A saintly parallel from Prague for Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai

When Jimmy Lai’s national security trial began on Dec. 18, I was in Prague. As I followed the news of the start of court proceedings, I went into Prague Castle and then to the beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral within the castle walls.

Containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral was the scene of the funeral, almost exactly 12 years ago, of Vaclav Havel, the man who led the Czech Republic’s peaceful revolution from communism to democracy and independence.

In the cathedral, I lit a candle and said a prayer for Jimmy Lai.

While Vaclav Havel and Jimmy Lai are very different characters in different contexts, there are some parallels.

Havel, the quiet, thoughtful playwright and dissident who stood up against the communist regime in his country spent years in prison on multiple sentences and his plays were banned.

Lai, the rags-to-riches entrepreneur who built successful businesses and became a newspaper publisher and writer and a devout Catholic, stood up against the communist regime in his country too. His newspaper, the Apple Daily, was forcibly shut down by the authorities in 2021, and he has already spent the past three years in prison. He faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in jail.

"I think it is my duty to do whatever I can to fight for freedom"

“We never decided to become dissidents,” wrote Havel in 1979. “We have been transformed into them, without quite knowing how. Sometimes we have ended up in prison without precisely knowing how. We simply went ahead and did certain things that we felt we ought to do, and that seemed to us decent to do, nothing more nor less.”

Those are words that could equally have been spoken by Jimmy Lai, who once said: “It is just my instinct or my gratitude that I think it is my duty to do whatever I can to fight for freedom and keep the rule of law here.”

Like Havel, Lai is paying an extremely high price for his devotion to the cause. At any moment before his arrest in 2020, Lai could have left Hong Kong. He owns properties around the world and could easily have left for Taipei, London, or the United States. But he chose to stay and face his fate.

Havel once said: “The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself but when he plays the role destiny has for him.”

Lai, inspired by his Catholic faith, believes he is doing just that.

His trial is likely to last several months, and we can be certain it will not be a fair one. The judges are handpicked by the regime, there is no jury, and Lai was denied bail and even denied the legal counsel of his choice. British barrister Tim Owen KC had been chosen by Lai to represent him but was rejected by the Hong Kong government.

The outcome of the trial is predetermined. The only thing in doubt is the length of the sentence he receives. Under the National Security Law, the minimum sentence is ten years, but under this vindictive regime in Beijing, it is unlikely that there will be leniency. They want to keep Lai locked up until he dies.

"It may be no coincidence that the trial began a week before Christmas"

The world was clearly watching the start of the trial this week. Global media coverage was extensive. Diplomats from multiple countries sat in court to observe proceedings.

British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron issued a statement hours before the trial started, calling for an end to the prosecution and the release of Lai, who is a British citizen.

The US Secretary of State did the same, and the Canadian and British parliaments passed motions demanding Lai’s freedom. Earlier this year the European Parliament made the same call, as have UN special rapporteurs.

This is all very welcome and much needed. But it is vital that we sustain the attention. It may be no coincidence that the trial began a week before Christmas, with the Hong Kong authorities well aware that Western politicians, policy-makers, journalists, and activists are about to go on holiday.

The regime hopes that after the initial flurry of attention, we will all move on with our lives and forget about Lai. We must ensure that we do not let that happen.

Catholics in particular must remember Lai and his family this Christmas season. Pray for them. Light candles for him. Encourage Pope Francis to publicly speak out for him. Urge your bishop, archbishop, or cardinal to join the statement issued last month by 10 senior Catholic leaders calling for Lai’s release. Watch the documentary about him — "The Hong Konger" — and share it widely. Organise screenings of that film in your parish. Share Lai’s story on social media, with the hashtag #FreeJimmyLai.

One of the most moving sights on Dec. 18 was that of the arrival of Hong Kong’s 91-year-old Bishop Emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen at court. Cardinal Zen, a close friend of Lai who baptized him in 1997 and was himself outrageously arrested last year, sat in the gallery to observe the opening of the trial.

Cardinal Zen has been a faithful friend to Lai, often visiting him in prison to celebrate the Mass with him. We would all do well to do what we can, in our own way, to emulate his inspiring example by praying for, standing in solidarity with, and speaking out for Lai.

Back to Havel. There are many quotes that would be apposite here from the great Czech playwright and dissident who played such a central role in the 1989 Velvet Revolution and became his country’s first democratic president, but these two seem especially so.

The first: “Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred.”

And the second: “Hope is the deep orientation of the human soul that can be held at the darkest times.”

I know these quotes would resonate with Lai. His trials are filled with lies and hatred from the dictators in Beijing and their quislings in Hong Kong, but let us pray that truth and love — which Lai embodies — do overcome them. We owe it to him, and to ourselves, to hold true to these principles, hold on to hope, and stand with him in these very dark times.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.