Beijing, Hong Kong officials praise Jimmy Lai’s guilty verdict, press freedom NGOs slam nat. security ruling

Beijing and Hong Kong officials have welcomed the guilty verdict in media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security case, while press freedom watchdogs have slammed the ruling.

Founder of Hong Kong pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily Jimmy Lai in September 2020. Photo: HKFP.

On Monday, the Apple Daily founder, who turned 78 behind bars last week, was found guilty of two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, and a third count of sedition under colonial-era legislation.

See also: In full: The 855-page guilty verdict against media tycoon Jimmy Lai

Lai’s three companies – Apple Daily Ltd, Apple Daily Printing Ltd, and AD Internet Ltd – were also convicted of two counts: a conspiracy to publish seditious publications and a conspiracy to commit foreign collusion.

Beijing’s liaison office

Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong described Lai’s guilty verdict as a “stern warning” to “anti-China” forces.

The trial and conviction of Lai in the city’s first foreign-collusion case were “a just and righteous move” that upheld the rule of law, the liaison office said in a Chinese-language statement on Monday, hours after three hand-picked national security judges handed down their judgment.

The liaison office said substantial facts and evidence presented during the trial proved that the tycoon was the “‘mastermind’ and “financier” of the anti-China forces who sought to destabilise Hong Kong.

Those who criticised Lai’s prosecution had not only glorified him as a democracy advocate but also vilified Hong Kong’s rule of law and the justice system, it said.

Apple Daily newspaper. File photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.

“His crimes inflicted serious harm upon Hong Kong society and left the people of Hong Kong with deep, searing pain; he must be held accountable and punished in accordance with the law,” the statement said.

“This serves as a stern warning to anti-China elements causing chaos in Hong Kong: any conduct that endangers national security will be severely penalised by law,” the office added.

Hong Kong officials

Chief Executive John Lee welcomed the verdict on Monday before leaving for a work visit to Beijing.

“Jimmy Lai’s blatant offence was committed in broad daylight. The evidence is irrefutable. The guilty verdict has served justice and defended Hong Kong’s core interests,” he said in Cantonese at Hong Kong International Airport.

Monday’s ruling confirmed that Lai had used the defunct tabloid newspaper to harm China’s fundamental interests and the well-being of Hong Kong residents.

The media tycoon’s acts were “despicable,” and he had “malicious intentions,” Lee said.

Chief Executive John Lee meets the press at the Hong Kong International Airport on December 15, 2025, after Jimmy Lai’s national security case verdict. Photo: GovHK.

Lai “had long used his media outlet, Apple Daily, to deliberately create social conflicts, provoke polarisation in society, incite hatred, glorify violence, and openly beg for foreign sanctions on China and the Hong Kong SAR.”

Lee went on to say that the law does not allow individuals from any occupation to openly harm the country and fellow citizens in the name of human rights, democracy and freedom.

Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law and will resolutely crack down on acts and behaviour that endanger national security, he said.

Speaking to reporters outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Monday, Chief Superintendent Steve Li of the police’s National Security Department said Lai’s conviction was “justice served.”

Lai’s trial was not about press freedom but about colluding with foreign powers to endanger national security, the chief superintendent said.

Chief Superintendent Steve Li of the police’s National Security Department meets the press on December 15, 2025, after media mogul Jimmy Lai was found guilty of foreign collusion and sedition. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Lai “indeed created the news,” Li said. “He used it to accomplish his own political agenda.”

Press groups

Press freedom watchdogs Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) both criticised the court ruling.

RSF said that Lai embodied the “courage of independent journalists” in Hong Kong and that the verdict “crushes any remaining space they have.”

“We are outraged that Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s symbol of press freedom, has been found guilty on trumped-up national security charges. This unlawful conviction only demonstrates the alarming deterioration of media freedom in the territory: make no mistake: it is not an individual who has been on trial — it is press freedom itself, and with this verdict that has been shattered,” RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin said.

