Lai appeared in court in Hong Kong for three days this week on charges of foreign collusion and sedition — the result of a stringent national security law that came into force in 2020.
He has persistently denied the charges which have so far revolved around a series of articles he wrote in his Apple Daily newspaper in 2019 and 2020 critical of a clampdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong.
The national security law was enacted to punish what China considers to be subversion, secession, terrorism and working with foreign powers but which critics say is being used to quash dissent by removing civil liberties and free speech.
Lai’s court appearance, the first time he has been allowed to testify since his arrest and incarceration four years ago, came on the heels of the jailing this week of 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists for up to 10 years in a separate national security case.
According to the advocacy group Hong Kong Watch, although Lai is the most famous political prisoner, there are more than 1,800 political prisoners as a result of the crackdown over the past five years, including democratically elected legislators, activists and journalists.
More than 100 Politicians, 24 Countries
Coming to Lai’s defense have been more than 100 politicians from 24 countries who wrote a joint letter Nov. 19 condemning China over his “arbitrary detention and unfair trial.” They “urgently” demanded the immediate release of Lai, 77, who has been held in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Hong Kong. In September it was reported that he had been denied the right to receive Holy Communion since last December.
President-elect Donald Trump has also drawn attention to Lai’s case, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt last month: “100%. I’ll get him out. He’ll be easy to get out.” Earlier this month, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found multiple violations of Lai’s fundamental rights and freedoms and called for his immediate release. Amnesty International added its voice, reiterating its stance that Lai is a prisoner of conscience and similarly calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
In contrast, the Vatican has continued its silence on Lai’s plight. Asked by the Register Nov. 22 if Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, would be adding his name to those critical of Lai’s and the jailed activists’ treatment, a diocesan spokesman said, “As the matter is still in judicial proceedings, the Diocese of Hong Kong has no further reply. However, Cardinal Chow prays that Mr. Lai, a brother in Christ, be at peace.”
This silence, not only in the case of Lai but in the face of all China’s human rights abuses, is also aimed at preserving a path forward following the Vatican-China provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops. Earlier this month, it renewed the 2018 accords for another four years.
Cardinals Provide Insight
At a Rome conference this week on 17th-century Jesuit missionary to China, Ven. Matteo Ricci, Cardinal Chow and Vatican secretary of state and chief architect of the provisional agreement, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, gave some insight into why they are taking such an approach.
According to Cardinal Chow, China has moved on from seeing the Catholic Church as an enemy designed to impose Western control towards realizing how it can be beneficial to the development of Chinese society. He therefore believes that Sinicization, an ancient process that has intensified since 2014 whereby everything, including the Catholic Church, is assimilated into Chinese culture, must be responded to through encounter and dialogue, following Ricci’s example. Cardinal Chow urged the faithful to pray that “the Spirit may enlighten everyone so that this ongoing process may be open to the truth.”
Cardinal Parolin recalled that Pope St. John Paul II spoke extensively and positively about Ricci’s model of inculturation, and that it constituted a solid reference for developing a “respectful, loyal and cultural dialogue between the authorities of the Church and those of China.” The cardinal sees Pope Francis doing the same, following Ricci’s example of building “true bridge between the civilisations of Europe and China” through a “culture of encounter.”
“In the Pope’s perspective, we could say that inculturation must make encounter possible, an encounter that is true and fair, but which is never definitive because it is evolving, towards new encounters that are ever deeper, more sincere and broader,” Cardinal Parolin said. “All religious, cultural and even diplomatic dialogue must be conducted in this context and in this spirit, as we are trying to do with gradual steps, the most recent sign of which is the renewal of the agreement on the appointment of bishops.”
‘Ideological and Political Indoctrination’
But speaking to the Register, supporters of Lai and the jailed pro-democracy activists reject such an approach.
“In the mind of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, Sinicization is not a campaign of inculturation, it is a campaign of ideological and political indoctrination,” said Benedict Rogers, co-founder of Hong Kong Watch. “That is what Pope Francis, Cardinal Chow and others who either choose to turn a blind eye to it or sweep it aside fail to understand.
“Xi Jinping does not want the Catholic Church in China and Hong Kong to adapt to Chinese culture,” he continued. “He wants the Church to kowtow to the Marxist-Leninist Chinese Communist Party regime. And if the Church chooses to do that, it ceases to be the Church and becomes an extension of Beijing’s United Front. That is the choice.”
Father Robert Sirico, co-founder and president emeritus of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty and a close friend of Lai, said it is “understandable that the Vatican desires to be prudent in dealing with China — there is a lot at stake.”
But he added that “it is not as though such well-intentioned appeasement has not been tried previously,” and recalled how one of Cardinal Parolin’s predecessors, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, negotiated numerous treaties aimed at appeasing the communists in the Soviet bloc as part of his Ostpolitik approach.
“That strategy failed,” he said, but the “bold and fearless inspiration offered by Pope St. John Paul II to the people under the yoke of totalitarianism resulted not only in freedom for the Church but for the entire Soviet bloc.”
“Jimmy Lai is the unfortunate, but heroic, victim of the current Vatican policy which is replicating past mistakes — despite any good intentions in Rome,” Father Sirico continued. “The saddest thing to my mind is how Jimmy, a convert to Catholicism, must feel in the moment of his martyrdom about the silence of the leadership of the Church to which he gave his life.”
Vatican’s Approach Is a ‘Disaster’
Wall Street Journal commentator and godfather to Lai, Bill McGurn, told the Register Nov. 20 that he believes the Vatican’s approach is a “disaster” and wonders “what will it take for them to realize that [the provisional agreement] hasn’t worked.”
McGurn, who is in close contact with Lai’s family, said he is up to date with what Cardinal Chow might be doing behind the scenes, but he has not, to his knowledge, offered any tangible help.
“I think in the past people being persecuted would say, ‘Well at least I had the Vatican on my side, or the Pope,’ and they’re confused. It’s really demoralizing,” he said.
Mark Simon, a former senior executive of Next Digital, Lai’s media company that published Apple Daily, said he thinks it is “fairly clear” that the Vatican’s silence with regard to Jimmy Lai sends the signal to the Chinese Communist Party that “they have little to fear from Pope Francis over the persecution of Catholics in China.”
“But what worries me more than the trial, or the implications of the Vatican remaining silent on this injustice, is that the Holy Father has forsaken a Catholic man who is devout in faith,” Simon added.
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong who is also a friend of Lai and has often come to his defense, has declined to speak out as he is still involved in his own legal case with the Hong Kong government that is viewed as another consequence of its crackdown on its most vociferous critics.
Notwithstanding the Vatican’s silence, McGurn said he believes international criticism of the Hong Kong government is “only going to grow.” He added that he was surprised at how many people are aware of Lai’s case in the U.S., and that he was hopeful that with an impending and hawkish new Trump administration vis-à-vis Beijing, along with sanctions already placed on key Hong Kong officials, securing Lai’s release “would be pretty easy to do.”
Lai is set to testify for up to four more weeks in the national security trial that could last for several more months.