{"id":76608,"date":"2026-03-06T02:08:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/05\/jimmy-lai-and-the-rule-of-law-in-hong-kong"},"modified":"2026-03-06T02:08:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:08:47","slug":"jimmy-lai-and-the-rule-of-law-in-hong-kong-letter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76608","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Lai and the rule of law in Hong Kong | Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bi Haibo<\/strong> of the Chinese embassy in the UK responds to an editorial<\/p>\n<p>Regarding your editorial (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/feb\/10\/the-guardian-view-on-jimmy-lai-what-britains-caution-says-about-its-relationship-to-beijings-power\">The Guardian view on Jimmy Lai: what Britain\u2019s caution says about its relationship to Beijing\u2019s power, 10 February<\/a>), I wish to make the following points.<\/p>\n<p> First, Jimmy Lai is by no means the \u201cdefender of democracy\u201d portrayed in some western media narratives, but a principal figure behind the turmoil in Hong Kong. He was a key planner and participant in a series of anti-China incidents aimed at destabilising Hong Kong, and served as an agent and pawn of external anti-China forces. What he has done would constitute criminal offences in any country and must be punished in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n<p> Second, Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, and the Sino-British Joint Declaration has long fulfilled its historical mission. The constitutional and legal basis for the Chinese government\u2019s governance of Hong Kong lies in China\u2019s constitution and Hong Kong\u2019s basic law. Since the enactment of the National Security Law in 2020, Hong Kong has restored stability, and the rights and freedoms of residents are better protected in a more secure environment.<\/p>\n<p> Third, Hong Kong affairs are China\u2019s internal affairs, and Hong Kong\u2019s judiciary does not allow external interference. Moreover, China does not recognise dual nationality. Jimmy Lai is regarded in Hong Kong solely as a Chinese citizen.<\/p>\n<p> We urge the Guardian to respect China\u2019s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong and to report on related issues in an objective and fair-minded manner.<br \/><strong>Bi Haibo<br \/><\/strong><em>Spokesperson, Chinese embassy in the UK<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/05\/jimmy-lai-and-the-rule-of-law-in-hong-kong\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bi Haibo of the Chinese embassy in the UK responds to an editorialRegarding your editorial (The Guardian view on Jimmy Lai: what Britain\u2019s caution says about its relationship to Beijing\u2019s power, 10 February), I wish to make the following points.<br \/>\n First&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,48,3034,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-china","category-hong-kong","category-jimmy-lai","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76609,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76608\/revisions\/76609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}