HONG KONG—A Hong Kong court sentenced former tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken 78-year-old critic of China’s Communist Party, to 20 years in prison, a ruling that adds further friction in U.S. relations with China.
President Trump said last year that he had asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to free Lai. Trump is expected to meet Xi in China in April, and Lai’s case could add another sticking point to negotiations between the world’s two largest economies.
The case against Lai
China made Lai one of the main targets in the crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong after widespread pro-democracy protests in 2019. The authorities portrayed him as a mastermind behind the protests who used his popular newspaper, Apple Daily, to stir up opposition to the Hong Kong government and its backers in Beijing.
Lai was convicted in December, after a trial that spanned two years, of publishing seditious articles and violating Hong Kong’s national-security law by calling for international sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials. Lai, in custody since 2020, called himself a “political prisoner,” a description the three-judge panel of Hong Kong’s High Court rejected.
The sentence given to Lai on Monday is the longest yet under Hong Kong’s 5½-year-old national-security law, surpassing the 10-year penalty imposed on a law scholar in a 2024 case.
Eight co-defendants, including five who testified against Lai, were given sentences of 6 years and 3 months to 10 years for violating the security law.
Global powers press for Lai’s release
The U.S., U.K. and European Union have all criticized Lai’s case and called for his release.
Trump didn’t say when he raised Lai’s case with Xi but pledged to do everything possible to “save” him.
“I feel so badly,” Trump said after Lai’s conviction in mid-December. “I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release. He’s not well. He’s an older man and he’s not well, so I did put that request out. We’ll see what happens.”
Lai is a British citizen. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he raised Lai’s case while visiting Beijing last month. Lai’s family has said the U.K. should do more to free him.
Xi hasn’t addressed the case. Other Chinese officials have denounced calls for Lai’s release.
Hong Kong’s chief justice, Andrew Cheung, said last month that calls to release defendants prematurely “strike at the very heart of the rule of law itself.”
A rags-to-riches Hong Kong story
Lai sneaked into Hong Kong as a boy to escape famine in mainland China. He began work at a glove factory, working his way up in the textile industry. He bought his own factory and developed the business into a top manufacturer of sweaters for U.S. companies. Another Lai company, Giordano, became a leading regional fast-fashion retailer.
Lai started in media after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, believing that it could help bring political freedom to China. His publications were wildly popular, but he repeatedly ran afoul of Beijing.
He was also seen as a primary financial backer of pro-democracy candidates and causes in Hong Kong, contributing more than $140 million between 1989 and 2020, according to one estimate.
A life in prison
Lai was arrested in 2020, as the protest movement in Hong Kong died off with the arrival of Covid and Beijing’s imposition of the strict national-security law. He was jailed for convictions including several peaceful protests and a fraud charge related to a sublease of his media company’s offices.
Lai’s lawyers say he has several chronic health conditions and suffers from being in solitary confinement. They acknowledge he requested such isolation for security concerns. The Hong Kong authorities say his medical treatment has been “adequate and comprehensive.”
Lai, who is Catholic, has told friends that he found meaning in the hardship of prison and spends time reading the Bible and other religious works and drawing pictures of the cross.
Write to Austin Ramzy at austin.ramzy@wsj.com