The CPJ called the ruling a “sham conviction” that was “a disgraceful act of persecution.”

“The ruling underscores Hong Kong’s utter contempt for press freedom, which is supposed to be protected under the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. Jimmy Lai’s only crime is running a newspaper and defending democracy,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi.

“The risk of him dying from ill health in prison increases as each day passes – he must be reunited with his family immediately.”

Reporters outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on December 15, 2025, ahead of the verdict of Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) expressed its “utmost regret” at the outcome of Lai’s case.

“Today’s guilty verdict cannot justify the losses Hong Kong society has endured,” the local press union said in a statement.

The high-profile case had “forced” a major media organisation to shut down before the trial began, and hundreds of journalists lost their jobs as a result, it said.

“Hong Kong citizens lost an important channel for obtaining news and information,” the HKJA went on to say.

“Over the intervening years, society has witnessed the Fourth Estate’s capacity curtailed, public discourse shifted from diversity towards uniformity, and self-censorship intensified severely in a climate of fear, to the point where even those in power cannot accurately assess public sentiment through [the] news.”

The HKJA urged the government to honour its commitment to safeguard press freedom, allowing media workers to “continue serving Hong Kong free from fear.”

Jimmy Lai’s trial timeline – click to view+

• August 10, 2020 – Police arrested Jimmy Lai on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. Over 100 police officers raided Apple Daily’s offices.
• December 3, 2020 – Lai was arrested for alleged fraud and denied bail.
• December 11, 2020 – Lai was formally charged with “collusion with foreign forces,” becoming the first person to be charged with collusion under the national security law.
• December 23, 2020 – High Court judge Alex Lee granted bail to Lai on conditions including that he stayed at home except for court hearings and reporting to the police.
• December 31, 2020 – Lai was put in custody after the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) allowed the justice department to appeal against Lai’s bail.
• February 9, 2021 – The CFA ruled in favour of the government and Lai’s bail was revoked.
• February 16, 2021 – Lai was arrested in custody on suspicion of assisting Andy Li abscond to Taiwan.
• February 18, 2021 – The High Court dismissed Lai’s bail application.
• April 1, 2021 – Lai, along with six other pro-democracy activists, was found guilty of organising and taking part in an “unlawful assembly” in August 2019. He was later sentenced to 12 months in prison for this offence. Lai was cleared of the organising conviction in August 2023. The case is still under appeal.
• May 28, 2021 – Lai, along with nine other pro-democracy activists, was sentenced to 14 months in jail for his “organising” role in a protest in October 2019.
• June 17, 2021 – Police raided Apple Daily a second time, arresting five senior executives including chief editor Ryan Law and Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung. Police also froze HK$ 18 million worth of assets linked to Apple Daily.
• June 24, 2021 – Apple Daily issued its last edition after 26 years. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside its headquarters the night before as the tabloid went out of print.
• December 13, 2021 – Lai, along with seven other pro-democracy activists, was found guilty for organising, taking part in, or inciting others to join the banned Tiananmen crackdown vigil in 2020. He was sentenced to 13 months in jail.
• November 22, 2022 – Six senior executives of Apple Daily and its parent company Next Digital pleaded guilty to collusion.
• November 28, 2022 – Chief Executive John Lee invited Beijing to interpret the national security law to determine whether foreign counsels can participate in national security cases, after the government failed to block Lai from hiring British barrister Timothy Owen.
• December 1, 2022 – Lai’s trial was adjourned until December 13 while the city waited for Beijing to “clarify” whether overseas lawyers are allowed to appear in such cases.
• December 10, 2022 – Lai was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in prison for fraud over a lease violation of the Next Digital headquarters.
• December 13, 2022 – Lai’s trial was adjourned again until September 25, 2023.
• December 30, 2022 – The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress confirmed that Hong Kong’s chief executive and Committee for Safeguarding National Security had the authority to decide whether overseas lawyers could take part in security law trials. 
• August 18, 2023 – During a pre-trial review, Lai’s collusion trial was further postponed until December.
• September 26, 2023 – Lai’s 1,000th day in custody. International groups called for his release, while the government slammed such demands as “slanderous.”
• December 18, 2023 – Lai’s collusion case begins.
• November 20, 2024 – Lai takes the witness stand.
• March 6, 2025 – Lai wraps up his testimony after 52 days in the witness box.
• August 18, 2025 – The court begins to hear closing arguments after proceedings were twice delayed – first due to bad weather and then to health concerns relating to Lai’s heart.
• August 28, 2025 – The court adjourns verdict after finishing hearing closing arguments.

