Thank you very much. It's an honour to be able to appear before this committee. I greatly appreciate the opportunity.
Today, like the past 1,913 days, Jimmy Lai is confined alone in a prison cell in Hong Kong. I understand what that's like. The confinement itself is raw suffering. The isolation and loneliness grind on you, mind, body and soul. Jimmy Lai is taking all of that suffering to defend the freedom of speech and freedom of the press that Canadians hold so dear. As Solzhenitsyn said, “To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail.”
For truth, Jimmy has sat in jail long enough. Frankly, one day would have been too long, given his innocence. His unjust ordeal should never have happened in the first place. We should do all we can to bring it to an end.
Following his meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that the two countries should uphold international fairness and justice. Let’s call upon President Xi to honour his own words and free Jimmy Lai from unfair and unjust incarceration.
Let me offer a few specific ideas. First, the advocacy and pressure must be massive, repetitive, intense and persistent to be effective. Flood the system. Integrate Jimmy Lai's detention into all aspects of relations with China if you want him to be free. Call for his release through both bilateral and multilateral meetings. Every contact a parliamentarian has with a representative of the governments of China or Hong Kong, or the Chinese Communist Party, or with influential business leaders is an opportunity.
Do parliamentarians have constituents with connections in Hong Kong and China? There are senior business executives in your ridings, perhaps, who deal with China on a regular basis. Offer them letters from you about Jimmy and a set of talking points to use. Ask them to deliver those letters to any Chinese government representatives they meet. Look for any contact points into that system, from the top right down to the working level. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency may perhaps have some underused access to Beijing and Hong Kong officials and politicians. When those officials apply for visas or need to clear customs to enter Canada, is that not perhaps an opportunity to also give them a letter that urges them to release Jimmy Lai?
Second, offer incentives and impose costs. For the Communist Party and the Hong Kong government that reports to it, releasing Mr. Lai looks like a politically risky move. We need to think like the politicians, frankly, making those decisions, but in their context, with strategic empathy. As long as it costs nothing to keep Jimmy Lai in prison and it could be costly for them or risky to release him, they're not going to free him. We have to flip that cost-benefit analysis.
Perhaps make a list of everything the CCP wants from Canada and our allies and partners. Think about ways to condition progress on things they want on matters like ending Jimmy Lai's imprisonment and the imprisonment of other dissidents and detainees in both Hong Kong and the mainland. Create new quid pro quos. Perhaps sanctions or restrictions on certain officials or Chinese prisoners held abroad could be tightened or, alternatively, as a positive incentive, for example, relaxed in exchange for clemency for Mr. Lai.
Chinese officials want us to have what they consider a correct perception of China. Well, Jimmy Lai's imprisonment darkens those perceptions. They are currently on a charm offensive in which they want to persuade the world that China is a responsible pillar of a multipolar order that wants to work with the Government of Canada. Make it clear that their diplomacy would be much more charming, and their reputations would be burnished, if they released Jimmy Lai and other detainees like him. Make it clear that it would be easier to justify new trade and investment deals with China if Chinese counterparts demonstrated more benevolence, magnanimity and reasonableness.
Third, consider a few specific points of pressure, angles of advocacy and incremental steps.
The Chinese Communist Party is ruthlessly transactional. They will be asking what can be offered in exchange, such as a Chinese prisoner currently held in a western country.
Hong Kong depends on trade and conferences. Boycotts can hurt, and encouraging more of them can be an inducement for more favourable behaviour.
Jimmy's health is failing. The CCP likely doesn't want him dying in custody. That would be a political embarrassment potentially. For an elderly prisoner with medical concerns, a compassionate release on health grounds is an entirely plausible justification for release. This could be done in a face-saving, low-risk way.
It could also be a pretext for incremental improvement—more communication with family and friends for prisoners like Jimmy, better access to books or a move to better conditions in detention and then perhaps house arrest. It doesn't have to be all in one at once.
Perhaps Jimmy's Catholic faith could also be the basis for rallying religious organizations and congregations. From Latin America to the Pacific Islands to the Vatican, countries with significant numbers of Christians could also be enlisted to the cause, as are others who can have sympathy with a figure like Jimmy.
For collective leverage it will also, as my colleagues have said, be essential to work in tandem with the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union as force multipliers, and also with as many other like-minded countries as possible. Do whatever you can to persuade President Donald Trump and other influential leaders to champion Jimmy's freedom and persistently fight for it.
Above all, the party fears appearing weak. We need to convince them that a truly confident, legitimate government has no need to fear critics or lock up dissidents, so work to persuade Beijing and Hong Kong that keeping Jimmy Lai in jail is not a sign of strength; it's an embarrassing admission of weakness. Freeing Jimmy would actually be a gesture of power and magnanimity.
In closing, by identifying pressure points and combining relentless advocacy, incentives and costs, it may finally be possible to change Hong Kong's calculus and finally free Jimmy Lai.
Thank you.