The pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai who is in prison in Hong Kong convicted on national security offences, says his life is no longer about him, but God.
The 78-year-old British citizen, who used his newspaper Apple Daily to criticise China was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison. He’d been detained since December 2020 for allegedly colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law (NSL). The law was introduced in 2020 in response to growing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Speaking at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, his daughter Claire Lai said his commitment to his Catholic faith remains strong and that if he has God, God is enough: “In his words, ‘I should stop thinking about myself. My life is no longer about me, but God. Difficult, no doubt. I must try to get into the mindset of self-denial. This is the way to get to the presence of the Lord. God help me. If I have God, God alone is enough.’”
Jimmy, who is the most prominent person to be charged under the National Security Law escaped China for Hong Kong at the age of 12. Claire said that years later, after travelling to the United States her father “learned about freedom and saw the truths of many of the values he learned here reflected in his own life. He wrote in a letter to me that he was always guided by the Holy Spirit, even before he knew it.”
In 1997, as Hong Kong was being handed back to China from Britain, the Lai family converted to Catholicism. Claire said: “It was a year when many like him, accustomed to the freedoms Hong Kong offered, had their hearts filled with fear and doubts… So, my father turned to Christ. His doubts were conquered by God’s mercy and grace and turned into trust. Even now, there is nothing he wants more than to be a faithful servant to our Lord.”
Claire, who lives in exile in London also said that despite her father being denied access to the Eucharist and Mass for much of his time in prison, “he finds strength in joining his suffering with Christ's suffering on the cross and has found joy in offering up his suffering and prayer for friends, acquaintances, strangers and even those who have wronged him.”
The UK has called for the National Security Law to be repealed and for an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it.