SEBASTIEN:

So, 15 to 20 police officers rocked up at our house, around 5-6 a.m. They, you know, knocked on our door, went in, chucked my father in cuffs, and then proceeded to take in to his offices, the Apple Daily offices, where 200 police officers were there, who had raided the Apple Daily offices as well, and paraded him around like he was some criminal in cuffs.

RICK:

This is Sebastien Lai and one morning in 2020, he woke up to see missed phone calls filling his phone. His dad, Jimmy Lai, had just been arrested. Jimmy is a well known newspaper tycoon in Hong Kong. His newspaper, Apple Daily, was the most popular newspaper in Hong Kong, read by over 9 million people every month. It was also known for its strong stance on political freedoms. So when the Chinese government cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, Apple Daily was a top target.

SEBASTIEN:

And, you know, our journalists who were incredibly brave, many of them live streamed it. And when they were told to stop, some of the female journalists went to the bathroom, and actually kept live updating it from the bathroom.

Audio excerpt – BBC News Reporter:

“Apple Daily live streamed the raid from its roof as hundreds of police rifled through the newsroom a few floors below. In all, five executives, including three editors, were arrested.”

SEBASTIEN:

The the people of Hong Kong lined up to buy Apple Daily the next day. And there's this incredibly moving story where, one of the people in the queue was interviewed, and he was asked, you know, now that Apple Daily has essentially been made illegal, are you still going to buy it? And he turns around and he says, I'll buy it. I'll buy it even if it was a white piece of paper.

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From Schwartz Media, I’m Rick Morton, and this is 7am.

Sebastien Lai has taken up the cause of convincing political leaders to fight for his father’s release from a Hong Kong prison.

He is now in Australia, trying to persuade our parliament to use whatever power it has to convince China.

Today, Sebastien tells the story of his father Jimmy, and how he went from media tycoon to political prisoner.

That’s coming up after the break.

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RICK:

Tell me about your dad, because Jimmy is central to your story, obviously, but also to the democratic fight in Hong Kong. Tell me about his life story. How did he end up in Hong Kong in the first place?

SEBASTIEN:

So it's quite a beautiful story. He was born in mainland China few years before the communist's came. And when they came, his father left, and his mom was put in a re-education camp. So he was really the man of the family at a very young age, you know, 5-6 years old, and he had to take care of his siblings. And so, he eventually went to work at a train station when he was nine or ten years old, you know, helping people carry luggages. And one day, this very well-dressed man turned around and gave him a half eaten bar of chocolate. He had never seen chocolate before or known of it at all. But he was very hungry, so he turned around and ate it, and for him, it was a religious experience.

RICK:

I can imagine.

SEBASTIEN:

And actually, he chases after that man and said, excuse me, where are you from? The man turns around and says, well, I'm from Hong Kong. And so dad thinks to himself, well, if chocolate's from Hong Kong, then Hong Kong must be heaven, and I will go there one day. So, you know, he keeps his promise to himself. And at 12, he managed to smuggle to Hong Kong.

And the first day he arrives, he starts working in a glove factory. But he's always told me that even though he had nothing at that point, even maybe less than nothing because he owed money to the smugglers, he felt like he was in heaven because he finally had a future.

And he worked his way up from the glove factory. Eventually he goes to start his own textile manufacturer.

Audio excerpt – CNN News Reporter:

“In the history of communist China there has never been anything like this.”

SEBASTIEN:

Eventually, though, in 1989, there are protests happening all across China.

Audio excerpt – CNN News Reporter:

“In the dead of night, 2000 students marched through the street of Beijing, calling for democracy, human rights, and the resignation of the Chinese government.”

SEBASTIEN:

But obviously, as we now know, with the hindsight of history, the Tiananmen Square massacre happened. And that was heartbreaking for him and many people, actually. And for Dad it was his political awakening. He realised that he needed to do something to defend the freedoms of Hong Kong, as Hong Kong was going to be handed over to the Chinese in 1997, by the British. And so he founded Next Magazine, and then Apple Daily, you know, with the idea that a lot of newspapers had decided self-censoring, that Apple Daily wasn't going to self-censor.

