Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years as Hong Kong media reacts with silence, applause

HONG KONG — Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday after a court convicted him of sedition and conspiring with foreign forces under the city’s national security law.

The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper received the harshest penalty handed down under the sweeping security law to date. Critics have widely denounced the charges as politically motivated.

The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and United Nations condemned the sentence and called for the immediate release of Lai, who is a British citizen. Apple Daily, once a leading pro-democracy tabloid, was forced to shut down in 2021 amid a government crackdown.

Local media advocacy groups that previously defended press freedoms remained silent following the verdict. Neither the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) nor the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) issued statements on the sentencing.

In contrast, pro-Beijing outlets including the South China Morning Post and Ta Kung Pao published editorials praising the court's decision. The publications described the verdict as a demonstration of the rule of law and signaled it as the end of a period of "political chaos."

The 20-year prison sentence handed to Jimmy Lai marks more than just the end of a media mogul’s career; it serves as a definitive headstone for Hong Kong’s once-vibrant press freedom. The verdict is a watershed moment, confirming that the National Security Law (NSL) has successfully neutralized every significant pillar of political opposition.

The fallout across the local media landscape is perhaps more revealing than the sentence itself. The uncharacteristic silence from institutions that were once the frontline defenders of journalistic integrity, such as the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), underscores the depth of the "chilling effect" now permeating the city. Survival has replaced resistance, as these organizations increasingly resort to self-censorship to navigate an increasingly hostile regulatory environment.

Simultaneously, the editorial pivot of major outlets like the Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post—which signaled approval of the verdict—highlights a tectonic shift in the media ecosystem. These entities have largely abandoned their roles as public watchdogs, evolving instead into instruments that reinforce the government’s narrative. When coupled with Beijing’s recent white paper on national security in Hong Kong, the signal is unmistakable: the space for dissent has been permanently shuttered.

For international observers and policymakers, Hong Kong has become a premier case study in the systematic dismantling of civil society through legal frameworks. This model of "legal warfare" provides a blueprint for other authoritarian regimes—including Vietnam—where broad and ill-defined national security statutes are frequently weaponized to incarcerate independent journalists and activists.

For the Vietnamese-American community, the prosecution of Jimmy Lai and the forced closure of Apple Daily serve as a haunting echo of the Fall of Saigon and the death of independent journalism in South Vietnam. In the nail salons and phở restaurants of Little Saigon, the image of an anti-communist media mogul behind bars triggers a profound, shared empathy. For those who built new lives in the States—whether they arrived as refugees decades ago or more recently via F2B or EB-5 visas—this case reinforces a grim conviction: that communist regimes, whether in Hong Kong or Vietnam, will never tolerate free expression. Ultimately, Lai’s plight serves as a stark validation of the very reasons why the diaspora was forced to leave their homeland behind.