The heavy penalty handed down by a Hong Kong court to former media mogul Jimmy Lai under a Beijing-imposed national security law has drawn condemnation from governments and officials around the world, who call the move unjust and further evidence of the Chinese regime’s clampdown on the city’s dwindling freedoms.

Lai, a strident critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was sentenced to 20 years in prison for two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the national security law, as well as a count of printing seditious materials under a colonial-era law.

The ruling was delivered on Feb. 9 by three national security judges, handpicked by the city’s pro-Beijing government. Lai had denied all charges.

The sentence represents the harshest punishment to date under the security law, surpassing the previous record of a 10-year jail term handed down by Hong Kong’s High Court to Benny Tai, a legal scholar and pro-democracy campaigner, in 2024.

Lai, who suffers from diabetes and heart palpitations, has already been kept behind bars for five years and two months in Hong Kong. He now has 28 days to appeal the court ruling.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on the Hong Kong authorities to grant Lai humanitarian parole.

“The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case,” Rubio said in a Feb. 9 statement.

“It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, casting aside the international commitments Beijing made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.”

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Lai, also a British national, was punished for “exercising his right to freedom of expression.”

“For the 78-year-old, this is tantamount to a life sentence,” Cooper said in a statement. “I remain deeply concerned for Mr. Lai’s health, and I again call on the Hong Kong authorities to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family.”

Cooper said the Labor government “will rapidly engage further” on Lai’s case following the sentencing.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has confirmed that, during his recent visit to China, he raised Lai’s case directly with Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping and called for the former publisher’s release.

As founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a newspaper known for its critical coverage of the CCP and local government, Lai was among the first targets of the national security law, which Beijing imposed on the former British colony in June 2020 following months of pro-democracy protests.

Less than a year after the law took effect, Apple Daily ceased operation after its assets were frozen and several senior directors and editors were arrested on suspicion of violating the security law.

On Feb. 9, six former Apple Daily employees also received sentences ranging from six years and nine months to 10 years.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong called on Beijing to “cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society,” and called for the repeal of the national security law in Hong Kong.

“The Australian Government is gravely concerned by the sentences handed down to Jimmy Lai and his co-defendants in Hong Kong today,” Wong said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with their family members and supporters at this difficult time.”

The European Union reiterated a call for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Lai, particularly in light of his advanced age and health condition.

“The politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai and the former Apple Daily executives and journalists harms Hong Kong’s reputation,” the EU’s diplomatic arm, the European External Action Service, said in a statement.

“The EU calls on the Hong Kong authorities to restore confidence in press freedom in Hong Kong, one of the pillars of its historic success as an international financial centre, and to stop prosecuting journalists.”

Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, in a statement, applauded Lai’s sentencing, saying that the court decision “manifests that the rule of law and justice were upheld.”

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, voiced support for Hong Kong authorities in defending national security, calling Lai’s case “an internal affair” at a regular briefing.

“We urge relevant countries to respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong, [and to] refrain from making irresponsible remarks” on Hong Kong’s handling of the case, Lin told reporters in Beijing.

‘Lesson’ for Taiwan

Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s national security chief, said the harsh sentence imposed on Lai is further evidence of Beijing’s clamping down on dissent in what was once an icon of freedom.

“It’s a lesson for #Taiwan,” Wu said on X, urging the island’s 23 million people to reject any forms of unification with communist China, including the proposal that could make Taiwan a Hong Kong-style special administrative zone of China.

“It’s evil,” he said.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, a top government body overseeing relations with Beijing, condemned the CCP and the Hong Kong government for “using national security as a pretext to suppress freedom and human rights.”

“We remind Taiwanese people to take Hong Kong’s painful experience as a lesson and to safeguard our hard-earned freedoms in daily life,” the council said in a statement.

“We also call on the international community to stay vigilant against the CCP’s erosion of freedom and human rights, and to stand with Taiwan in defending the democratic front line.”

‘Enabled by Impunity’

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a coalition of legislators from 31 countries, including the United States and the UK, said on X that Lai’s sentence is a “tragic injustice.”

“The imposition of a 20-year sentence on a 78-year-old publisher for peaceful political expression is not justice,“ the group’s 86 lawmakers said in a statement. ”It is punishment for dissent, enabled by impunity.”

The legislators called on democratic governments to respond to Lai’s sentencing with coordinated diplomatic pressure and accountability.

“Jimmy Lai’s persecution serves as irrefutable proof that Hong Kong’s legal system answers to Beijing, and must not be afforded any status to distinguish it from China,” they said.

“The response of governments to this outrage will serve as a test, not only of their commitment to fundamental rights and values, but also of whether serious treaty violations should carry consequences.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) told NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times, that with this sentence, Beijing was showing its “true colors” of “total intolerance.”

“They crush anyone who speaks anything contrary to the Chinese Communist Party’s rule,” Smith said. He added that the 20-year sentence will reflect on the Chinese regime and Xi personally.

Smith said that Lai is a “great man” who speaks truth to power, and urged “some semblance of decency and compassion” by granting Lai parole instead. Smith, a longtime human rights advocate in Congress, has supported efforts to nominate Lai for the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to stand up against tyranny, and has held multiple hearings about Lai’s case.

Smith added that this case should send a chilling signal to all those seeking to deal with Hong Kong, that they, too, could be at risk.

“Every man and woman, including international business people, need[s] to be very wary about anything they do in Hong Kong,” he said. “This is ruinous of Hong Kong. It used to be an economic gem. ... Hong Kong now, and anyone who thinks they can do business there, watch out.”

Benedict Rogers, senior director of Fortify Rights and co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, told NTD that the Chinese regime was trying to make “an example of Jimmy Lai” and silence dissent against the regime in Hong Kong.

Rogers, who has written extensively on human rights and China and Hong Kong, was named several times in Lai’s trial and judgment for corresponding with Lai about the situation in Hong Kong, their shared Catholic faith, and human rights.

He said the sentence will reflect on both the Chinese regime and international community, referencing Lai’s deterioration in health over his past five years in prison.

“And if he indeed dies in prison, then he will die a martyr for freedom,” Rogers said.

“And my question, both for Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities and for the international community is, do they want a martyr for freedom in a Hong Kong jail to die? Does the international community want that death on its conscience?”

Rogers said freedom in Hong Kong will not recover under the current regime, “but as and when there is change in China, and change comes to Hong Kong ... people are remarkably entrepreneurial, and they will revive press freedom. And it’s possible to do so.”