Audio excerpt – BBC News Reporter:

“Jimmy Lai resigned from the board of Giordano. But two years before the handover, he was on the offensive again, this time with the Apple Daily. Crime, gossip and scandal, plus a crusade for freedom and democracy.”

SEBASTIEN:

He was going to speak truth to power, and have a very pro-democracy editorial.

Audio excerpt – Jimmy Lai:

“Hong Kong is our home. Hong Kong where we want to protect the freedom. I don't give a shit what what happened in China. This is my home.”

SEBASTIEN:

And that's what it was for the next 30 years.

Audio excerpt – Speaker 1:

“What are you trying to say with this headline?”

Audio excerpt – Speaker 2:

“Well, just saying, it's very plain. I mean, we don't want to be slaves. You know, we don't... We want to have the freedom.”

SEBASTIEN:

It also became the most popular newspaper in Hong Kong and Taiwan. And s, you know, he's faced multiple harassment throughout the years, including firebombs, people following him, death threats. You know, in Taiwan, for example, someone skinned a dog and pinned it to our door because obviously, not only did he offend the Chinese Communist Party, he also wasn't afraid to offend triads and mobsters and whatnot so a whole colourful bunch of people.

RICK:

And, you know, given everything that you went through as a kid, watching, you know, people fight back against your father. I mean, you say it like it's a normal thing, right? To have a dog skinned and attached to the door. What was that like, watching that? Did it feel normal to you at the time, or did you even know as a kid that this was not right?

SEBASTIEN:

So, obviously I knew that it was a very unique experience. You know, because we had people following us, 24/7 essentially, cars parked outside, and people taking pictures of us as soon as we went back home. But I never felt like I had a bad or abnormal childhood because dad never brought it home, you know? Even though people would try to scare him, intimidate him. My father was never scared or intimidated.

He actually had always had a very good line about the cheapest weapon that an autocratic regime has on you is fear. Because once they know that you're scared, they can cow you, and once they cow you they could always cow you. And so you never felt scared. And he never, he was never cowed. He didn't act out of self-preservation. He acted because he knew that campaigning for democracy, for free speech, for freedom of press was just the right thing to do.

Eventually, though, having been a thorn in the government's side for so many years, they passed this national security law at the end of 2020.

Audio excerpt – News Reporter:

“Beijing says it will bring stability to a city that was home to massive democracy protests. The law criminalises acts of subversion, succession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism. All can be punished by life in prison.”

SEBASTIEN:

The national security laws actually criminalises all dissents, and/or expressions of democracy. And under the guise of this law, they arrested my father, raided his newspapers and arrested his colleagues. And he's been in jail since the end of 2020, so for more than 3 and a half years. And at 76, he now faces the possibility of life imprisonment.

RICK:

After the break, why Sebastien believes Australia could be key to freeing his father.

SEBASTIEN:

It's really this case about, you know, a man who sacrifices everything he has to campaign for democracy.

RICK:

Welcome back. Jimmy Lai has now been in prison in Hong Kong since December 2020, arrested under the controversial new National Security Law, and awaiting trial. These laws were passed in 2019, to quell pro-democracy protests spreading across Hong Kong and for Sebastien, the charges his father is facing, well, they’ve done more than just put him in jail, they have radically changed his home and what’s possible there.

SEBASTIEN:

They made a very deliberate decision to weaponise the Hong Kong legal system. So it's a textbook show trial. There's three government appointed judges, no jury. The Minister of Security essentially hinted at my father's guilt before the start of the trial, which is not how trials work. And so that's just targeting my father, obviously. But what makes it especially heartbreaking and pernicious is that they arrested my father's colleagues, who have been in prison for more than two years now. They haven't been charged yet, they're getting charged at the end of my father's trial so that they could testify against my father. There's also been reports by the Washington Post, of torture of some of the people testifying against my father, there's the reports of them being tortured by the government in order to testify. So it's a very new tactic for Hong Kong but it's something that autocratic regimes have used. But how Hong Kong’s using it, it's interesting because they still try to have this veneer of rule of law, when obviously that is no longer the case. I mean, if you ask the Hong Kong government today, they tell you that they have the free press. But if you Google Apple Daily raids, you see 500 people running into a newsroom and that's not the image of free press.

