Canada joins peers in condemning China’s conviction of Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai

Hong Kong activists in Taiwan gather to support imprisoned Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai for the national security trial in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail today under a sweeping national security law.

Canada joins numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union, in condemning Beijing for the sentence imposed under a law used to crack down on Hong Kong’s leading democracy activists.

Lai is a British and Chinese citizen who founded a newspaper critical of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

He was convicted on charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles.

Anand says Canada is “disappointed” by the sentence and is calling for the “immediate humanitarian release” of Lai, whom she notes is in poor health.

China has dismissed pro-democracy protests as western-fuelled riots meant to destabilize Beijing and has accused Lai of trying to incite hatred and “poison” residents of the territory, which had a free press when it was a British colony.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2026.

With files from The Associated Press

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press