Weigel: Jimmy Lai's 'witness to human dignity' an 'expression of his faith'

(OSV News) -- As reports spread that U.S. President Donald Trump appealed directly to China's Xi Jinping to free jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai when they met in South Korea Oct. 30, American theologian George Weigel told OSV News that Lai "is a non-violent, deeply committed defender of not simply his rights to free speech, but to those of the people of Hong Kong" and that his "witness to human dignity and to basic human rights is an expression of his Catholic faith."

In a conversation with OSV News, Weigel said that what's at stake is that 77-year-old Lai "not die in prison."

According to Reuters, whose sources were "three people briefed on the talks and a U.S. administration official," Trump "did not discuss a specific deal to free Lai but spoke more broadly about concerns surrounding the ... publishing mogul's health and well-being after his lengthy trial on national security charges," one of the officials said.

For decades, Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy "Apple Daily," campaigned for freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Hong Kong, which was designated a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, when British rule ended after more than 150 years. Hong Kong's Basic Law was supposed to allow the region "to exercise a high degree of autonomy and enjoy executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication."

However, after a year of pro-democracy protests in 2019, China imposed the national security law -- under which Lai was arrested in August 2020 and has been imprisoned since December 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish seditious materials. If he is found guilty, he could face life in prison.

"It would be a very important sign that something resembling due process still exists in Hong Kong," said Weigel, who authored St. John Paul II's biography "Witness to Hope" and dozens of other books.

"China made explicit promises about the rule of law in Hong Kong at the time of the transition of sovereignty in 1997" and the current national security law under which Lai is being charged "seems to me and to many other people to violate that agreement," the theologian underlined.

"Jimmy Lai is a non-violent, deeply committed defender of not simply his rights to free speech, but to those of the people of Hong Kong, which were guaranteed in that agreement with Great Britain in 1997. Were he not to die in prison, that would be some sign that China is abiding, at least for the moment, by some of the commitments it made," Weigel told OSV News.

Lai refused to flee Hong Kong, citing his Catholic faith.

"If I go away, I not only give up my destiny, I give up God, I give up my religion, I give up what I believe in," said Lai, who is also a British citizen, during a 2020 interview posted on Napa Institute's YouTube channel.

The Biden administration's State Department, United State senators and Catholic bishops have since voiced support for Lai.

On Nov. 1, 2023, 10 bishops from five continents wrote that "There is no place for such cruelty and oppression in a territory that claims to uphold the rule of law and respect the right to freedom of expression."

"In standing up for his beliefs and committing himself through his faith to challenge autocracy and repression, Jimmy Lai has lost his business, been cut off from his family ... He must be freed now," the bishops, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, said.

Weigel, who was a force behind the letter, said that it "caused an enormous fuss in Hong Kong" and that "the response from the government was about five times longer than the letter" and that the "propagandists for the government and the Hong Kong press, which is very much regime-controlled and influenced today, were set loose."

"These bishops were actually threatened with being arrested if they set foot in Hong Kong," Weigel said.

"This is the way regimes, that are nervous about their own legitimacy, behave" he said, hoping at the same time that "the interventions from the president have some effect."

Lai has been held in solitary confinement for around 1,770 days. "I don't want my father to die in jail," his son said.

The wife and daughter of the imprisoned media tycoon met Pope Leo XIV after the general audience Oct. 15 -- ahead of the expected verdict in his case.

"I think it was very gracious of Pope Leo to meet Teresa Lai, Jimmy's wife, and Claire, his daughter, after an audience recently," Weigel said.

Asked whether the Vatican could lobby for Lai to be released, he said that "the Vatican at the moment is so committed to maintaining this arrangement it has with China that I very much doubt that they're inclined to add another item to the agenda; but, to be perfectly candid, they certainly ought to raise the question irrespective of whether it would make any difference. If the Vatican can't take up the cause of the world's most famous Catholic political prisoner, even quietly, something is wrong."

Weigel, who met Lai over a decade ago, said he "stayed in touch with the family since then."

He said Lai's perseverance in faith amid his imprisonment is a "really very striking" testimony.

"If you go to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, you will find a simple but very touching sketch of the crucifixion of our Lord that Jimmy made in Stanley Prison in Hong Kong, on a piece of what we used to call copy paper in school -- ruled paper where kids would learn how to write letters."

He said he had personally "received two of these over the years -- one is another crucifixion scene, the other is a Magnificat scene of Our Lady simply with the word 'Fiat' - 'be it done unto me according to your word' written on it and signed by Jimmy and dated and identified as from Stanley Prison."

Lai's artwork was also installed at The Catholic University of America's Maloney Hall in February 2024.

"This seems to be one of the ways he's expressing the depth of his Christian conviction and to express in a very simple and humble way the fact that he believes that what he is doing, what he has been suffering for over 1,700 days now of solitary confinement in a windowless cell, is a matter of vocation," Weigel said.

"This is not simply a stubborn guy who's taking on the government. This is a man who believes that his witness to human dignity and to basic human rights is an expression of his Catholic faith, and that he is suffering, for that is also an expression of that faith, and he accepts it in those terms."