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On Saturday, the CFHK Foundation joined more than 3,000 members of the Chinese, Hong Kong, Tibetan, and Uyghur diaspora to protest against UK government support for a new PRC super-embassy in London. The CFHK Foundation’s Chloe Cheung vocalised fears among the Hong Kong community that the embassy will be used to intensify transnational repression. Blair McDougall MP, Iain Duncan Smith MP, Robert Jenrick MP, and Tom Tugendhat MP also spoke out against the plan.
McDougall said: “We need to take courage from Jimmy Lai and the thousands of Hong Kongers who have chosen exile over compromising their values. We need to say to China, if you want this embassy to go ahead: close the camps in Xinjiang, unfreeze the billions you’ve stolen from Hong Kongers’ savings, and open the doors of Jimmy Lai’s prison cell and release him today.”
U.S. - Hong Kong
On Saturday, the State Department’s Democracy, Human Rights & Labor Bureau posted a message in support of Jimmy Lai on its official X account: “Jimmy Lai, 77, has spent more than 1,500 days imprisoned while standing up bravely for democracy and free speech in Hong Kong. We urge the HK government to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai.”
The Hong Kong government responded, urging “external forces to immediately stop interfering in the HKSAR's internal affairs and the independent exercise of judicial power by the courts.”
Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation Policy & Advocacy Coordinator Frances Hui issued a statement Tuesday, picked up by global media including Nikkei Asia, expressing her disappointment after a jury found Henry Liang Li-tang not guilty on both charges of covertly acting and conspiracy to act as an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on U.S. soil in a transnational repression trial.
Frances Hui said: “The fact that a conviction was not secured should not discourage those who face these threats – it should strengthen our resolve to push for better protections, stronger laws, and more accountability – as we have at the CFHK Foundation.”
UK - Hong Kong
Over the weekend, CFHK Foundation President Mark Clifford joined colleague Chloe Cheung on Channel 4 News to mark Jimmy Lai’s 1,500th day in a Hong Kong prison and highlight British government weakness in standing up for Lai and Hong Kongers suffering CCP transnational repression in the UK.
Mark Clifford also spoke with Times Radio’s Carole Walker about the need for Britain’s government to “show more spine” in its dealings with Beijing while working together with Washington to free Jimmy Lai and other political prisoners in Hong Kong (segment from 01:24:36).
Following the embassy protest, Matthew Brooker used his Bloomberg Opinion column to call out Chancellor Reeves and the government for failing to gain anything meaningful in return for upending local democracy to push the embassy through.
Elsewhere on Bloomberg, Alex Wickham reported that Chancellor Rachel Reeves in November dispatched Treasury officials to Hong Kong in a bid to deepen financial ties even as the Hong Kong 45 political prisoners were being sentenced, Jimmy Lai’s trial was recommencing, and the national security police were scheming to place bounties on the heads of overseas Hong Kongers.
The CFHK Foundation joined other advocacy groups in placing an advertisement in The Guardian putting British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on notice that he must demand Jimmy Lai’s immediate release at a meeting scheduled with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in London.
Liberal Democrat MP Calum Miller wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Lammy pointing out the complete wrongheadedness of Labour’s approach to relations with the PRC, mentioning that he had met with bountied Hong Kongers Carmen Lau and Chloe Cheung and stating that the UK should not accept the extraterritorial repression of its residents by Chinese authorities.
Labour MPs also warned Keir Starmer and his Cabinet to be careful not to sacrifice British values for economic growth after the British Prime Minister and David Lammy met with Wang Yi on Thursday.
Mark Sabah, UK Director at the CFHK Foundation, told the Daily Mail: ‘It is time for the British government to draw some red lines of their own in negotiations with China. While of course, the UK must engage with China, there is scant evidence that Beijing will change what it is prepared to give on trade and investment as a result of Britain giving way on human rights and other areas.”
After meeting Wang Yi, David Lammy posted on X insisting the UK government will continue to challenge China on issues ranging from “Jimmy Lai's imprisonment, to human rights, Hong Kong, unwarranted sanctions on UK parliamentarians and more.”
The CFHK Foundation joined 40 co-signatories in sending a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper calling for entities linked to the PRC and Hong Kong to be included in the UK Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS)’s enhanced tier amid fears the PRC will be exempted.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong police on Monday took ex-district councillor Carmen Lau’s aunt and uncle in to assist with a ‘national security’ investigation. “The national security apparatus has now extended its reach to my extended family... This is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate Hong Kongers,” Lau said on X.
The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) announced it will suspend all self-funded research and may “even close down,” weeks after its CEO Robert Chung was investigated by national security police in relation to his contact with bountied PORI colleague and UK resident Chung Kim-wah.
Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), on Thursday appeared in court to initiate a private prosecution against her former employer, The Wall Street Journal. Cheng is accusing the newspaper of breaching city laws by firing her in July after she took on the HKJA’s leadership role.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong authorities continued their petty persecution of the HKJA, this time by forcing a hotel to cancel their annual dinner over false claims of a water leak.
'Troublemaker' Updates
Richard Spencer wrote a compelling review of “The Troublemaker,” Mark Clifford’s biography of Jimmy Lai, in The Times, suggesting that if it were a film script it “would not be made because producers would think it too far-fetched.”
Jimmy Lai Updates
Jimmy Lai made clear he understands he is, in his own words, a “political prisoner” in a testy exchange with Judge Esther Toh, one of three national security judges overseeing his trial. Lai refused to concede he was on trial for a criminal offence. Jimmy Quinn at National Review picked up the story.
Otherwise, trial proceedings continued to dwell on Jimmy Lai’s social media messages as the prosecution attempted to connect him with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). Lai denied all knowledge of the group and said he did not recall meeting with Senator Marco Rubio, one of IPAC’s original backers.
Detailed trial updates are available here: Support Jimmy Lai.
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