Thinking About China
Opinion

Hong Kong’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Was Not Betrayed by Jimmy Lai—It Was Broken by Beijing

Hong Kong’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Was Not Betrayed by Jimmy Lai—It Was Broken by Beijing
A police officer keeps watch as people wait in line to enter the West Kowloon Law Courts building to hear the verdicts in the national security trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong on Dec. 15, 2025. Leung Man Hei/AFP via Getty Images
Edward Chin
|Updated:
0:00
Commentary

Over several days beginning on Jan. 12, the Hong Kong High Court is hearing submissions in a mitigation hearing (a plea for leniency). The proceedings do not concern guilt, which has already been determined, but sentencing. The verdict against Jimmy Lai Chee-ying—founder of Apple Daily, businessman, Catholic, and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent defenders of freedom—has already been handed down.

Edward Chin
Edward Chin
Author
Edward Chin was formerly country head of a UK publicly listed hedge fund, the largest of its kind measured by asset under management. Outside the hedge funds space, Chin is the convenor of the 2047 Hong Kong Monitor and a senior adviser of Reporters Without Borders. Chin studied speech communication at the University of Minnesota and received his MBA from the University of Toronto.
twitter
facebook