This week, I was delighted to host an event in the Italian Senate attended by Sebastien Lai, son of Jimmy Lai, the entrepreneur and former owner of the well-known pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper, Apple Daily. The event was convened to denounce his father’s ongoing detention in appalling prison conditions in Hong Kong for almost five years.
The arrest of Jimmy Lai in 2020 and the closure, shortly after, of his Apple Daily newspaper dealt a very severe blow to press freedom in Hong Kong. His detention amid a wave of censorship from mainland China effectively swept away the “one country, two systems” principle that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy to Hong Kong as promised under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984 and effective from the 1997 handover of control from Britain to China. The agreement was supposed to guarantee the maintenance of the city’s freedoms and market for 50 years, i.e. until 2047.
Sebastien Lai explained during the event that his father suffers from health problems that the prison regime has aggravated. The precarious physical conditions, combined with age, are incompatible with the state of his detention, or are of such seriousness as to require extramural care.
Today, therefore, we join the chorus of voices calling for the release of Jimmy Lai; an act that would help both Beijing and Hong Kong to improve their international image. This is an important step that China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, should take to show that soft power is an effective tool capable of encouraging negotiations that avert clashes and wars.
In its 2025 annual press freedom ranking, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) placed Hong Kong 140th out of 180 countries and territories worldwide. It was 135th in 2024; 80th in 2020; 70th in 2015; and 18th in 2002 (the first edition of the RSF report). This year’s report reads: “Once a bastion of press freedom, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China has suffered a series of unprecedented setbacks since 2020, when Beijing adopted a National Security Law (NSL) aimed at silencing independent voices.”
It is precisely due to the NSL that Jimmy Lai is accused of sedition and collusion with foreign forces. Detained for five years, he has been in solitary confinement for nearly 1,800 days. Thus, he has become symbolic of the end of civil liberties in Hong Kong. The 77-year-old could have left the former British colony but instead decided to stay, even after the NSL was approved, to defend his journalists and his principles. Releasing him would be a gesture of détente towards foreign investors, re-establishing a climate of economic confidence, which in Hong Kong remains subdued because of increasing repression and authoritarianism.
It is also a decision being called for all over the world. Last November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution stating that: “whereas Jimmy Lai has been detained since 2020 on unfounded charges; whereas his trial began in 2023 after several postponements; who risks life imprisonment; whereas his British lawyer has been denied permission to represent him; condemns the Security Law and calls for intensified prison visits and trial observation and for the establishment of a human rights focal point.”
During the EU-China summit last July, the EU reiterated its deep concern about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet, the treatment of human rights defenders and persons belonging to minorities, as well as the continued erosion of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, where China should honour its previous commitments.
In August, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would do “everything possible” to “save” the former Apple Daily publisher. This week, he reiterated that raising Jimmy Lai’s case is “on my list” ahead of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.
We are also doing everything we can. I note the statement from Davide Dionisi, the foreign minister’s envoy on religious freedom, about backing calls for Jimmy Lai’s immediate and unconditional release. Freeing a man who stood up for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, should not be a tough decision. It is the right decision.
Giulio Terzi
Read the original blog for Fondazione CFHK