Son of British media tycoon tells Cleverly to rescue father from Chinese jail: ‘British values are on trial’

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has raised the case of the arrest of British citizen Jimmy Lai in a meeting with China’s vice president.

Sebastien Lai, son of British businessman Jimmy Lai, 75, said it would be a “missed” opportunity if Mr Cleverly didn’t stand up for his father and British values while meeting Chinese vice president Han Zheng on Wednesday.

Founder of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy paper Apple Daily, Mr Lai was a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party and has been detained in solitary confinement since 2021 where he is now “likely to die”.

It comes after Mr Cleverly met Mr Han, the “architect” of China’s crackdown on Hong Kong, in the first visit by a UK foreign secretary to China in five years this morning.

Sebastien Lai told The Independent: “James Cleverly should be calling for my father’s release. My father is a British citizen and he is in jail for championing British values.”

“I think it would be a missed opportunity for my father, and the UK, not to challenge China. How many chances do you have to stand up for a British man who is willing to give up everything he has to stand up for these freedoms?

“It makes me sad. We’re a powerful country. My father and I are proud to be British. By arresting my father, China is putting British values on trial.”

The Foreign Office claimed Mr Cleverly “raised the case” of Jimmy Lai, as well as “further damage” caused by Beijing’s National Security Law.

Mr Lai was “perp-walked” from his office in August 2020 and was charged with four offences under China’s draconian National Security Law, one of which included lighting a candle in commemoration of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989.

Mr Lai was then sentenced to 20 months in prison and was given a further five years and nine months last year on two separate charges linked in lease violations which have been described as “politically motivated”.

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This month, Hong Kong’s High Court suggested Mr Lai’s trial would be adjourned for the third time, delaying the prospect of him facing the alleged offences against national security and sedition.

Caoilifhionn Gallagher KC, who is part of his international legal team, described the delay as a “charade”.

Mr Cleverly’s visit was also criticised by China hawks on the Tory benches, who want the Government to take a tougher line against China, who increasingly see the country as a threat to the UK’s national security.

And today, the cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee published a report which called on the UK Government to take “every opportunity to raise the case of Jimmy Lai” and any other British nationals detained by the People’s Republic of China.

However, the Foreign Secretary said the UK was “clear-eyed” that China was not going to change “overnight”.

He also insisted the visit would allow him to have “tough conversations” with the Chinese on issues including repression in Hong Kong, and human rights abuses in Xinjiang province.