HKFP rounds up reactions to Lai’s conviction as they pour in from officials, local and overseas groups:

Spokesperson of the Hong Kong government 

Any reasonable person who can distinguish between right and wrong, upon carefully examining the reasons for verdict handed down by the court today, would agree that the court adjudicated the case fairly and impartially, and the despicable attempt of external forces is futile and doomed to failure… The open hearing of the case revealed that [Jimmy] Lai Chee-ying repeatedly colluded with foreign forces to beg for sanctions or blockade, or engage in hostile activities against the Central Authorities and the HKSAR Government. Lai Chee-ying’s case has absolutely nothing to do with press freedom. The defendants have merely used news reporting as a pretext for years to commit acts that harmed the country and Hong Kong.

Yvette Cooper, UK foreign secretary

The UK condemns the politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai that has resulted in today’s guilty verdict. Jimmy Lai has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. Beijing’s national security law was imposed on Hong Kong to silence China’s critics. The UK has repeatedly called for the national security law to be repealed and for an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Australia is deeply concerned by the guilty verdict handed down to Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong today. We have been clear in expressing our strong objections to Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation to arrest and pressure pro-democracy figures, opposition groups, media, trade unions and civil society… We continue to call on China to cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society, consistent with Human Rights Committee recommendations, and call for the repeal of the National Security Law in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office

We firmly support the Hong Kong SAR in fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to safeguard national security and in lawfully convicting the primary perpetrators of anti-China chaos who endanger national security… The substantial facts revealed during the court proceedings conclusively proved that Jimmy Lai engaged in acts and activities that endangered national security, allowing people to see clearly that he was the main culprit behind the past chaos in Hong Kong.

Guo Jiakun, China’s foreign ministry spokesman

The central government firmly supports the special administrative region in… punishing criminal acts that endanger national security.

Chris Tang, Hong Kong secretary for security

The HKJA claims that people are imprisoned for engaging in journalism. I want to emphasise once again that Jimmy Lai’s verdict this time is entirely unrelated to press freedom. He merely used journalism as a pretext to commit acts that endanger national security.

Executive Council (non-official members)

Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law… The court’s conviction demonstrated the justice of the law and safeguarded Hong Kong’s core values. [We] condemned any acts of collusion with foreign or external forces that endanger national security. Lawbreakers must bear the legal consequences for their illegal acts, and the convicted person deserved their punishment.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong

We support the local court’s lawful conviction of Jimmy Lai on all three charges… Today’s ruling is an important manifestation of safeguarding national security, fully implementing the Hong Kong national security law, and demonstrating Hong Kong’s rule of law… Western countries and certain politicians have engaged in numerous deplorable acts… such as concocting various “Hong Kong-related bills,” brazenly imposing sanctions, interfering in SAR affairs, and supporting anti-China elements who sought to destabilise Hong Kong.

Regina Ip, New People’s Party chairperson

Following the lengthy trial process, the public can see that the evidence in this case is conclusive. “Conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” is an extremely serious crime endangering national security, and this is the first such case – I hope there will be no more in the future. The entire trial process was conducted rigorously in accordance with common law, with four days allocated for Jimmy Lai’s mitigation plea. I am pleased that the case was very open and just, and I hope this draws a conclusion to the events in 2019 that endangered national security. I urge other individuals involved not to challenge the law.