RICK:

No. No it's not. And of course, I mean, this is, in some respects, a world away from Australia, in other respects is really close to home. You are leading the campaign to have your father freed and no doubt in hope that has the domino effect of releasing his colleagues as well.

Audio excerpt – Sebastien Lai:

“Hello, I know I come at a interesting time for Australia with relationships throwing in China. So, my father’s story to some is a uncomfortable and inconvenient one but to some others I hope is an enlightening one.”

RICK:

What role do you hope that Australia can play to bring your dad's case to the attention of our government or to authorities that can have him released?

SEBASTIEN:

So, you know, I'll be incredibly grateful if Australia joins the call for its release. The US has called for his immediate, unconditional release. The UK government has as well. So has both houses of the Canadian parliament senate, European parliament, multiple UN special rapporteurs. So there's an international call for his release and I hope Australia join that call. And it's by putting pressure on the Hong Kong government to do right by its people that we could see my father and other political prisoners released. Because, look, Hong Kong's the financial centre, right? If you're from Australia, UK, US, and you're doing business there, you need to trust in the system for a financial centre to function and that trust is no longer there. And so it's important for governments to highlight that and to put pressure on the Hong Kong government so that it returns to a place that has these freedoms. But they can't say that they have these freedoms when they have 1800 political prisoners in jail because they supported democracy, which, again, is a view that most people from the countries that I mentioned hold. It's the very foundation of Australia, US, UK and whatnot, these values that my father has fought for.

And you guys recently got the Chinese journalist Cheng Lei out, and that makes me immensely hopeful. It's important to have meaningful engagement with China. You know, China is one of the biggest economies, you have to trade with China. But you should never trade your freedom of speech for the dignity of your people.

Audio excerpt – Jennifer Robinson:

“Jimmy Lai's case is the most... I think he's got one of the most inspiring stories in terms of a success story in Hong Kong, a successful businessman who stood up against and spoke truth to power, and he's being targeted for it.”

RICK:

And I think it's correct to say that you're working with Jennifer Robinson now, who's just been done praying Julian Assange, very casually. Yeah. Like it's, you know, all work before breakfast.

SEBASTIEN:

Yeah.

Audio excerpt – Jennifer Robinson:

“But I want to make clear that our ask of the Australian government is a very modest one. The British government, the US government, our allies have already called for his release.”

RICK:

What hope do you have that, you know, working with Jennifer will be able to create at least some of the same conditions for your father's release?

SEBASTIEN:

Yes. So we're working with Jennifer, And so, yeah, we're very hopeful. You know, I saw the picture of Julian on the tarmac with his wife. And it really makes me miss my father a lot and the day that I see him again.

RICK:

I was gonna ask, just as we end, how your father is doing. Have you seen him?

SEBASTIEN:

So because I speak out on his behalf, I haven't been able to go back to Hong Kong. I think there's a tremendous amount of strength, in a person who knows that he's doing the right thing. But there's also, you know, biology. At his age, 76 now, I don't think anybody would have blamed him if he left Hong Kong, you know, before the crackdowns. But he didn't and he decided to stay. And I'm so incredibly proud of that, that he stood by the side of his people, by the side of his journalists. So yeah, I think he knows he's doing the right thing. I think that's giving him a lot of strength. But obviously, you know, given his age, I think that the situation, his health situation, could change very quickly. Even though psychologically, he remains incredibly strong.

RICK:

Thank you so much, Sebastian Lai, for joining us. I really appreciate you taking the time.

SEBASTIEN:

Thank you for having me, Rick.

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RICK:

Also in the news today…

The Federal Labor caucus has unanimously voted in support of Anthony Albanese’s decision to suspend Senator Fatima Payman, according to reports from Tuesday’s party room meeting – but whether she leaves the Labor party or is permanently expelled remains a question.

Payman said in a statement late on Monday that she had been “exiled”, saying that she’d been cut off from internal Labor party conversations, and would use the weeks ahead to think about ‘how to best serve the people of Western Australia’.

And,

Budget airline Bonza will be liquidated, with workers owed some $10.8 million dollars in wages and entitlements.

Administrators had been hopeful of securing a rescue deal with a buyer, but the sudden repossession of its entire fleet of aircraft in May left little value for any prospective buyer.

I’m Rick Morton, this is 7am. See you tomorrow.

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