This week, a great man is on trial. He will be sentenced to life in prison by a tribunal of state-appointed judges. There will be no jury, no opportunities to challenge the “evidence” presented. It will be the sham trial of the century.

Jimmy Lai is accused of violating Hong Kong’s “National Security Act”, passed after pro-democracy demonstrations there. The effect of putting the words “National Security” into a law like this is that can mean whatever the authorities, in this case the Chinese Communist Party, want it to mean. For Lai, it means he communicated with foreigners in ways that China does not like.

Of course, this charade has nothing to do with national security. It has everything to do with the security of China’s authoritarian dictator “President” Xi Jinping, and the Chinese Communist Party. Neither of them can tolerate, or even imagine, people demanding to live in a democratic, open society, with the freedoms and basic human rights we in the west take for granted. Any such demonstrations must have been organized by the Evil West.

Lai has rotted three years in prison while waiting for this “trial”. The authorities went after him for one reason: He wants democracy and freedom for the people of Hong Kong and has dedicated his life to them. They peacefully poured into the streets by the thousands, and now China is frightened.

Lai came to Hong Kong as a 12-year-old stowaway, to escape the brutal misery and poverty of Communist China. At that time, Hong Kong was a British colony, one of the freest places on earth, and the most prosperous Chinese society in history. That was not a coincidence.

Lai was a natural entrepreneur, working his way up from a worker in a garment factory, to a managerial position, to building his own clothing factory and business, to becoming a successful publisher and self-made billionaire. He founded the wildly successful newspaper Apple Daily, modeled on Western ideals of truthful, objective journalism, winning the Press Freedom Prize from Reporters Without Borders.

Lai also became an avid reader of the free-market economist Friederich Hayek, enthusiastically encouraging everyone he met to read Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom.” Banned in mainland China, naturally. If there’s anything collectivists cannot bear, it’s exposure to dissenting views.

All this means that Lai did not need to go to jail. He has a British passport, and the resources to live wherever and however he wants. But he did not leave Hong Kong. He knew that, because of his pro-democracy views, sooner or later Hong Kong’s Chinese toadies would eventually come for him. When they did, he said he regarded imprisonment as a sign he was living his life meaningfully. How many billionaires can say that?

Contrast that with America’s NBA teams, studio execs and company CEOs, none of whom would dare post “Free Jimmy Lai” to their Twitter (excuse me, X) feeds, shout it at shareholder meetings, or put it in the credits of “Kung Fu Panda 4”.

Fortunately, there are Americans who are willing to speak out. This year, Washington’s Cato Institute presented Lai with its 2023 Milton Friedman Prize for advancing liberty. Lai’s son Sebastian accepted on behalf of his father, who was busy being incarcerated.

The light is going out in Hong Kong, and there is precious little we can do about it. It might be many years before it will shine again. But shine again it must. That is exactly why Jimmy Lai, at 76 with over a billion dollars to his name, is willing to die in prison.

Do not let him die in vain.

Barry Fagin is senior fellow in technology policy at the Independence Institute in Denver, a National ACLU Civil Liberties Award winner, and the author of “The Radical Center”. His views are his own. Readers may write Fagin at barry@faginfamily.net.

Barry Fagin