Despite efforts to publicize his plight, entrepreneur and human rights activist is still behind bars for fighting for the freedom of the people of Hong Kong.
Several months ago, the documentary “The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom” (which is a little more than an hour long) was released by the Acton Institute. The briefer “Hong Kong Neon: Jimmy Lai in Chains” (which is about 15 minutes long) has just premiered on the Bitter Winter website.
In his post about the film, Marco Respinti writes (November 28, 2023):
Taking Lai’s case personally, Mark A. Tarrant, a lawyer in Sydney, Australia, launched several flash mobs and events. He aims at sensitizing the general public, while possibly attracting the interest of politicians and governments as well. Among Tarrant’s projects there are artistic installations, now generally known as the “Neon Jimmy Lai,” which have been displayed in several strategic places in Australia. The positive response of many people eventually convinced him to make the installations the subject of a 5-minutes movie, “2023 Hong Kong Neon: Jimmy Lai in Chains.”
This five-minute film is the basis for the 15-minute director’s cut introduced by Bitter Winter.
One of the key points of the new documentary is Tarrant’s criticism of Australian judges sitting in the Hong Kong Final Court of Appeals. This is the local court of last resort and was established on July 1, 1997, when the city and its territories passed from the British administration to PRC as “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” It was a way to grant Hong Kong judicial independence, under the idea—flaunted by the PRC and naively welcomed by others—of “one nation, two systems.”…
But with Honk Kong becoming each day more and more integrated into the Communist system of the PRC, and given the constant repression of freedom, harsher every single time, and finally after the passing of the new security law in 2020, which completely bypassed the local government, the role of the body is becoming ambiguous. Tarrant, as a lawyer and Australian national, finds the presence of foreign judges embarrassing.
Agreed. If the Australian judges currently warming Hong Kong’s judicial benches can’t or won’t do anything to combat the injustices of the post-2020 Hong Kong regime, they should quit.
Also see:
Acton Institute: “The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom”
StopTheChinazis.org: “Forbes columnist to US Congress: Adopt Jimmy Lai”
“In addition to adopting Lai as a political prisoner, the U.S. government should issue targeted sanctions against members of the CCP and Hong Kong judiciary guilty of undermining the rule of law in the city-state. It should also raise the cases of Lai and others in every single meeting between high-level U.S. officials and Chinese and Hong Kong counterparts.”
StopTheChinazis.org: “A Life of Meaning”
“Thanks to Jimmy Lai and the Hong Kong protesters standing up against the CCP, the world has a much clearer view of those imprisoning him. Let’s hope the world acts accordingly.”
