing-imposed national security law. One of the accusations was that he had communicated with Canadian MPs.
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Mr. Kovrig said keeping the former publisher in jail is tarnishing China’s reputation abroad.
“Chinese officials want us to have what they consider a correct perception of China. Well, Jimmy Lai’s imprisonment darkens those perceptions,” he told the Commons committee.
“They are currently on a charm offensive in which they want to persuade the world that China is a responsible pillar of a multipolar order that wants to work with the Government of Canada. Well, make clear that their diplomacy would be much more charming and their reputations would be burnished if they released Jimmy Lai and other detainees like him,” he said.
He suggested Canada use any contacts it has with Chinese and Hong Kong officials to advocate for Mr. Lai’s release. The border agency and the immigration department “may perhaps have some underused access to Beijing and Hong Kong officials and politicians.”
“When those officials apply for visas or need to clear customs to enter Canada, is that not perhaps an opportunity to also give them a letter that urges them to release Jimmy Lai?” he said.
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From December, 2018, to September, 2021, Mr. Kovrig and another Canadian, Michael Spavor, were held prisoner in China, accused of espionage. Their jailing was an apparent bid by China to put pressure on Ottawa to release the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Meng Wanzhou. She had been arrested at Vancouver airport on a U.S. extradition request on Dec. 1, 2018, but was freed on bail to live at her B.C. mansion while the two Michaels were incarcerated.
“The confinement itself is raw suffering, the isolation and the loneliness grind on your mind,” Mr. Kovrig said. “Jimmy Lai is taking all of that suffering to defend the freedom of speech and freedom of the press that Canadians hold so dear.”
Mr. Kovrig urged Canada to work in tandem with other countries, such as Britain, to put pressure on China to release Mr. Lai from custody.
So long as it costs China nothing to keep Jimmy Lai in prison he won’t be freed, he warned, and Canada needs to “flip that cost benefit analysis” so it becomes against the regime’s interests to continue to hold him. This could include tightening restrictions on “certain officials” or Chinese prisoners held abroad, or offering China positive incentives to release him.
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He said “the Chinese Communist Party is ruthlessly transactional. What they will be asking, what can be offered in exchange, perhaps a Chinese prisoner currently held in a Western country.”
Mr. Kovrig, a former foreign service official posted to the Canadian embassy in China who also worked at the consulate in Hong Kong, told MPs that “by identifying pressure points and combining relentless advocacy, incentives and costs, it may finally be possible to change Hong Kong’s calculus and finally free Jimmy Lai.”
“Above all, the party fears appearing weak. We need to convince them that a truly confident, legitimate government has no need to fear critics or lock up dissidents. Freeing Jimmy would actually be a gesture of power and magnanimity.”
Lawyers for the businessman, who owns a string of hotels, bars, and restaurants in Ontario and whose twin sister lives there, have been calling for his release on humanitarian grounds.
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His international counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher told the Commons committee that it is in China’s interest to release Mr. Lai “before he dies in prison.”
“It’s not only the right thing to do as a matter of principle, it’s also the right thing to do from a pragmatic perspective for China,” she said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney last month joined other world leaders, including Donald Trump and Keir Starmer, in calling publicly for Mr. Lai to be released.
Jimmy Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, giving evidence by video link, said he feared his father could die behind bars unless he is released soon.
Mr. Lai, who turns 78 next month and has diabetes, is still awaiting a verdict in his trial, which concluded this summer.
Lawyer Brandon Silver, director of policy at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, said Mr. Lai had faced “Kafkaesque allegations” including discussing the news with his journalists.